Greg Netto

Saskia M. Tielens
HUMA 2400-007
11/29/14
Media Review
On October 1st, 2013 Daniel Burke published American Jews losing their religion, an
article on a survey conducted by Pew Research Center pertaining to American Jews with no
religious identity rising in America. The article covers the statistics and data that were gathered
from a four month survey on American Jews from the Greatest, Silent, Boomer, GenX, and
Millennial, generation on religious affiliation and what being Jew meant. According to Pew
Research Centers survey in 2013 4.2 million American (1.8% of overall population) adults
identified themselves as Jewish by religion compared to statistics were twice that in 1950.
However what the survey found was 1.2 million Americans consider themselves cultural Jews.
Meaning that six out of ten American Jews say being Jewish is more about their culture and
ancestry, not a religious identity. The increase of non-religious Jews is greatest in the millennial
generation (born after 1980) which is around 32 percent.
The message of the article is clear; the trend of the younger millennial generations not
identifying with a religion is affecting almost every American religion. The motivation of the
article was to ask the question, why is this trend happening and in particular why in the Jewish
community? It would be easy to say that the authors intended audience was the Jewish
community, but I believe the targeted audience was all American religious communities, because

like all religions it is taboo to leave the household where you were brought up in a religious
setting just to abandon it.
So the question is raised why is it that the millennial generation are no longer identifying
with a particular religion/faith? In the article Burke quotes Jane Eisner, editor-in-chielf of the
Jewish Daily Forward in saying "We are a people very much defined by what we do, rather than
what we believe." My belief/bias is that not only is it the Jewish community but the American
population and millennial generation in particular that feel the same way. It is not the claiming
of a religious institution as our own that makes us who we are but what we achieve and how we
behave. Or better said by Dr. Sukhraj S. Dhillon of Yale University your beliefs don't make you
a better person your behavior does.
In conclusion all semester we have discussed American culture and its affect on religion
and vice versa. But this article discusses and highlights that as of late, religion is becoming less
of an influence as well as determining peoples behavior. More so, the millennial generation and
future generation are no longer going to identify themselves by saying I am Jewish, I am
Catholic, or I am Muslim, but will do so through individualism I am me.