American JewBu: Jews, Buddhists, and Religious Change

by Emily Sigalow

Overview

A revealing look at the Jewish American encounter with Buddhism

Today, many Jewish Americans are embracing a dual religious identity, practicing Buddhism while also staying connected to their Jewish roots. This book tells the story of Judaism's encounter with Buddhism in the United States, showing how it has given rise to new contemplative forms within American Judaism—and shaped the way Americans understand and practice Buddhism.

Taking readers from the nineteenth century to today, Emily Sigalow traces the history of these two traditions in America and explains how they came together. She argues that the distinctive social position of American Jews led them to their unique engagement with Buddhism, and describes how they incorporate aspects of both Judaism and Buddhism into their everyday lives. Drawing on a wealth of original in-depth interviews conducted across the nation, Sigalow explores how Jewish American Buddhists experience their dual religious identities. She reveals how Jewish Buddhists confound prevailing expectations of minority religions in America. Rather than simply adapting to the majority religion, Jews and Buddhists have borrowed and integrated elements from each other, and in doing so they have left an enduring mark on the American consciousness.

American JewBu highlights the leading role that American Jews have played in the popularization of meditation and mindfulness in the United States, and the profound impact that these two venerable traditions have had on one another.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691174594
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	11/12/2019
Pages:	280
Sales rank:	1,100,392
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Emily Sigalow is a sociologist of contemporary Jewish life and executive director of the Impact and Performance Assessment Department at the UJA-Federation of New York, a leading Jewish philanthropic organization. Website emilysigalow.com

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

A Note on the Spelling of JewBu xi

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction: Sheldon on the Mountain 1

Part I Four Periods of Jewish-Buddhist Engagement 15

Chapter 1 Breaking down the Barriers 17

Chapter 2 Buddhist Paths to Self-Discovery in the Early Twentieth Century 38

Chapter 3 Jews and the Liberalization of American Buddhism 56

Chapter 4 Buddhism and the Creation of a Contemplative Judaism 81

Part II Lived Experience of Jewish Buddhists in the United States 97

Chapter 5 Making Meditation Jewish 99

Chapter 6 Mapping Jewish Buddhist Spirituality 123

Chapter 7 Constructing a Jewish Buddhist Identity 148

Conclusion: After The few in the Lotus 178

Appendix A Research Methods 193

Appendix B Teacher Interview Guide 203

Appendix C Lay Practitioner Interview Guide 209

Notes 217

References 237

Index 251

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"In this compelling and insightful book, Sigalow offers a window into the varied ways that Jews in the United States have been engaged in religious, spiritual, and secularized paths toward creating a Jewish Buddhist sense of self."—Janet Jacobs, author of The Holocaust across Generations: Trauma and Its Inheritance among Descendants of Survivors

"American JewBu deals with a phenomenon widely known but never before systematically studied. Drawing on history and sociology, it traces the Jewish-Buddhist encounter from its nineteenth-century origins to the present, shedding immense new light on why Jews turned to Buddhism, how the encounter reconfigured both faiths, and what JewBu syncretism teaches us about American religion as a whole. A model study by a scholar of immense promise."—Jonathan D. Sarna, author of American Judaism: A History

"This excellent book is essential reading on the development of American Buddhism and a fascinating exploration of why Buddhism is so popular among American Jews."—Erik Braun, author of The Birth of Insight: Meditation, Modern Buddhism, and the Burmese Monk Ledi Sayadaw

"Emily Sigalow offers a detailed historical and contemporary account of JewBus, often commented on but rarely studied. This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the multiple ways Jews influenced the development of Buddhism in America. I strongly recommend it."—Wendy Cadge, Brandeis University

"Sigalow combines ethnographic research with thoughtful historical and cultural analysis to produce a convincing portrait of Jewish Buddhists in America. She skillfully surpasses simplistic explanations of the JewBu phenomenon to provide the richest historical and social account to date. American JewBu not only convincingly explores how and why so many Jews have taken up Buddhism, it demonstrates the crucial role Jews have played in shaping what Buddhism has become in the West."—David L. McMahan, author of The Making of Buddhist Modernism

Editorial Reviews

08/26/2019

Sigalow, sociologist and executive director at the UJA-Federation of New York, uses fresh sociological concepts to shed light on the relationship of contemporary American Buddhism and Judaism in America in this probing debut. She begins by reclaiming the idea of religious syncretism, describing religious mixing without judgment about authenticity of religious contents. Sigalow’s work openly contests this “pejorative” understanding of syncretism and “challenges the dominant paradigm within sociology that suggests that religions adapt and change in this country by assimilating into the majority, and taking on the characteristics and organizational forms of liberal Protestantism.” She argues that “Jewish social location” as a “distinctively left-liberal, urban, secular, and upper-middle-class religious minority” was similar to that of American Buddhism, allowing for distinctive and fruitful interactions throughout the 19th century. Her extremely close focus at times misses larger forces at work—specifically the overall decline of institutional religion over the past century, which has allowed beliefs and practices to mix. Nonetheless, Sigalow detailed investigation offers new insights about the mechanisms by which religions evolve in multireligious America. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"American JewBu offers a unique perspective on the current, lively debate on religious mixing. The book is fluently written and highly illuminating. It offers an accessible entry to important questions in the study of lived religious practice."

Sociology of Religion

"This excellent book is essential reading on the development of American Buddhism and a fascinating exploration of why Buddhism is so popular among American Jews."—Erik Braun, author of The Birth of Insight: Meditation, Modern Buddhism, and the Burmese Monk Ledi Sayadaw

"In this compelling and insightful book, Sigalow offers a window into the varied ways that Jews in the United States have been engaged in religious, spiritual, and secularized paths toward creating a Jewish Buddhist sense of self."—Janet Jacobs, author of The Holocaust across Generations: Trauma and Its Inheritance among Descendants of Survivors

From the Publisher