For 'cultural' Jews, focus not on God

[Synnical]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/08/duin-cultural-jews-focus-not-god/

By Julia Duin

Last Sunday, my daughter and I visited a gathering of Jews who don't believe in God, where the rabbi identifies himself as a bisexual atheist and the first 45 minutes are spent doing Israeli folk dances.

Folks at Machar, the Washington Congregation for Secular Humanistic Judaism, believe they're on the cutting edge of a religion in which half of all marriages are to Gentiles and 35 percent — 1.8 million people — identify themselves as nonreligious or "cultural" Jews.

These are folks who identify with the 14 percent of the American population that is unaffiliated with any religious group.

"The big challenge is how we reach these people," Rabbi Binyamin Biber told a group of us gathered in the library of the Jewish Primary Day School in Northwest. "They don't join organizations. It's like herding cats."

Machar, which means "tomorrow" in Hebrew, wants to touch these fall-through-the-cracks people who fit into no discernable category, like the woman behind me who was married to a Muslim or the man in front of me who was turned off to how synagogues operate or the woman to my left whose militantly atheistic husband wanted no mention of God in their home.

Wow, it's hard enough to "herd" atheists, but a rabbi who is also bisexual? That dude has um, you know what. . ..

Really interesting news article.

I'm in AWE!

But, for the record, again, I still don't understand "Atheist/Secular Jews". Love you all, just the same! :-)

-Cindy in Fort Lauderdale.

[immoderate]

1. What's to understand? Have a nice bagel and some lox...

:)

--imm

[TZ]

2. Mazel Tov!

This is exactly how I was raised. A LOT of Jews in this country actually are brought up this way! I admit I find it harder to rip on Reform Judaism because of it. LOL..the only Hebrew I know is the Hannukkah prayer and I don't know how it translates mostly....

[immoderate]

3. Uh-huh. There are more than a hundred secular synagogues in the US.

I grew up in a mostly Jewish neighborhood. None of my friends had any interest in faith. It was commonly held that god was make believe.

I tried to ditch Bar Mitzvah lessons by telling the rabbi that I didn't believe. He said, "You think I believe this stuff?"

--imm

[Warpy]

4. One of my buds back home is a lesbian rabbi

so Reform Judaism is quite tolerant. She's compassionate and well educated so I imagine she's a very good rabbi.

However, most of my Jewish friends are totally secular and, when pushed, self identify as agnostic. "Don't know, don't care, it's irrelevant to my present life, pass the potatoes, thanks."

[Meshuga]

5. I don't think there is a "God focus" in non-orthodox Judaism in general

Kids go to religious school to learn to be Jewish and not to be taught to believe in a set of beliefs.

It is hard to understand "atheist/secular" Jews because we all tend to look at Judaism in comparison to Christianity and expect Jews to look at scripture in the same manner. It is even hard for many Jews to see this (living in a society where the majority is Christian) so I would also expect to be even harder for those who are outside the community.

But in Christianity you have to believe in x to be a Christian. In Judaism you have to be born Jewish (or join the fold) to be Jewish. Jewish peoplehood and Jewish ethics, for example, allow Humanistic Jews to live a meaningful Jewish life.

The bottom line is that the range of different beliefs or lack of belief does not define whether someone is Jewish or not. I think Mordechai Kaplan was able to define pretty well what Judaism is and his definition influences all of non-orthodox Judaism and to some extent the orthodox (more than the orthodox is willing to acknowledge). The "ultras" stand alone, of course.