Of the many interesting aspects of the recently released survey of Jewish Americans by the “>Pew Portrait”), perhaps none is more troubling than the distorted bisection of American Jews into two primary sub-groups, one labeled “Jews by religion” and the other “Jews of no religion.” Once those designations were established, Pew, among other things, then sought to determine whether members of the two sub-groups had different attitudes or characteristics, whether, for instance, a person assigned to one sub-group was more likely or less likely to believe or behave differently than a person assigned to the other.
How large is the group of “Jews of no religion?” Pew found that about one fifth of adult American Jews (totaling approximately 1.2 million individuals) were Jews of “no religion” and that among Jews born after 1980 the fraction increases to one in every three. Pew’s survey director “>Public Religion Research Institute, in its study of values among Jewish Americans, found rates of synagogue attendance and participation at a seder essentially at the same levels as found by Pew. (See “>Synagogue3000 discussed the relative lack of Jewish spirituality and how Jewish Americans were less involved than other socio-religious groups in American with God, prayer and religion. (See “>Landscape Survey (Comparison Summary).)
These phenomena did not emerge overnight. A half century ago, Lenski’s survey found “a substantial decline in synagogue and temple attendance except on High Holydays” and “serious organizational weakness” with respect to Jewish religious associations. (The Religious Factor, at 53, 319.) Indeed, to some extent, Pew is merely reporting what has been going on in America since before Jakie Rabinowitz left home to become Jack Robin, aka, the “>thirteen principles of Jewish faith compiled by the great medieval Jewish sage “>www.judaismandscience.com.
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