Sermon: Vayikra: Jews in the United Kingdom Today

Written by Writings & Sermons by others — 9 March 2014

In 2001 Professor Barry Kosmin, the Executive Director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research conducted the American Jewish Identity Survey.  What he and his fellow researchers did was to survey around 50,000 people throughout America and asked them a series of questions one of which was this: what is your religion.

 

Then they were asked this:  when it comes to your outlook do you regard yourself as religious, somewhat religious, secular or somewhat secular.  For those surveyed who might not have understood what secular means they were told “secular means non-religious”.  The Jehovah’s Witnesses lined up like this:  73% said that they were religious, 18% that they were somewhat religious, 3% somewhat secular and 5% secular – no great surprise.  Of the Catholics who are a good quarter of all Americans – 30% said that they were religious, 50% somewhat religious, 7% somewhat secular and 6% secular.  For those of you what are adding up in your heard and wondering where the missing few percent went – they are the don’t knows.  The figures for Muslims are virtually identical to those for the Catholics.  For Methodists over 90% of respondents went for one of the religious choices and only 6% for secular or somewhat secular.

 

In reading these figures you may feel that Barry Kosmin and his team had too much time on their hands going around asking people what their religion is and then whether or not they are religious and getting the answer from 90% or so that they are indeed religious.- and if they hadn’t got round to asking the Jews you would be right.

 

The Jews,  this American survey proves were distinctly definitely, odd.  When asked how they regard their outlook American Jews who, when asked their religion had said that they were Jewish said this:  secular 27%, somewhat secular 17%, somewhat religious 42%.  The percentage of Jews who said that they were religious was only 11%.  No other religious group in America including Buddhists had any thing like this small a proportion of adherents who said they were religious.  Even among people who said that they were of no religion 8% said that they were religious.

 

What does this prove? We British Jews might smugly say that yes American Jews are odd.  But then the Institute for Jewish Policy Research brought the survey closer to home in early 2002 and asked Jews in Leeds the same question.  The result?  A survey of 1500 people in Leeds of whom 89% of the respondents said that they were Synagogue members and of whom 82% had been to Synagogue in the past year – found that only 9% said that they regarded themselves as religious, 44% somewhat religious – about the same as that found among American Jews, 47% of Leeds Jews identified with secular or somewhat secular.

 

You may still scoff.  Perhaps all that we have proven is that American Jews are odd and that Jews from Yorkshire are equally odd.  But then in 2003 the Institute for Jewish Policy Research  published  “A portrait of Jews in London and the South East.”  They asked 3000 Jews in London, concentrating inevitably in our own North West London  – “when it comes to your outlook do you regard yourself as religious, somewhat religious, secular or somewhat secular?”   Of their sample of which 59% described themselves as Orthodox Jews what did we answer?  Secular – 25%, Somewhat Secular 33% (That is a far greater proportion of self avowed Secular Jews than in either America or Leeds), Somewhat religious 34%  and a tiny 8% of London’s Jews would describe themselves as religious.  Perhaps then we London Jews are the oddest of them all?  These figures for the whole gamut of London’s Jews, Orthodox, Masorti, Reform and Liberal veer more to the secular than the responses of American Reform Jews, our nearest spiritual cousins, so to speak.

 

When I have spoken about the results of this survey before it has surprised few.  At the core of the issue is the meaning of the word religious to English speaking Jews.  For some reason it does not mean in Rabbi John Rayner’s definition of the word religious:  “fundamentally an attitude to reality – a response of the whole of our being – mind, heart and soul – to the world in which we are placed.  It is a sense of awe and wonder, an apprehension of the mystery beyond the commonplace.”  Rather when you ask Jews if they are religious they tend to think you are asking “are you observant of current Orthodox Jewish law”.  Quite how Orthodoxy has managed to gain a monopoly of the English meaning of Jewish religiosity is a mystery to me.  This Synagogue contains many religious Reform Jews by Rabbi Rayner’s definition – but I bet if you asked them if they were religious they would probably say no I am not, not possessing a beard, black hat or sheitel!

 

This past year the Institute for Jewish policy research decided that it was time to dig deeper – to survey a greater number of Jews about their Jewish practice and values in order to know better where the community here is going.  Earlier in 2013 the 2011 census results had been published showing that the British Jewish community overall was very slightly growing from the position ten years ago, though concentrating more and more in North West London, pretty much around where we are.  This research though was not about who existed but rather about who they are.

 

Just over 3700 Jewish households completed the survey from all sections of the Jewish community, in June 2013, representing more than 10,000 people.  The results were published a few weeks ago.

 

A quarter of the households describe themselves as “traditional Jews”, a quarter as “secular or cultural Jews”, 16% as Haredi or ultra-orthodox and 18% as Reform or Progressive Jews.   When comparing to how they were brought up nearly a third of people brought up as “traditional Jews” have since moved to be Reform or secular Jews, with a small number becoming Haredi Jews.  Ultra-orthodox growth is mostly fuelled by an ultra high birthrate.

 

What we actually do as Jews is deeply Jewish across the whole spectrum.  60% are part of a Shabbat meal every week.  50% keep Kosher to a substantial degree.  63% are at Seder every year. 28% go to Synagogue weekly and 76% at least once per year. 30% give more than £500 per year to Tzedakah – charitable causes. 63% fast on Yom Kippur.   If this is religious behaviour then of course it is way over the 8% who would, in the previous survey have called themselves religious!  Perhaps a counter intuitive finding of the survey was that the younger the household the more likely they were to display these religious behaviours.  Younger Jews are doing more Jewish.

 

The survey asked the respondents to rank twenty Jewish concepts according to their importance in their Jewish identity.  The top five turned out to be “strong moral and ethical behaviour, remembering the Holocaust, feeling part of the Jewish people, combating anti-Semitism and supporting social justice causes.”  Much further down the list were supporting Israel, observing some aspects of the Shabbat, believing in God and at the bottom studying Jewish religious texts – though it should be noted that still 37% of respondents ranked this bottom of the table Jewish value as very or fairly important. In general for older respondents the ethnocentric Jewish values scored higher whilst the religious practice values were seen as more important by younger respondents.

 

What does this tell us?  It tells us that the components of Jewish religiosity in the UK are changing.  That figure of 8% of Jews saying that they were religious from 2001 was a red shamltz herring.  A far greater proportion of Jews behaves and thinks in a Jewishly religious way as this year’s survey shows – probably somewhere more like 60%.  It just happens that one group of Jews has nabbed the word religious to describe themselves.  If you would like to see for yourself then go to the Alyth website tomorrow and in the upload of this sermon I will provide a link to get you a free download of the survey report.

 

The components of Jewish religiosity have always been in a living breathing state of change – as if a large whole contains many elements which achieve prominence then recede ready to come back to prominence in a future generation.  That we read about the sacrifices made in the desert tabernacle puts this in front of us year after year.  Its easy reading about Avraham arguing against God for justice for the inhabitants of Sodom and Gommorah today, its easy hearing the Ten commandments, its easy hearing about the protection of the poor and needy.  These are central components of today’s Judaism.

 

The sacrifices represent the Jewish practice of another age which are nevertheless components of Jewish religiosity. The ideas behind them of bringing of your best to God may yet resurface.  By reading them yearly in Torah we don’t let ourselves lose the knowledge of these components.  As Saadyah Gaon in tenth century Egypt wrote:   Sacrifice is not something that God needs but rather something that we need – because we need to give something of what we appreciate back to God in order to appreciate it – until we share our blessings they are just meaningless stuff.  So maybe in that 30% of British Jews giving over £500 per year to tzedakah we can see a challenge to the 38% of British Jews giving less than £100 per year to charity that there is work to do!

 

The 2013 National Jewish Community Survey pictures a community in a healthy state of change, holding fast to being Jewish and with hope for the future.   Read it for yourself and see how much describes you. And then Alyth as the Shul at the heart of the community needs to figure out how to respond best to today’s Jews.  May God be with us in that work!