About the Center  ||  Programs  ||  History of the Center

The Center for Cultural Judaism opened in New York in 2003 to meet the needs of the large population of cultural, non-religious Jews identified in the recent findings of the American Jewish Identity Survey (AJIS 2001) – the only comprehensive data about this population currently available – conducted by the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. The Center plans to implement educational and outreach programs designed to reach this broad and diverse population of cultural Jews.

According to Executive Director Myrna Baron, ”One of the key findings of the survey, which confirmed our long-held understanding of this population, is that nearly half of America's adult Jews regard themselves as secular, and remain interested in the cultural expressions of their heritage.” The primary goal of The Center for Cultural Judaism is to engage non-religious, secular, and cultural Jews in Jewish life.

As one of its first major projects, The Center for Cultural Judaism republished AJIS 2001 and mailed it to nearly 30,000 leaders in the Jewish communal world, academia, philanthropy and Jewish education.

The next major project underway is the Posen Foundation Grants for the Study of Secular Judaism. These grants are intended to cultivate and support the study of secular Judaism within already well-established university programs and departments of Judaic Studies, and other departments or programs in the humanities, arts or the social sciences. Grants are awarded to support the curricular development and teaching of two to four courses per year in the history, texts, philosophy and practices of secular Judaism.

The establishment of The Center for Cultural Judaism is the first major organizational change on the American Jewish scene in reaction to emerging new insights into American Jewish demography, as cited in AJIS 2001. Salient among those insights is the emergence of a very large population of Jews – and for many their non-Jewish spouses as well – who do not find meaning in Judaism as a religion, but for whom Judaism as a culture is meaningful. The Center for Cultural Judaism will focus its work to advocate on behalf of this large, underserved population.

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