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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]As far as I can tell, you have hijacked this thread by becoming the new OP. Please answer the question on why they still have such a strong bond if they're atheist? Since you needed proof of the percentage, below is are some articles for your reading pleasure. This quote sums up what I see among jewish friends I've known MY ENTIRE LIFE.

"They go because they want some kind of ethnic identity," Magid said. "They don't care about the prayers. It allows them to feel a sense of Jewishness, but has little to do with religion."

http://www.simpletoremember.com/articles/a/jewsdontbelieve/

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/new-poll-shows-atheism-on-rise-with-jews-found-to-be-least-religious-1.459477

http://davidduke.com/another-duke-podcast-today-zionism-is-simply-the-latest-expression-of-judaism/

http://tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/154532/david-silverman-atheist

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/religion/story/2011-09-26/jew-atheist-god/50553958/1

[/quote]

Even assuming those percentages to be true -- what's the difference? Does every Christian sitting in church believe 100% in the church's teachings? You also have (as the writers of some of those articles had) a bit of a misconception about the purpose of Jewish prayer and Jewish attendance in synagogue. Unlike Christianity, Judaism does not mandate religious attendance except for certain holidays. Most Jewish religious practices take place in the home, such as keeping kosher, observing the Sabbath, wearing special clothing, etc. There are Orthodox Jews (mostly women) who rarely step foot in a synagogue, and no one thinks the worse of them. It is not a requirement to attend weekly or even monthly, although of course there are many people who want to do so.

I would also disagree that saying prayers has little to do with religion. No one who is truly atheist would bother going or saying the prayers. They would feel uncomfortable, just as I would feel uncomfortable reciting the Lord's Prayer when I am not Christian. But it's true that many Jews who go to synagogue probably don't believe 100% in what they are reciting. It is ritual and comfort because they grew up with it, and their parents grew up with it, and their grandparents, etc. Let me compare it to Thanksgiving. Does every American sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner pause to remember the Pilgrims? I doubt it. It's evolved -- many people say what they are thankful for in their modern lives. Some people don't say anything and just sit down to a turkey dinner. But it is still a shared cultural experience, and would feel odd to most people to miss it. Or take Christmas as another example. There are many non-religious people who celebrate Christmas. There are threads on DCUM every year arguing that Christmas is a secular holiday. Should people who don't go to church on Christmas be banned from celebrating it in a different way, with a tree or presents or whatever?

I am not sure why you feel such hostility to Jews, but I suggest you do some hard thinking about why you may judge them differently from other groups and why you are so hung up on their religious or cultural practices.[/quote]

You are not even reading what I wrote at this point. I don't judge them more harshly than other groups that are exclusive. This is an AMA forum about being jewish. I just believe a lot of jews are shallowly joining behind their heritage and over the years I've lost respect for their clannish behavior. On the prayers I said that I felt uncomfortable about someone being so open in a public space with their religion but at least I understood them a bit after getting to know them and seeing how fervently they believed in their religion. You say you were mistreated by Christians and Catholics. Do you have any examples? As some examples on my behalf, I grew up where the jewish kids would take some of my more open jewish friends away to tell them secrets, none of which had anything to do with jewish religion or culture. They would talk about which families their parents preferred, which jewish boy they wanted to marry, they would comment how none of the jewish boys were open to me because I wasn't jewish. Up to 3rd grade some of them brought in matzoh, but then that ended and most didn't celebrate any holidays. They said this, not me. Even in their houses such as for passover. I thought perhaps this was just the way the kids were in my town, but then I went off to a highly selective college and during the first year there was a sorority rush. There were two known jewish sororities in addition to many sororities that were about half jewish, one with a reputation of having many jewish American princesses and one with more devout and nicer jews. I had gotten to know some of the nicer jewish people in the 2nd sorority. I went into rush believing I probably would not be picked for either sorority, but thought perhaps I could get to know these nicer jews better and could possibly enjoy being in that sorority. They each had pledge classes of 40 women plus. At the first sorority, I was immediately asked my name, where I lived, and my major. The person made a face at me and then took me around to about ten other people introducing me with just that information over and over in a derogatory way. No one asked me any other questions and eventually the person I was with moved on to talk to someone else leaving me alone. At the nicer sorority I was in a group of 3 sisters and 3 pledges and the 3 sisters asked the other two jewish pledges questions and basically ignored me although they were nice and offered me food. I don't think in these cases, I was being the antisemetic one. They were being antichristian. The saddest part was that they had the power to reject me anyway, but used their 15 minutes to make me feel uncomfortable instead of at least trying to be friendly.[/quote]

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