A Jewish Buddhist is a person with an ethnic
Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
background who believes in the tenets of a form of
Buddhism
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
.
Some practice forms of
Dhyanam Buddhist meditation
Buddhist meditation is the practice of meditation in Buddhism. The closest words for meditation in the classical languages of Buddhism are ''bhavana, bhāvanā'' ("mental development") and ''Dhyāna in Buddhism, jhāna/dhyāna'' (a state of me ...
,
chanting or
spirituality
The meaning of ''spirituality'' has developed and expanded over time, and various meanings can be found alongside each other. Traditionally, spirituality referred to a religious process of re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape o ...
. When the individual practices a particular religion, it may be both
Judaism
Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...
and
Buddhism
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
. However, in many cases their ethnic designation is Jewish while the individual's main religious practice is
Buddhism
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
.
Rodger Kamenetz introduced the term JewBu or JUBU in his 1994 book ''
The Jew in the Lotus''.
Demographics
In her 2019 book on the subject, ''American JewBu'', Emily Sigalow give different surveys and estimations about the Jewish percentage of the
non-Asian American Buddhist population, going from 16.5% to around a third of the total number.
Origins
At the 1893
Parliament of the World's Religions, a Jewish man named Charles Strauss declared himself a Buddhist following talks by Buddhist delegates
Soyen Shaku and
Anagarika Dharmapala.
After
Zen
Zen (; from Chinese: ''Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka phil ...
's rise in popularity with the
Beat Generation, a new wave of Jews became involved with Buddhism in the late 1960s. Prominent teachers included
Joseph Goldstein,
Jack Kornfield,
Shinge Roshi Sherry Chayat and
Sharon Salzberg who founded the
Insight Meditation Society, Sylvia Boorstein who teaches at
Spirit Rock Meditation Center, all of whom learned
vipassana meditation primarily through
Thai teachers. Another generation of Jews as Buddhist teachers emerged in the early 2000s, including author
Taro Gold, expounding Japanese traditions such as
Nichiren Buddhism.
Notable people
*
Alfred Bloom
*
Bhikkhu Bodhi
Bhikkhu Bodhi (born December 10, 1944) () born Jeffrey Block, is an American Theravada Buddhist monk ordained in Sri Lanka. He teaches in the New York and New Jersey area. He was appointed the second president of the Buddhist Publication Soci ...
*
Sylvia Boorstein
*
Tara Brach
Tara Brach (born May 17, 1953) is an American psychologist, author, and proponent of Buddhist meditation. She is a guiding teacher and founder of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, D.C. (IMCW). Brach also teaches about Buddhist medi ...
*
Thubten Chodron
*
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, soc ...
*
Surya Das
*
Robert Downey Jr.
*
Mark Epstein
*
Anthony Ervin
*
Zoketsu Norman Fischer
*
Allen Ginsberg
*
Philip Glass
Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...
*
Tetsugen Bernard Glassman
*
Craig Taro Gold
*
Natalie Goldberg
*
Yuval Noah Harari
*
Joseph Goldstein
*
Shinge Roshi Cherry Chayat
*
Julius Goldwater
*
Daniel Goleman
*
Dan Harris
*
Goldie Hawn
*
Jon Kabat-Zinn
*
Ayya Khema
*
Jack Kornfield
*
Jay Michaelson
*
Ethan Nichtern
*
Mandy Patinkin
*
Jeremy Piven
*
Linda Pritzker[Forbes: The World's Billionaires - Linda Pritzker]
July 2018
*
Nick Ribush[Director, Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive: Nick Ribush]
* Jonathan F.P. Rose
April 11, 2004
* Larry Rosenberg
*
Sharon Salzberg
* Morrie Schwartz
* Nyanaponika Thera
* Helen Tworkov
* Adam Yauch
*
Shinzen Young
See also
*
Buddhism in Israel
* ''
Jews and Buddhism''
*
List of converts to Buddhism
*
Buddhism and Judaism
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
*
*Musch, Sebastian. ''Jewish Encounters with Buddhism in German Culture. Between Moses and Buddha(1890-1940)''. Palgrave 2019. .
External links
The “Oy Vey” School of BuddhismYou don't look Buddhist*
ttps://web.archive.org/web/20091003025908/http://www.targum.com/excerpts/letters_to_a_buddhist_jew.html Excerpt from ''Letters to a Buddhist Jew''by Akiva Tatz
{{Jews and Judaism
Lists of Buddhists
Buddhist
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
Religious syncretism