by NJJN Editorial

September 23, 2009

Here’s a stat to contemplate during the Days of Awe: The fastest-growing cohort in surveys of American religious affiliation are those who describe themselves as “none,” “atheist,” “agnostic,” and “secular.”

If current trends continue, according to an analysis by Trinity College, a quarter of all Americans are likely to claim “no religion” in 20 years, up from 15 percent today. And of these so-called “Nones,” Jews join Asians and the Irish as the most secularized ethnic groups. Jews make up 3.8 percent of the adult “Nones” population. The number of Jews claiming “No Religion” rose from around 20 percent in 1990 to around 37 percent in 2008.

“Nones” tend to be religious skeptics as opposed to outright atheists. As Barry Kosmin, director of Trinity’s Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture, told U.S. News & World Report, “American ‘nones’ are kind of agnostic and deistic, so it is a very American kind of skepticism.”

The data correlates with troubling declines in Jewish organizational affiliation, synagogue attendance, and the like. America remains a defiantly religious country, especially compared to other Western countries. But a general secularization of society makes it easy and attractive to drift away from organized religion.

That’s the reality and challenge of American-Jewish life. The Jewish people have always included believers and skeptics, mystics and rationalists, do-ers and watchers. And yet in previous eras, there was a greater sense of peoplehood and forces, centripetal and centrifugal, that bonded Jews and their institutions despite the prevailing winds. In a multiple-choice world, the temptation to pick “None” of the above often proves too great.

No rational person would want a society that limits those choices. Instead, those who care about the future of the Jewish people and institutions must strive to make the choice of “peoplehood” as attractive, welcoming, and meaningful as possible. We all must say to the Nones, “there is a place for you in Judaism, believe it or not.”

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