Religious identities in Europe combine sacred and secular

JTA correspondent Ben Harris reports that religious self-identification is on the rise in Europe, despite taking non-traditional forms:

A German Jewish journalist who became interested in Judaism through an ex-girlfriend aims to start an Internet show focusing on the weekly Torah portion and Israeli culture.

Welcome to the emerging Jewish Europe, where Jewish consciousness is rising—among Jews and gentiles alike—amid some of the most secular societies in the world.

[…]

The reclaiming of European Jewish identity—Barbara Spectre, Paedeia’s founding director, calls it “dis-assimilation”—is on the march. But rather than taking on religious forms, dis-assimilation among young Europeans often has a distinctly secular quality.

Read the entire article here.

Charles Gelman is a contributing editor of The Immanent Frame and an associate editor of Frequencies. A former program assistant at the Social Science Research Council, he is currently a doctoral student in comparative literature at New York University. He earned his B.A. from the Gallatin School, NYU, in 2009.

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