At Religion in American History, Paul Harvey interviews Dana Evan Kaplan about his new book, Contemporary American Judaism: Transformation and Renewal:
PH: You devote considerable space in your text to analyzing the vigorous participation of American Jews in various Buddhist movements, from Ram Dass (nee Richard Alpert) into various Buddhist spiritual practices in recent years that have held wide appeal to Jews. How do you explain this attraction, and what does it say to you about American Judaism?
DEK: There are many ways to understand the attraction of Buddhism for so many American Jews. Each of the explanations has an ideological agenda, so I want to let you know that up front. Many American Jews who grew up in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, felt that the Judaism that they observed in their homes and synagogues was vapid, virtually completely empty of spiritual meaning. They were thirsting for something and some of them founded in Buddhism and other forms of Eastern meditation.
It also had an added attraction of having no negative associations with earlier events in Jewish history. As I have mentioned and you are already aware, Jews have been periodically persecuted by Christians for 2000 years and this has made Christianity repulsive to many of us. While most American Jews do not associate Islam with historic persecution, they see it as a prime source of anti-Israel ideology as well as the inspiration for Al Qaeda and other Muslim terrorists group. So they’re not likely to embrace either of these religions…For many Jews looking for an alternative approach to spirituality, a religion with no historical associations is highly preferable. Buddhism has absolutely no connection with any memories of pogroms or other types of persecutions.
Read the entire interview here.