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Jewish atheism
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Jewish atheism
Jewish atheism is the atheism of people who follow the ethnic and cultural construct of Jewishness.
"Jewish atheism" is not a contradiction because Jewish identity encompasses not only religious components but also ethnic and cultural ones. Jewish law's emphasis on descent through the mother means that even religiously conservative Orthodox Jewish authorities would accept an atheist born to a Jewish mother as fully Jewish.
Jewish secularism, which describes Jews who do not explicitly reject the existence of God but also do not believe it is an important part of their Jewishness, has a long tradition in the United States.
A 2013 Pew Research Center study found that 62% of self-described American Jews say being Jewish is mainly a matter of ancestry and culture, while 15% say it is mainly a matter of religion. Even among Jews by religion, 55% say being Jewish is mainly a matter of ancestry and culture, while 66% say it is not necessary to believe in supernatural concepts (such as God or the afterlife) to be Jewish. A 2025 Pew Research Center study found that 26% of self-described American Jews "don't believe in God or a universal spirit and they are certain in this belief".
Irreligious and secular Jewish organizations mostly date to the 20th century, from the Jewish socialist Bund in early-20th-century Poland to the modern Congress of Secular Jewish Organizations and the Society for Humanistic Judaism in the United States.
Jewish atheists and agnostics may feel comfortable within any of the three major non-Orthodox Jewish denominations (Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist). This is less of a contradiction than it might seem, given Judaism's emphasis on practice over belief, with even mainstream guides to Judaism suggesting that belief in God is not necessary for Jewish observance. But Orthodox Judaism regards the acceptance of the "Yoke of Heaven" (the sovereignty of the God of Israel upon the Jewish people and the divine revelation of the Torah) as a fundamental obligation for all Jews, and the Reform Jewish movement has rejected atheistic temples' efforts at affiliation, even though many Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist Jews are either atheists or agnostics themselves. Nevertheless, there are many atheist and agnostic Jews in modern non-Orthodox Jewish denominations.
In the 19th century and early 20th century, Reform Judaism in the United States, which became the dominant form of Judaism in the country by the 1880s, was profoundly shaped by its engagement with high-profile skeptics and atheist thinkers such as Robert Ingersoll and Felix Adler, and rabbis such as Isaac Mayer Wise, Kaufmann Kohler, Emil G. Hirsch, Joseph Krauskopf, Aaron Hahn, and J. Leonard Levy, resulting in a distinctly panentheistic US Reform Jewish theology, which many would view as atheistic, skeptic, or having irreligious tendencies.
Liberal Jewish theology makes few metaphysical claims and is thus compatible with atheism on an ontological level. The founder of Reconstructionist Judaism, Mordecai Kaplan, espoused a naturalistic definition of God, and some proponents of post-Holocaust theology have also eschewed belief in a personal god. The Jewish philosopher Howard Wettstein has advanced a non-metaphysical approach to religious commitment, according to which metaphysical theism-atheism is not the issue. Harold Schulweis, a Conservative rabbi trained in the Reconstructionist tradition, has argued that Jewish theology should move from a focus on God to an emphasis on "godliness". This "predicate theology", while continuing to use theistic language, makes few metaphysical claims that non-believers would find objectionable.
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Jewish atheism
Jewish atheism is the atheism of people who follow the ethnic and cultural construct of Jewishness.
"Jewish atheism" is not a contradiction because Jewish identity encompasses not only religious components but also ethnic and cultural ones. Jewish law's emphasis on descent through the mother means that even religiously conservative Orthodox Jewish authorities would accept an atheist born to a Jewish mother as fully Jewish.
Jewish secularism, which describes Jews who do not explicitly reject the existence of God but also do not believe it is an important part of their Jewishness, has a long tradition in the United States.
A 2013 Pew Research Center study found that 62% of self-described American Jews say being Jewish is mainly a matter of ancestry and culture, while 15% say it is mainly a matter of religion. Even among Jews by religion, 55% say being Jewish is mainly a matter of ancestry and culture, while 66% say it is not necessary to believe in supernatural concepts (such as God or the afterlife) to be Jewish. A 2025 Pew Research Center study found that 26% of self-described American Jews "don't believe in God or a universal spirit and they are certain in this belief".
Irreligious and secular Jewish organizations mostly date to the 20th century, from the Jewish socialist Bund in early-20th-century Poland to the modern Congress of Secular Jewish Organizations and the Society for Humanistic Judaism in the United States.
Jewish atheists and agnostics may feel comfortable within any of the three major non-Orthodox Jewish denominations (Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist). This is less of a contradiction than it might seem, given Judaism's emphasis on practice over belief, with even mainstream guides to Judaism suggesting that belief in God is not necessary for Jewish observance. But Orthodox Judaism regards the acceptance of the "Yoke of Heaven" (the sovereignty of the God of Israel upon the Jewish people and the divine revelation of the Torah) as a fundamental obligation for all Jews, and the Reform Jewish movement has rejected atheistic temples' efforts at affiliation, even though many Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist Jews are either atheists or agnostics themselves. Nevertheless, there are many atheist and agnostic Jews in modern non-Orthodox Jewish denominations.
In the 19th century and early 20th century, Reform Judaism in the United States, which became the dominant form of Judaism in the country by the 1880s, was profoundly shaped by its engagement with high-profile skeptics and atheist thinkers such as Robert Ingersoll and Felix Adler, and rabbis such as Isaac Mayer Wise, Kaufmann Kohler, Emil G. Hirsch, Joseph Krauskopf, Aaron Hahn, and J. Leonard Levy, resulting in a distinctly panentheistic US Reform Jewish theology, which many would view as atheistic, skeptic, or having irreligious tendencies.
Liberal Jewish theology makes few metaphysical claims and is thus compatible with atheism on an ontological level. The founder of Reconstructionist Judaism, Mordecai Kaplan, espoused a naturalistic definition of God, and some proponents of post-Holocaust theology have also eschewed belief in a personal god. The Jewish philosopher Howard Wettstein has advanced a non-metaphysical approach to religious commitment, according to which metaphysical theism-atheism is not the issue. Harold Schulweis, a Conservative rabbi trained in the Reconstructionist tradition, has argued that Jewish theology should move from a focus on God to an emphasis on "godliness". This "predicate theology", while continuing to use theistic language, makes few metaphysical claims that non-believers would find objectionable.