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- Title
Secularists and Those of No Religion: “It’s the Sociology, Stupid (not the Theology)”.
- Authors
Perlmann, Joel
- Abstract
The old ways in which surveys of Jews handled marginal cases no longer make sense, and the number of cases involved is no longer small. When people of Jewish origin report no religion, they are not generally secular or culturally oriented Jews. Rather, they are primarily the offspring from households that did not have two Jewish parents, but some other Jewish origin. Accordingly, this paper turns to two competing procedures for treating respondents of recent Jewish origin who do not report themselves to be Jewish by religion. The core Jewish population includes respondents who answer that they have no religion. I find this procedure problematic because the meaning of the “no religion” response has also changed: it no longer captures people with close connections to the Jewish world who deny the religious connection out of principle. Yet two out of three are the products of intermarriage. I tentatively suggest an alternative principle: self-identity. Americans of recent Jewish origin who are not Jews by religion should be asked (as they were in the 2000–2001 NJPS) whether they consider themselves Jewish for any reason. Those that reply in the affirmative should be counted as Jews. As an example, some demographic outcomes are tabulated using different definitions, as are responses to the question “How close do you feel to Israel?” Throughout, the paper rests on the 2000–2001 NJPS and AJIS.
- Subjects
UNITED States; SECULARISM; AMERICAN Jews; INTERMARRIAGE; INTERFAITH marriage; JEWISH identity; RELIGIOUS identity; RELIGIOUS life of parents
- Publication
Contemporary Jewry, 2010, Vol 30, Issue 1, p45
- ISSN
0147-1694
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s12397-009-9019-6