People With Jewish Backgrounds More Likely To Be Neo-Pagan?

[Yazichestvo]

I encountered this claim first on Wikipedia, without a citation. I was skeptical but intrigued. Then I encountered the same claim in the book by James R. Lewis, Perspectives of New Age. The sources cited are surveys by Melton in 1979, and Adler, 1985.

Why should people with Jewish backgrounds be twice as likely as the general U.S. population to turn to Neopaganism? Given my mother's side of the family, I may be an example in this statistic. I have personal theories as to why exposure to Judaism may have guided me toward neopaganism.

Looking at things from the perspective of a minority religion may have opened my mind. Learning more about Judaism also made me less receptive to Christianity, which likely turned me away from mainstream religion. Then there's all the research suggesting that the Jews were originally polytheists. Or, it may just be that a lot of the most liberal religious people in the U.S. are Jewish. That's all just speculation based on personal experience. Do these factors play a role? Why do you think this trend exists?

[Aeran]

Re: People With Jewish Backgrounds More Likely To Be Neo-Pagan?

Maybe experiencing some kind of internal conflict between the dominant religion of their family and the dominant religion of their culture makes them wanna say 'fuck it' and just throw them both out and go in a whole other direction?


Also possible that Jews are just more likely to fit into what seems to be the primary demographic drawn to neopaganism (white? or at least non-asian/black, somewhat educated middle class types). Honestly, we don't have a real jewish population here, so it's hard for me to say for sure beyond what I know from TV. Maybe they just wanna be this chick:

[WinterTraditions]

Re: People With Jewish Backgrounds More Likely To Be Neo-Pagan?

Just look at the Kabbalah and how they view angels; very magickal and spiritual ideas. Now, I don't know much about the Kabbalah (and I just recently finished a unit on Judaism during Jesus' time) so I don't have anything really ground-breaking to share.

[LizardMind]

Re: People With Jewish Backgrounds More Likely To Be Neo-Pagan?

I just read the Kaballah. Many things stood out to me that are similar to pagan ideas. There is a book my student is reading that is very kaballistic in it's magick.

[Aeran]

Re: People With Jewish Backgrounds More Likely To Be Neo-Pagan?

And consider the massive influence kabbalah had on the Golden Dawn and the occult revival of the late 19th century, which in turn had a massive influence on the creation of Wicca by Gardner in the 40's.

[Gleb]

Re: People With Jewish Backgrounds More Likely To Be Neo-Pagan?

As far as I know, when Joshua started conquering Canaan, the Jewish God order him to destroy and kill all of the pagans in the territory.
I have a Jewish background. Though I am considered Israeli, I am Kemetic. My nationality doesn't prevent me from believing in one or another religion.

[sirz345]

Re: People With Jewish Backgrounds More Likely To Be Neo-Pagan?

Huh I never knew this before, I actually have a Jewish background I didn't think it could influence me that much.

[Orecha]

Re: People With Jewish Backgrounds More Likely To Be Neo-Pagan?

From personal experience, I think it has to do with the purging of spirituality and "superstition" from Judaism that occurred during the haskalla (the so-called "Jewish Enlightenment"). While in many ways Orthodox Judaism was created to fight this movement, it still comes off as a dry, dusty religion detached from any real sense of spirituality. Chasidism and kabbalah try to reinsert some of that lost spirituality, but the practitioners of either are a small minority and Talmudism always (re)asserts its dominance. It's true that there is a more spiritual focus among Sephardim, Mizrachim, and the like, but the vast majority of Jews in the US are Ashkenazi, and therefore affected the strongest by the results of the haskallah (which was an Ashkenazi movement).

So, basically, in order to find something remotely spiritual, many American Jews seek that outside of their own faith tradition, which they see as essentially dead. It's a shame too, since there is a deep spiritual system running through Israelite religions and Early Judaisms, though most American Jews don't have the religious education to know that (and others just don't care). This is also the reason why many American Jews become Buddhists and Hindus (or Bu-Jews and Hin-Jews, if you will) as well as pagans, or even why many convert to Christianity for that matter.

As a former Jew who has been through nearly every modern Jewish movement there is, I'm glad that I had the educational background to know that there is a deeper spiritual path if you can look back through time -- before Orthodox/Conservative/Reform, before the haskallah, before Maimonides, before the Talmud and the Mishnah, before the Hasmoneans and their reforms, before the Babylonian reformers, and before Kings Hezekiah and Josiah. You've got to go back a few thousand years, but it's there. While you see a great deal of Jews turned Buddhists, Hindus, Wiccans, Eclectic Neopagans, Druids, Kemetics, and even Odinists today, I think that as education and public knowledge increase, there will be a drive among Jewish people (and Christians too) the world over to reclaim true Israelite religion in the modern world, either as Iron Age practices (like Orach Qad'moni) or Bronze Age Canaanite Polytheism (like Natib Qadesh).

[shebani]

Re: People With Jewish Backgrounds More Likely To Be Neo-Pagan?

Hope so Orchecha. I know a few as well and we seem to be on this move and at various stages of moving toward it, a great thing I think.

[Heka]

Re: People With Jewish Backgrounds More Likely To Be Neo-Pagan?

Maybe they just wanna be this chick:

I wanna be this chick. Or with this chick. Whatever.

[Aeran]

Re: People With Jewish Backgrounds More Likely To Be Neo-Pagan?

I wanna be this chick. Or with this chick. Whatever.

Back off, Alyson is mine

[Heka]

Re: People With Jewish Backgrounds More Likely To Be Neo-Pagan?

Back off, Alyson is mine

Pah, whatev's. She'd pick me.

[Aeran]

Re: People With Jewish Backgrounds More Likely To Be Neo-Pagan?

Pah, whatev's. She'd pick me.

That's it, we're going to have to duel for her. Pistols or swords?

[Heka]

Re: People With Jewish Backgrounds More Likely To Be Neo-Pagan?

That's it, we're going to have to duel for her. Pistols or swords?

You're not touching this pretty face. I told you, she's going to pick. And she'll pick me. No doubt.

(swords) :P

[Aeran]

Re: People With Jewish Backgrounds More Likely To Be Neo-Pagan?

I'll see you at sunrise!