Of Jewish Atheists and Non Believers

If you factor out the 10% or so that are Orthodox, the percentages become much higher. While I’m sure that there are some Orthoprax Jews - defined as closet atheists that pretend to be observant for practical or sociological reasons, I believe that they are an insignificant minority of those that identify as Orthodox.

The Jewish Press reports the following by Pew: 

I believe the most important aspect of that comment is the fact that they are highly educated. I wish I could say I am shocked by this. But unfortunately I am not.  

If one is not raised in a home that focuses on God, it will surely not be the focus in the school where religious instruction is entirely omitted because of the first amendment.

We should of course all be grateful for that. And I am. Thank God we live in a country where Church and State is completely separated. But there is a downside. When you take the concept of God out of the classroom it is not too much of a leap to find students not placing much value on it.

The higher the education - the more likely that atheism will be preached as the ultimate truth.  The underlying premise of much of academia is if you can’t see it or prove it, it is probably not there. And the more mankind learns how to explain natural phenomena the less need there is to believe that a Higher Power is in control of things.

That does not automatically mean that one will become an atheist. But it surely pushes one in that direction.

The reason the other 17% does believe in God but not in Judaism lies in their basic ignorance of what Judaism is all about. If they are raised in a secular Jewish home where most rituals are virtually ignored and there is no serious Jewish education, it should not surprise anyone that they do not value their Judaism. Why should they? Their homes did not reflect it I any significant way. And surely there schools didn’t. 

The best that can be said about any Judaism in those homes is that it focused on cultural issues that have little if anything to do with authentic Judaism.  Chanukah is celebrated because of Christmas. Without which no one would have even heard of Chanukah outside of those that had a decent Jewish education or was raised in at least a minimally observant home. 

Commitment to social Justice often sufficed and complete supplanted any core Jewish value.  Nor is eating ‘Jewish food’ which is often not even Kosher a substitute for real Jewish values. As thinking human beings that recognize that food does not define a religion. 

Nor does social justice require any commitment to Judaism. Is it any wonder that Judaism is meaningless to them? I’m surprised that those percentages aren’t even higher! In fact, I firmly believe they will be as most non Orthodox Jews continue marrying out.

Whose fault is it that so many Jews don’t care about Judaism? There is no one single cause. But I believe that a major factor is the mass influx of Jews that immigrated here from Europe in the early 20^th century were unable to provide a decent Jewish education for their children. 

And the fact that many Jews that were observant in Europe felt they had to work on Shabbos when they came here - just to feed their families. While they may have observed some Halachos like Kashrus and - for men - putting Tefilin  on every morning and going to Shul, their children saw the hypocrisy of that. 

And with the strong pull of a melting pot assimilation this country had on their young – they wanted little to do with their ancient Jewish rituals  their parents brought over from Europe to an America that was decidedly un-Jewish. Without any real education about Judaism most of that generation ran as far as they could away from it. The little they might have had in an afternoon Hebrew school or a Sunday school was woefully insufficient and in any case considered by them to be a nuisance that unfairly infringed on their free time after school and on Sunday.

While many of that  generation might have still proudly considered themselves Jewish. It was not practiced in any meaningful sense. By the time their children came along, there was nothing left for them to hold onto – even if they wanted to. Which most of them didn’t.

Interestingly the Conservative Movement saw that and actually believed they could cater to this mentality by giving into it and looking the other way while trying to at least get them to come to Shul. That proved to be a less than fruitful  enterprise as Conservative Jews are a dying breed these days. Why that is – I have discussed many times and is beyond the scope of this post.

Which brings me to the last best hope for any kind of future for Judaism. It is observant Jewry that will carry the torch forward. And we can thank the mid century influx of Jewish immigration after the Holocaust. That is when the fledgling Jewish day school system started taking off. Survivors of the Holocaust had a far greater percentage of Jews that were committed to full observance than previous waves of immigrants and were more determined to perpetuate it to their children.  

That required a serious educational paradigm where  Judaism was uncompromisingly taught - without sacrificing the possibility of fulfilling the American dream of success and affluence which is the promise of America.  

Day schools were established in great number across any section of the country that had significant numbers of Jews that - if not fully observant - were at least open to their children getting a Jewish education. It is from there that the vast majority of observant Jewry comes from. They (we) are the ones that will ‘pay Judaism forward’ through the education of our own children. Which is why Orthodoxy is the only segment of Jewry that is growing in America. By leaps and bounds.

As I often say though when this kind of subject comes up, losing so many Jews to the winds is a sad fact that I would love to see reversed. True - there are Orthodox outreach groups that are doing some good along those lines. But for most American Jews, the handwriting is unfortunately on the wall. As this latest Pew Research poll has once again demonstrated. So as happy as I am that Orthodoxy is the wave of the future, the demise of most of American Jewry is nothing to celebrate.