This week the Pew Forum came out with a study of the American religious landscape. As soon as I saw an article about the study, I eagerly read it and then went to check it out first hand. While there were many interesting findings in the study (35 percent of Jews have graduate degrees! Jews make up less than half of a percent of my home state of Wisconsin!) ...
...the data that got the most hype was that 28 percent of Americans have changed their religious affiliation since childhood, not including changes between Protestant affiliations.
Two tenths of a percent of the population, or about 10 percent of the Jewish population, left Judaism. This sort of statistic brings out a major tension in my simultaneous Jewish and American identities. Of course I acknowledge the agency of individuals and each person’s right to choose his or her religious affiliation, but I still have a hard time with the idea of people leaving Judaism. Many Jews are not religious, or only culturally Jewish, and some don’t even believe in God. But that is not such a big deal for me because as long as they don’t take up with another religion, there is always the possibility of their return to Judaism and Jewish life.
A year ago I wrote a paper about Maryam Jameelah, a nominally Jewish girl who converted to Islam, moved to Pakistan and became an anti-American polemicist. I spent the entire paper conjecturing about why she left Judaism. Last semester, my spiritual autobiography class read Lauren Winner’s Girl Meets God, about her journey from reform Judaism to orthodox Judaism to evangelical Christianity. I found this story profoundly disturbing, and when we discussed the book in our class of eight women, I straight up weeped.
When I think of our ever-shrinking community, which miraculously still exists after thousands of years of hardship, the idea of anyone leaving Judaism for another religion hurts me. This is where my Jewish and American backgrounds come into conflict. My commitment to the idea of Jewish community doesn’t always mesh with my dedication to individualism. I believe in the right of every person to choose their religion, but that doesn’t change the fact that I feel sad when I think about Jews leaving Judaism.
Comments (3)
as someone who grew up a Conservative Jew (but now considers myself cultural as opposed to religious, i can sympathize with Shari's concern over this abandonment of Judaism. but i believe one of the main reasons why people leave Judaism behind is because it is not as vibrant as it should be and many people want a religion that has something to offer them on a multitude of levels. it may also have to do with the rising costs of affiliation and that communal programming has become nothing more than a means of hooking up single Jews to combat intermarriage. that's another thing: those Jews who have intermarried are viewed as insignificant and no longer matter to the Jewish population, when in reality they do. they have become the majority, and if we want to increase our population we need to retain them and find ways to welcome their non-Jewish partners without forced conversions. and for those who are not yet married, the guilt and scare tactics utilized when promoting in-marriage aren't very convincing. i think we need to take new approaches to how we attract people.
one of my best friends from high school converted from unaffiliated Judaism to evangelical Christianity a few years ago. although i don't condone her decision, she is still my friend and is still more or less the same person except for her religious affiliation. as for me, i'm not as observant as i used to be (i'm in my mid-20's) and i have a non-Jewish partner. but i haven't left Judaism and have no designs on doing so.
Posted March 3, 2008 4:07 PM
Posted on March 3, 2008 16:07
ANONYMOUS must feel awful proud of itself for the beautiful typing. If you don't have anything thing better to do why don't you clean up your house-literal or metaphorical- you pick.
It seemed to me in the past that people moved into the non-denominational churches to insulate themselves from society as a whole. Belonging to a denomination can cause you to have to deal with believers who do not see things the way you do. Ex. the Episcopal Church.
Posted February 29, 2008 9:10 AM
Posted on February 29, 2008 09:10
I read about that survey too and also found it intriguing. I know what you mean about individualism v. supporting a community-- it was interesting to see non-denominational sects of Christianity grow so much. Seems like people are leaning toward the individualism huh?
Posted February 29, 2008 12:35 AM
Posted on February 29, 2008 00:35