Those of you who were raised Jewish (and those who weren't)...

[MarkSummers]

I was raised Jewish. My parents aren't the most religious people, but believe in God and are actively involved at the local temple. When I was a kid, I was forced to go to religious school three times a week and had a bar-mitzvah. I'm now 21 and haven't really thought of myself as religious for around 5 years, but I still get dragged to temple for the big holidays. I guess technically I'm an atheist because I don't believe in God.

What I'm getting to is that even though I'm not religious, whenever I get into conversation with people I don't know about my religion I mention that I'm not religious, but I was born Jewish. I guess this is because being Jewish is seen as an ethnicity as well as a religion. Those who are not Jewish can get away with being non religious a lot easier.

Do any of you guys out there who were born Jewish, but are no longer religious (if there are any) do the same thing when discussing your choice in religion?

[New001]

I'm Jewish, though my parents were never religious and neither am I. I don't mention it if someone asks me my religion. I usually just respond with agnostic (or atheist or Buddhist, depending on my mood /images/graemlins/tongue.gif).

[JMP300z]

Exactly same boat.

22, raised jewish, bar mitzvah etc.

Complete Athiest.

People dont understand the ability to separate Jewish culture from Jewish religion. I still attended my sisters bat mitzvah a few weeks ago and still did the aliyah and said prayers.

The girl im seeing came with me and was in a state of confusion. She must of asked me if I pray a hundred times that weekend. She was all set on me being athiest (disappointed, this is a big catching point for her as she is pretty christian) and now she is totally mixed up.

Her and my previous gf could not grasp it. Athiest but Jewish.

If I have kids, I want them to understand what it means to be Jewish. Understand the history of the people. However, I kinda dont want them to believe in god. Of course, Ill try to give them a fair/unbiased raising (impossible) and ill probably marry a christian who Ill let drag them to church every sunday.

-JP

[Copernicus]

I used to make that distinction (until I was in my early to mid-30s or something like that) and was still "my mothers son" and other Jews in particular would still consider me to be Jewish even if I didnt practice. Once I had established my own identity I dropped it.

[mindless]

More or less the same boat. I was raised Jewish, became an atheist during college, and now that I'm engaged to a Jewish woman, have become slightly more Jewish. Even during my atheist period, I felt like I could relate more to Jewish people because of our common background. I think that the size of our faith along with the issues it has faced give
Jewish (or people who have Jewish backgrounds) a commonality that Christians don't have as much. I'd lump Muslims living in America with this crowd of identifying more with their own faith, and probably Hindis as well.

[Fly]

A person can be Jewish by ethnicity, religion or both. Their is no contradiction in being Jewish by ethnicity (i.e having full or partial Jewish ancestry) and being an atheist.

[Carl_William]

Mark;

Over the years; from my daily or weekly long term observations of Christians and some Jews-- I think that on a qualitative basis that Jewish and Christian participation in religious things are very similar. People are People “no better no worse” – it’s that simple. But; on a quantitative or percentage basis – I don’t know. I don’t know the stats on things like this – if there are any they would probably be hard to come by. My lawyer is Jewish, and he and his kids (probably) are not real active on a religious basis, but he spent lots of money for his two boys bar mitzvah’s – he justified that by saying that he considered these as accomplishments (I surmised he meant character building).

[Carl_William]

hee hee

[Cerril]

Your religious background is pertinent in any discussion of religion, because it gives some information about your knowledge base. It's useful in the same way as your schooling or your current religion is useful in allowing someone to make more educated judgements about what you are knowledgeable on.

[bocablkr]

Jewish and an absolute atheist.