November 8, 2009
Opinion: For 'cultural' Jews focus not on God
by Julia Duin
The Washington Times
Last Sunday, my daughter and I visited a gathering of Jews who don't believe in God, where the rabbi identifies himself as a bisexual atheist and the first 45 minutes are spent doing Israeli folk dances.
Folks at Machar, the Washington Congregation for Secular Humanistic Judaism, believe they're on the cutting edge of a religion in which half of all marriages are to Gentiles and 35 percent -- 1.8 million people -- identify themselves as nonreligious or "cultural" Jews.
These are folks who identify with the 14 percent of the American population that is unaffiliated with any religious group.
"The big challenge is how we reach these people," Rabbi Binyamin Biber told a group of us gathered in the library of the Jewish Primary Day School in Northwest. "They don't join organizations. It's like herding cats."
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