What does it mean to be a secular Jew?
Judaism in Five Minutes - Sarah Imhoff
Jennifer Caplan [+]
University of Cincinnati
Jennifer Caplan is Associate Professor and The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati Chair in Judaic Studies at University of Cincinnati. She is the author of Funny, You Don’t Look Funny: Judaism and Humor from the Silent Generation to Millennials (Wayne State University Press 2023) and is currently working on a monograph on Jewish characters in the DC and Marvel universes.
Description
“Secular” and “religious” are, by definition, both related and in opposition to each other as “secular” is generally used to mean “not religious.” How, then, can we speak of Jews (presumably practitioners of Judaism, a religion) as secular? Jewishness, however, has always been complicated and defies simple categorization as religious tradition. Many people—and the number seems to be growing—see themselves as both Jewish and atheist, agnostic, or simply secular. This chapter explores the reasons why this phenomenon is not the oxymoron it may appear to be and is instead an outgrowth of the multifaceted nature of Jewishness.