Not long ago, in honor of the twenty fifth anniversary of the Rebbe’s sicha about prophecy, we asked a media polling group to conduct a survey among religious Jews in Eretz Yisroel. It was a phone survey in which questions were asked about prophecy. An amazing 42% had heard about the Rebbe’s prophecy in a general sense, but only 20% knew that the Rebbe prophesied about the coming of Moshiach. 31% of respondents said this information inspired their anticipation of Moshiach’s coming. * Also, how many of those asked, who categorized themselves as connected to Chabad and the Rebbe’s shluchim, heard about the prophecy
When you want to get information and draw conclusions about a certain demographic, there are two options. You can try to reach that entire population or survey a sample through polling. Trying to poll an entire demographic is prohibitively expensive, and generally a sampling is used. Naturally, when taking a sample, the accuracy is somewhat less, but you get a general idea about public opinion.
These sample polls are generally conducted through surveys among 500 to 1000 people. Our survey had 897 men and women responding to the complete survey.
Did you hear that the Lubavitcher Rebbe said a prophecy?
517 people, or 57%, said no.
196 people, or 22%, said I heard something but I don’t know details.
177, or 20%, said yes, I heard about the Rebbe’s prophecy that Moshiach is coming.
Does knowing that the Lubavitcher Rebbe said as a prophecy that Moshiach is coming, increase your anticipation of Moshiach’s coming?
267 people, or 30%, said they don’t know.
274 people, or 31%, said yes.
347 people, or 39%, said no difference.
Do you have a connection to Chabad?
392 people, or 44%, said no.
228 people, or 25%, said I heard of Chabad but I have no personal connection.
185 people, or 21%, said they occasionally encounter Chabad’s work.
89 people, or 10%, said they are close to Chabad.
How do you categorize yourself?
39 people, or 4%, said traditional.
312 people, or 35%, said religious-Zionist.
478 people, or 54%, said chareidi.
28 people, or 3%, said not religious.