Before this morning’s message a few quick reminders.
2. Mitzvah day is coming- we have a wonderful program this year at Camp Oakhurst on October 13th beginning at 10am. Click here for details.
3. Lastly, if you have not yet signed up for our mission to the Jewish community of Israel- deposits are due today. Click here for more information.
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Jewish Identity in America
This morning I received a very interesting and challenging article in my inbox from ejewishphilanthropy.com describing the findings of a comprehensive survey put out by the Pew Research Religion and Public Life Project that examines changing Jewish identity in America. Here are some excerpts from the article. I have bolded the key points. I encourage you to read through the entire excerpt and then click through to find out more information.
When you are finished, please e-mail me your reflections. Which statistic did you find most troubling? With which statistic did you most identify? How do you understand your Judaism- as a religion, as a culture, as a combination?
The survey suggests that Jewish identity is changing in America, where one-in-five Jews (22%) now describe themselves as having no religion. This shift in Jewish self-identification reflects broader changes in the U.S. public, whose share of religious “nones” is similar (20%)….
Most U.S. Jews seem to recognize that secularism has a long tradition in Jewish life in America: 62% of Jews say being Jewish is mainly a matter of ancestry and culture, while just 15% say it is mainly a matter of religion. Even among Jews by religion, more than half (55%) say being Jewish is mainly a matter of ancestry and culture, and two-thirds say it is not necessary to believe in God to be Jewish.
Large majorities of U.S. Jews say that remembering the Holocaust (73%) and leading an ethical life (69%) are essential to their sense of Jewishness. More than half (56%) say that working for justice and equality is essential to what being Jewish means to them. Observing Jewish law ranks lower; just 19% say it is essential to what it means to be Jewish. Orthodox Jews are a major exception: 79% of them consider observing Jewish law essential to what it means to be Jewish.
The survey shows that Jews of no religion (commonly called secular or cultural Jews) differ in important ways from Jews by religion. They are not only less religious but also much less connected to Jewish organizations and much less likely to be raising their children Jewish. More than 90% of Jews by religion who are currently raising minor children in their home say they are raising those children Jewish or partially Jewish. In stark contrast, the survey finds that two-thirds of Jews of no religion say they are not raising their children Jewish or partially Jewish – either by religion or aside from religion.
Among respondents to the survey, 79% of married Jews of no religion have a spouse who is not Jewish, compared with 36% of Jews by religion. And intermarried Jews, like Jews of no religion, are much less likely to be raising their children in the Jewish faith.
The survey also shows that Reform Judaism continues to be the largest Jewish denominational movement in the United States. One-third (35%) of all U.S. Jews identify as Reform, while 18% identify with Conservative Judaism, 10% with Orthodox Judaism and 6% with a different denomination, such as the Reconstructionist or Jewish Renewal movements. About three-in-ten American Jews say they do not identify with any particular Jewish denomination.
Though Orthodox Jews constitute the smallest of the three major denominational movements, they are much younger, on average, and tend to have much larger families than the rest of the Jewish population. In the past, high fertility in the U.S. Orthodox community has been at least partially offset by a low retention rate: Roughly half of the survey respondents who were raised as Orthodox Jews say they are no longer Orthodox. But the falloff from Orthodoxy appears to be declining and is significantly lower among 18-to-29-year-olds (17%) than among older people.
Additional key findings include:
· Within all three major denominational movements, most of the religious switching that is occurring is in the direction of less-traditional Judaism (e.g., Orthodox to Conservative, or Conservative to Reform).
· Overall, about seven-in-ten Jews surveyed say they feel either very (30%) or somewhat attached (39%) to Israel. In addition, 43% of Jews have been to Israel, including 23% who have visited more than once.
· At the same time, many American Jews express reservations about Israel’s approach to the peace process. Just 38% say the Israeli government is making a sincere effort to establish peace with the Palestinians. (Fewer still – 12% – think Palestinian leaders are sincerely seeking peace with Israel.) And just 17% of American Jews think the continued building of Jewish settlements in the West Bank is helpful to Israel’s security.
· Most Jews say a person can be Jewish even if that person works on the Sabbath or does not believe in God. Believing in Jesus, however, is enough to place one beyond the pale: 60% of U.S. Jews say a person cannot be Jewish if he or she believes Jesus was the messiah.
· By several conventional measures, Jews tend to be less religious than the U.S. public as a whole. Compared with the overall population, for example, Jews are less likely to say that they attend religious services weekly, that they believe in God with absolute certainty and that religion is very important in their lives. (Orthodox Jews are a clear exception in this regard, exhibiting levels of religious commitment that place them among the most religiously committed groups in the country.) But while relatively few Jews attach high importance to religion, eight-in-ten say being Jewish is very or somewhat important to them.
Tor read the full report, or check out interactive tools that calculate the American Jewish population and show trends in Jewish denominational switching, click here.
As always, I look forward to hearing your thoughts.