the practice of secular judaism
TRANSCRIPT
The Practice of Secular Judaism
Social Erasure of Secular Judaism in Pew Institute Research
ByKara Meyer Guckenberger
April 15, 2015
Digest
In this paper I shall explore the following: 1) The
secular humanistic Jewish congregant. 2) The secular Jew
with no synagogue affiliation. 3) The secular cyber Jew.
One of the components, which have given sustainability
to diaspora Jews, is a facet of Jewry that perhaps deserves
greater recognition. It is secular Judaism.
Secular Judaism contributes to the success of keeping
Judaism alive, particularly here in the U.S.
The Pew Institute is the prevailing provider for
information, which gives polling analysis on many topics,
including religion.
If the Pew study is to be used as a measuring device to
determine the status of American Jewry, then when we examine
their conclusions, we should not be disheartened by the
percentages of religious Jews. Instead, we should look at
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the 30% quantification of “no-denomination” and the 6% of
“other” as a distinction that 36% of Jews are still Jews. 1
The delineation that they are non-religious does not
mean they are not Jews. It means the non-religious or non-
affiliates are being viewed in the context of not
practicing, thus creating a notion in the Jewish community
that they are losing Jews.
My paper aims to categorically reject the over-used
terminology of “non-affiliate” to be reconstituted as
“secular.” This distinction is critical to bridging gaps
within Judaism. It is the difference between the practice of
secular Judaism and the apathy of Judaism. Apathy is defined
as the “lack of interest, enthusiasm or concern.” Apathy is
the only threat to American Jewry, not being a non-affiliate
or non-religious. I will demonstrate that secular Judaism is
not only an important branch of Judaism, but it may very
well be the most important component to this very complex
and intricate concept called Judaism.
1 Pew Study, June 2014. (Pie chart p.16)
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I shall additionally create a comprehensive and
distinct picture of secular Judaism that lives in the minds
of Jews, but it is not being cultivated as a form of Jewish
practice, much in the same way we envision religious practice.
By harnessing the ideals behind secular Judaism we can
provoke a Judaism that is as ancient as the Tanakh itself.
If we can awaken the sleeping secular Jew, we can
reinvigorate the global Jewish community by understanding
and demonstrating how the practice of secular Judaism can and
should be embraced by all Jews. By recognizing the value of
secular Judaism, Jewish leaders can elevate that 36% into a
new category that is rightfully quantified in future Pew
studies as “secular Jews.”
Outreach
It is no secret that religious Jews have spent years
working on how to connect with Jews who no longer attend a
synagogue. There are numerous organizations, programs,
activities, trips and non-religious delights crafted to
entice the non-religious Jew, back into the fold. The error
in this ideology is that although a Jew may be willing to go
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on a sponsored trip to Israel or see a play that their
nephew is in at their synagogue; it does not inspire the Jew
to become an active Jew- at least active in the context of
synagogue life. What about Jewish life? What are the
attributes of an active Jew?
If we can remain in the context of secular Jews, then we
must break down what it would mean to practice secular
Judaism. The Pew Institute knows the term secular Jew, but
does not understand what it means.
Defining Secular Judaism’s Origins
Secular Judaism can be described as Judaism that is
non-religious. Judaism infact was not always a religion. We
know that if we examine the trajectory of ancient Hebrews,
through Israelite culture, we do not discover the religion
of Judaism until Second Temple Period, as a response to the
diaspora. Prior to this era, this group was an ethno-
centric, ancient, cultic peoplehood.
Secular Judaism is embodied by the fact that it has its
own language, history, culture, food, music, festivals,
customs and literature. If you strip away the religion of
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Judaism, you have strong pillars that are grounded in
traditions that can stand on their own. Modernity has given
Judaism the grand contribution to expand beyond the
description of religion. Today exists even broader
expressions of Judaism. This would include poetry, film, art
and politics.
We know that if we read biblical texts, such as Esther,
Job and Song of Songs, we can see that G-d is downplayed or
practically non-existent. 2
According to David Biale:
“The secular tradition is anchored in the Jewish religious tradition, not just as a rejection of it, but as a dialectical working out of some of its ideas, even some of its impulses, even if some of its impulses were not entirely conscious to the Jewish religious tradition. Therefore, this Jewish secular tradition is actually an integral part of the Jewish tradition as a whole. It is a part of it, it is not a completely separate entity defined only by negation. “ 3
Secular lies somewhere between holy and profane. It is
a position in the middle. Jewish tradition itself opens the
possibility that secularism is neither negative nor 2 Biale, David, Not in the Heavens (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2010) 59.3 Biale, David, “Jewish Secularism.” The New School. Manhattan, New York. June 13, 2011.
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polluted- neither holy nor profane. Judaism does not reject
an earthly world for a heavenly world like Christianity. 4
It is clearly rooted in great truth and even in great Jewish
literature.
The Hebrew word for a secular Jews is םםםם .םםםםםם
Hilonim is first used in the Midrash, contained in the
rather famous story about the Oven of Akhnai as well as
discussions on the holy versus the profane. In the Oven of
Akhnai, Kosher or not, all the Rabbis say it is unclean and
one Rabbi Eliezer says it is clean. He is the only one with
this position and asserts- the Torah is not in the heavens,
it is here on earth. He proceeds deeper and claims that “we”
will decide what it means. He believes God has endorsed this
concept that it is not in the heavens. (Deuteronomy
30:11,12):
For this commandment, which I command you this day, is not concealed from you, nor is it far away. It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up to heaven for us and fetch it for us, to tell [it] to us, so that we can fulfill it?” 5
4 Biale, lecture.5 The Jewish Study Bible , Eds. Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler.(New York, Oxford University Press, 2004), 436.
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I find this assertion rather rebellious towards the rabbinate itself. The rabbinate
uses this to serve a purpose of human autonomy. The story
demonstrates an impulse or mentality that there is autonomy
from G-d. For our purpose, this is a possibility to exploit
a later modern secular philosophy. The story also functions
not to humiliate the person in the minority. 6
Biale asserts that secular Judaism is an outgrowth of
religious Judaism. The change is a dialectical outgrowth
rooted firmly in tradition, which took the
institutionalization of Judaism and transformed it into an
ethical vocation. If we
understand Biale’s assertion, then we can say that Jewish
identity is no longer a matter of destiny; it is a matter of
personal choice. 7
The Pew Institute does not ask specific and relevant
questions, targeting secular Jews. If they did we could
learn more. There should be current research and focus on a
deliberate campaign that identifies secular Jews. What would6 Biale, lecture7 Biale, lecture
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American Jewry do with that information? Biale also points
out the conundrum of secular Judaism.
It is not a movement, at least not anymore. Secular
Zionism, and Bundism- particularly among Eastern Europeans
of the late 19th and 20th centuries- had a political climate
that was ripe for such activities and unified coalitions.
The conditions that promulgated this type of activism and
ideology no longer exist in today’s culture. So if
secularism in a “movement” fashion is no longer alive, what
is it?
Who Is a Secular Jew?
We know that the Talmud says if one’s mother is Jewish,
then one is Jewish. We also know in Reform Judaism that
patrilineal Judaism is accepted, thus the Torah itself marks
the Jewish bloodline through patrilineal descent. We know
that sectarianism exists within Judaism and we know that
Jews can be born into one sect and perhaps move to another.
If secular Judaism is not a sect, is one automatically
secular if they are not members of a synagogue? I will
assert that even if one is born Jewish, yet has no exposure
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to Jewish history, tradition or activity, including the
absence of religious life, they are not much of a secular
Jew. In order to qualify a Jew as secular- would they not
have to engage in something specifically Jewish in nature
that is not religious? At some point, Jewish exposure has to
occur in the life of the Jew. I will posit that a secular
Jew has experienced Judaism at some point in their life
(perhaps childhood) and they built a construct of a Jewish
identity through their own experiences outside religious
participation.
What Does Secular Jewish Practice Look Like?
We could go easy on ourselves and use a Maimonidean
negative theory to describe a secular Jew, by defining what
he or she is not. However, it is the distinguishment of
activities and behaviors that lend identity to the secular
Jew. This provides a broad spectrum of secular Jewish
archetypes. We have the secular Jew who may never step foot
in a synagogue, but they are a member of AIPAC. They may not
pray or read Torah, they may not keep Shabbat, but they may
celebrate Hanukkah.
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What about the secular Jewish organizations such as B’nai
B’rith? A couple may opt to never send their child to a
Jewish summer camp, but take advantage of a free trip to
Israel for their teenager paid by the Jewish Federation. The
teenager may not return back to the U.S. ready for synagogue
membership, but they will have seen Israel and experienced
that it is a geographical place, not simply a story out of a
book for the Jewish people.
A Mitzvah is a Mitzvah, Right?
At the beginning of my essay I referred to the practice
of secular Judaism. If the Pew institute could cloak
practice in the performance of a mitzvah, wouldn’t the
secular
Jew who visits a sick relative be demonstrating Judaism
itself? Is there a distinction between a secular Jewish
mitzvah and a religious mitzvah? There are only mitzvot.
Was the Jew conscious that he or she had performed a mitzvah
when a visit to a sick relative took place? Perhaps not,
perhaps they know on some sub-conscious level the act is a
mitzvah. Yet if we live our lives in such a way that the
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day-to-day behaviors are consistent with Jewish ethics, then
our lifestyle choices become second nature. The mitzvot
becomes involuntary to the Jew who has embraced an ethical
Jewish life.
The Theology of Secular Judaism
Is it not an oxymoron to call upon the term “theology”
when discussing Jewish secularism? This is where we get to
obliterate stereotyping the secular Jew. Are secular Jews
Atheists and Agnostics? Let us turn to one of our greatest
forerunners of secular Jewish thought: Baruch Spinoza, in
his Theological Political Treatise we see that Spinoza is a
Pantheist. G-d is in everything and there is nothing outside
the world that is transient. The world is God therefore they
are inter-exchangeable. This is not atheism. 8 On the other
hand, a secular Jew might say G-d is totally imminent. Or
perhaps a secular Jew might say G-d could be described as
completely transcendent and therefore shares nothing with
the world, thus making G-d abstract.
8 Spinoza, Baruch, Theological Political Treatise (Indianapolis, Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2001) 72.
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The Pew study does not in any way designate a specific
shred of theology.
It may show that Reform is 35%, but does that 35% believe
the Torah is divine? Are there Reform Jews who view the
Torah as a cultural text? Pew does not break down the
individual beliefs, only the delineation of how many
identify with a sect. This is not useful data because it is
too ambiguous.
I have personally met Orthodox Jews who are strictly
observant and claim to be Atheist. They pledge their
commitment to the act of honoring their ancestors, not the
G-d of Judaism. Thus the mitzvot they perform may appear to
be religious, yet the intent behind it is not. This makes
the mitzvah (or practice) secular in its intent.
The Flaw of The Pew Institute
The Pew study does not reveal the percentage of secular
humanist Jews. To be clear, I realize there are secular
humanistic Jews who could be mapped through the Pew study
because there are congregations who define themselves as
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such. This could create yet another sect and cut into the
pie chart. Indeed, this would not be a difficult task and
should be integrated into the data. Secular humanistic
Judaism has been an unofficial fifth arm of Judaism. 9 Yet
representing those congregations is another issue altogether
for a different type of paper.
However, I am suggesting the Pew study address the Jews
who are not affiliated with a synagogue of any type, but
quantify them as secular Jews. Is this not a direct conflict
and extra complication to say there are congregations who
distinctly call themselves secular humanistic Jews, while
simultaneously saying there are Jews who are not in any
synagogue because they are secular? No, and here is why:
According to the SHJ (Secular Humanistic Judaism),
there are twenty-seven secular humanistic Jewish
congregations in the United States, which are affiliated
under the leadership of this organization. 10 This is to say9 Kight, Asher, “Drawing Boundaries and Limiting Elasticity:What Did the Reform Movement Learn from Beth Adam’s Membership Application to the UAHC?” (Rabbinic dissertation,HUC-JIR, 2007), footnote 92, 81.10 “Find A Community,” retrieved March 29, 2015. Secular Humanistic Judaism. http://www.shj.org/communities/find-a-
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nothing of the secular humanistic Jewish congregations who
are neither affiliated members of the SHJ, nor the URJ
(Union for Reform Judaism). An example of a non-affiliated
secular humanistic Jewish congregation would be Congregation
Beth Adam of Cincinnati Ohio. Pew neither reveals the
numbers of secular humanistic Jewish congregations, nor the
number of Jews who are secular non-affiliates. If Pew would
make it a priority to provide this necessary research and
meaningful data, the Jewish community in America could begin
to do something very important.
American Jewry could explore possibilities for
continuity and integration into Judaism. American Judaism
could cease the act of bifurcating secular from religious
and examine the totality of a clearer picture with an
accurate account of what American Jewry looks like in
actuality, not in theory. This assertion could be the
beginning to a myriad of solutions. Solutions to what, does
American Jewry have a problem? I cannot answer such a
community/
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question, however I can assert that unifying all Jews is to
the benefit of Judaism.
The Cyber Jewish Community
I have already suggested that the Pew Institute give
representation to secular humanistic Jewish congregations
and to quantify secular Jews who do not attend synagogue
(because they are still Jewish). Yet there is another
category that is so vast, Pew would have to create a whole
new division to address the incalculable amount of Jews who
live their Jewish life exclusively in the cyber world. I am
now referring to Jewish websites, blogs and social media.
More academic research would be needed to deepen the span of
questions to understand cyber Judaism. In order to create a
digestible case study for this untapped group, I will use my
own preliminary research on the cyber Jewish community.
Although it is anecdotal, the lack of source material for
this particular matter says a great deal. It is the absence
of what is not in the Pew data that prompts this line of
questioning. For example: Out of all of my Facebook
“friends”, there are over two hundred of them who identify
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as Jewish and I have never met them in my entire life. They
live on every continent, in every time zone and I have more
interaction with them, than my real-life synagogue
community. I belong to thirteen Jewish oriented groups on
Facebook. Each of these groups has anywhere from ten members
to 10,000 members. This is to say nothing of the thirty
“pages” I follow which are a conglomeration of Jewish blogs,
websites and organizations. These pages I follow, each
contain thousands of followers. Now factor in the number of
Jewish figureheads or personalities I follow, which is
around fifteen and consider the hundreds and thousands of
followers each of them have. Do you see the infinite web of
Jewish identity that is splitting at the seams? I am only
one person who has the ability to practice Judaism in a whole
new, undefined way. By interacting with social media, a Jew
can receive education on simple to complex levels about
numerous facets within Judaism. A Jew can connect with other
Jews and experience Jewish life in a way that is just as
meaningful as sitting in a synagogue. One can follow the
teachings of Rabbi’s, become an activist in Zionistic
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causes, expand their Jewish recipes, learn Hebrew online and
remain a cultural Jew.
Here is an even more perplexing context for this cyber
Jewish matter: Imagine the Jews who are already in the pie
chart with a religious delineation. Take for example Chabad.
Are they absorbed into the Orthodox tent of Pew or are they
a separate sect? Perhaps they should be there own sect and
for ample reason. I will use Chabad as a basis for
comprehending the vastness of one singular Jewish cyber
community.
Not only does Chabad have a website and Facebook page,
but they have their own apps. Moreover, they have multiple
Facebook pages to represent each of their communities.
According to Chabad-Lubavitch, there are 4,000 emissary
families that oversee 3,300 institutions. 11 This is
physical space I am talking about- the real world, bricks
and mortar. This does not represent the thousands of
Facebook “followers” on each individual Chabad page.
11 “About Chabad Lubavitch,” retrieved March 24, 2015. http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/36226/jewish/About-Chabad-Lubavitch.htm
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The same could be said of endless non-religious Jewish
entities. Take the popular United With Israel; they boast
three million supporters. 12 The Jewish Daily Forward
currently has over 60,000 “likes” and My Jewish Learning has
over 48,000 “likes.” 13 The “likes” represent those who
receive continuous information in their newsfeed about these
entities. This is non-stop, 24-hour, 365-days-a-year
information in your hands with no effort. The “synagogue
without walls concept” is already here, it is alive and well
and living on the Internet.
I assert that social media, blogs and websites have
done more for global Jewry than any movement or denomination
in all of Judaism. Synagogues now have live streaming for
their Shabbat services and High Holidays. This means if you
are a congregation of two hundred, you can expand your
audience to a thousand or more. My meager findings alone
prove that The Pew Institute is providing outdated, vague,
12 “About Us,” retrieved April 1, 2015. United With Israel. http://unitedwithisrael.org/about-us/13 Facebook data taken April 4, 2015. (Anyone with a Facebook account can access this information, but it changesdaily.)
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ambiguous data, which does not capture the state of American
Jewry. I unabashedly make the claim that Judaism is not
dying- it is growing rapidly at a pace that Pew simply has
not been able to wrap its arms around. In my digest section
I claim that apathy is the demise of American Jewry, not
being non-religious or non-affiliate. Pew is missing the
thousands of Jews who practice cyber communal Judaism. Out of
the multiple questions posited on a Pew survey, they are not
asking the right questions.
How Does Pew Work?
On July 2, 2013 Pew released a polling and analysis
report, which stated the following: 14
The new, nationwide survey by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life asked Americans whether having “more people who are not religious” is a good thing, a bad thing, or doesn’t matter for American society. Many more say it is bad than good (48% versus 11%). But about four-in-ten (39%) say it does not make much difference. Even
among adults who do not identify with any religion, only about
a quarter (24%) say the trend is good, while nearly as many say it is bad (19%); a majority (55%) of the unaffiliated say it does not make much difference for society.
14 Pew Research Center, (July 2, 2013). [Growth of the Non-Religious]. Retrieved April 1, 2015. http://www.pewforum.org/2013/07/02/growth-of-the-nonreligious-many-say-trend-is-bad-for-american-society/
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The most disconcerting element to this data is that Pew
goes on to disclose the religious affiliations of those who
participated in this particular study. I could not find one
labeled “Jew.”
On October 1, 2013 Pew released another polling and
analysis report called A Portrait of Jewish Americans. This
is one of the few times I have discovered where Pew touches
on self-identification as a secular Jew. 15
Secularism has a long tradition in Jewish life in America, and most U.S. Jews seem to recognize this: 62% 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.
My purpose for quoting this portion of the study is to
demonstrate that Pew is cognizant of the idea of non-
religious Jews, but they do not know how to address it,
15 Pew Research Center, (October 1, 2013). [A Portrait of Jewish Americans]. Retrieved April 2, 2015. http://www.pewforum.org/2013/10/01/jewish-american-beliefs-attitudes-culture-survey/
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quantify it or bring tangible meaningful data to their
polling and analysis.
The only source I could find who attacks Pew, was
posted in My Jewish Learning. An article written by J.J.
Goldberg stated the following about Pew research on American
Jewry: “Besides, we know a great deal about what non-
religious Jews don’t do or believe, but very little about
what they do. Nearly all the survey tools for measuring
Jewish behavior describe religious rituals.” 16 According to
Goldberg, “Pew counted 6.3 million Jews this year (2013). It
also offers a second possible figure, 6.7 million, which
includes children who are being raised Jewish “and something
else.” He also goes on to quote Brown University
sociologist, Sidney Goldstein, who in 1990 wrote in the 1992
American Jewish Year Book: “more likely that the core
population will decline toward 5.0 million and possibly even
below it in the early decades of the 21st century.” 17
16 Goldberg, J. “Pew Study About Jewish America got it all Wrong”. The Jewish Daily Forward, October 13, 2013. Retrieved March 28, 2015. http://m.forward.com/articles/18546117 Goldberg.
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Yet, here we are at 6.7 million in the U.S. …
My question for Pew is this: If one fifth of American
Jewry says they have no religion, yet identify themselves as
Jewish, what does that mean in the scope of its data? Pew
does not know what to do with this, thus they do nothing at
all. They have failed to not only ask the proper, more
specific questions, but they do not comprehend that Judaism
stands on its own with a secular component. As indicated in
this paper, the appropriate questions should include: Do you
light Hanukkah candles? Have you ever sent your child on a
sponsored trip to Israel through a Jewish philanthropic
entity? Do you belong to a JCC (Jewish Community Center)?
Tapping that research, while including the expression of
secular, cyber Judaism is a whole new Judaism without
representation.
Extrapolations
If the Pew Institute were to act on this information
and conduct new methodologies on polling and analysis in
order to publish accurate, relevant statistical data, what
would the American Jewish community do when they discovered
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that Judaism is not dying, it is thriving- just not in the
synagogue. Are Jewish leaders prepared to step into the
cyber arena and cultivate those secular Jews who live a
Jewish life online? Are they prepared to dedicate resources
to connect with those Jews who have found a home in front of
their computers and hand held devices?
Based on my cyber Jewish life, it is far more exciting
than my real life Jewish existence in my synagogue
community. I have included a list of my personal favorite
Jewish groups via Facebook. The only way for this paper to
have any meaning or carry any weight is to visit these pages
on social media. Think of it as a field trip, only instead
of getting in your car and driving to different synagogues
or Jewish community centers, you are touring the pages of
Facebook and blogs dedicated to secular Jewish life. It
would not take long for any Jew, religious or secular to
quickly find a niche of where they fit in and what they can
omit from their personal Jewish experience.
I must ask the most apparent question of all in this
examination: What is so attractive to secular Jews about the
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cyber Jewish experience? I have no data for this either.
Perhaps they feel safe because there is a certain amount of
autonomy that comes with the Internet. Maybe it is the fact
that the individual can control how much or how little they
participate because there is no expectation.
Indeed, there is something beautiful and enticing about
being a part of a Jewish community that promotes flexibility
and is so far ahead of the learning curve on matters such as
pluralism. Orthodox, Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative
and Secular all coexist in this space without physical
designation. We communicate honestly and learn from one
another. We have the opportunity to learn so much about
multi-faceted Judaism and each day we break down
stereotypes, we destroy age-old Jewish archetypes and the
tropes we have been taught have no authority in the Jewish
cyber world. They exist, but one can avoid it easily, if
they so choose.
Perhaps that is another lure, we choose. We know we are
the “chosen” people, but the secular cyber Jewish community
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demonstrates what it truly means to be the “choosing”
people.
Conclusion
There is a dearth of source material to build the
construct for my argument. As I mentioned earlier, it is
this fact that lends weight to my argument. All of the
research data I found on American Judaism was devoid of
specific data on secular humanistic Jewish congregations,
secular Jews who do not attend a synagogue and the absent
yet titanic, prodigious category of cyber Jews. A broader
Pew study could remedy much of what I have discovered. I
will assert that my findings are good news and should
encourage the Jewish community of America to take heart and
get on the Internet. Judaism always has and always will find
a way to survive, even if that includes reinventing itself,
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entirely as a new community. I have laid out three
unaccounted categories in this paper. 1) The secular
humanistic Jewish congregant. 2) The secular Jew with no
synagogue affiliation. 3) The secular cyber Jew. What is
most critical in my examination of these three groups is
that they all practice secular Judaism.
List of Jewish Websites, Blogs and Facebook Groups:
Hevria (blog)
Progressive Zionists (Facebook)
United With Israel (Website)
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My Jewish Learning (Website)
Stand With Us (Facebook)
Times of Israel (Online journal and blog)
Israellycool (Blog)
The Accidental Talmudist (Facebook)
Zeek (Jewish cultural journal)
Bibliography
28
Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler. The Jewish Study Bible , Eds. (New York, Oxford University Press, 2004)
David, Biale. Not in the Heavens, (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2010)
David, Biale. “Jewish Secularism.” Lecture, The New School, New York, New York.
Chabad Lubavitch. http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/36226/jewish/About- Chabad-Lubavitch.htm (Retrieved March 24, 2015).
J.J. Goldberg. Pew Study About Jewish America got it all Wrong, The Jewish Daily Forward, October 13, 2013. http://m.forward.com/articles/185461
Asher, Knight. Drawing Boundaries and Limiting Elasticity: What Did the Reform Movement Learn from Beth Adam’s Membership Application to the UAHC?
Rabbinic Thesis for HUC-JIR, 2007.
Pew Research Center. July 2, 2013. Growth of the Non-Religious. http://www.pewforum.org/2013/10/01/jewish-american-
beliefs-attitudes- culture-survey/ (Retrieved April 2, 2015).
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(Retrieved March 29, 2015).
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