secular or cultural judaism

So.... most Jews are secular and so identify. Sounds right to me. Yet they as such and the civilization which they form and are part of is not studied or taught or disucssed. Generally. Here comes - Posen Foundation and the Center for Secular Judaism and its founder Alex Posen who talked this afternoon at the UCD Campus.

NOTE - from their web site: ( http://www.culturaljudaism.org/ccj/about )

"Mission of the Center
“I’m Culturally Jewish, But I’m Not Religious”
Cultural Jews have a passion for their Jewish identity, yet they struggle to express it in ways that are consistent with their beliefs. They are far from alone. In fact, a rapidly increasing number Jews throughout the world identify themselves as cultural, non-religious Jews.

According to an important study of the Jewish population released by the Graduate Center of The City University of New York (AJIS 2001) , nearly one-half of American Jews identify themselves as secular or somewhat secular. One-half of American Jews are completely unaffiliated, and do not even belong to a community center or other Jewish organization. Yet, cultural Jews are vastly under served by existing programs. We are working to fill this void."

Interesting talk by Alex Posen and also by David Biale. The question of who is a a secular Jew will be answered by the body of produced literature and art and all. I am not sure yet how this will work, look, feel, etc. The assertion that there are and were many Judaisms is interesting but what is CORE? IF the Tanakh is at the core what does it mean to put THE JEWISH Religious Book at the center of a secular culture also named Jewish and yet not be religious or anti-religious. BUT I think I ramble and am not as informed as I might be nor am I thinking outside the box of the Bible. I guess that the points might be that the mainstream secular culture includes as part of its heritage the Bible as well as the New Testament and other religious tomes and yet is secular. The question then may be the longevity of our Jewish Cultures - both religious and secular. This differs it is said from the longevity of other cultures but is that true? I wonder. Certainly the Christian culture has a call on longevity and so does the Greek culture. And Chinese culture, etc. The longevity of the Jewish Cultures which have survived without a homeland may be unique especially as a secular phenomenon OR some might argue that the secular culture is intricately linked to the religious culture. Maybe the secular depends on the religious. Maybe not. Maybe the other way around OR maybe the two co-exist and survive because there is the two! Ah... that would be a nice spin. BUT - how to determine the necessities?

More later, sometime!