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You are here: Experts > Homework Help > Judaism > Orthodox Judaism > atheism
Expert: Marc Lipshitz - 11/3/2009
Question
Hello Rabbi
My son has been dating a Reformed girl for the last year. They were getting serious and discussed marriage. This girl will not worship in an Orthodox synagogue so they go to her reformed synagogue. She's Kosher and observes the holy days. But she told my son that she is an atheist and she is only an ethnic Jew and that if they had children she would never let her children beleve in God. On that subject they broke up.
Can you help me understand holding onto being Jewish but not believing in God?
Answer
Shalom Dan
The phenomenon of the "atheist Jew" is an outgrowth of the "haskalah" (enlightment) that led to the formation of Reform Judaism in the 19th century. Reform Judaism today is actually more conservative than when it first started.
Early Reform disavowed completely the notion of the Torah as a divine document and stated the only things that were mandatory was to follow its ethical precepts; that the parts about G-d and his divinity etc were for each person to decide for themselves as to how much credence and belief they wanted to put in them, just as it was for each person to decide for themselves how much of the halachah was binding. Thus the divinity of G-d, his existence, his role as creator of the world, judge etc was not set in stone, but a matter of personal belief.
The "atheist Jew" is an outgrowth of this philosophy. They wish to retain a connection to a culture and history, something they see as having value and worth. They reject the idea of a G-d, and the Torah as a connection to him. To them, the cultural identity of being Jewish is the only factor- they have completely divorced themselves from Judaism as a religion and way of life and embraced a complete fabrication and secular idea that Judaism can be a culture on its own with no connection to the Torah.
Sadly, this idea is found somewhere- in the writings of anti-Semites, those who seek to destroy the Jews. The idea that Jewish culture is an ethnicity and a race was the linchpin in the Nazi's philosophy, to them Jews were a race, an ethnicity like any other. Prior to this philosophy, when Judaism was sonly seen as a religion, genocide would not be the ultimate aim- converting Jews to Islam or Christianity, even at sword point, was a preferred alternative. Turn Judaism into a race, an ethnicity, and suddenly it becomes something intrinsic to the person which cannot be left behind (The book "Hitler's willing executioners" by Daniel Goldenhagen has an excellent chapter on this evolution of anti-Semitism and how it led to the inevitable notion of genocide).
Hopefully I have answered your question and may your son merit find someone with whom to build a bayit ne'eman b'Yisrael
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