Jewish Buddhist

• 1. Introduction

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  At the 1893 Parliament of the World's Religions, a Jewish man named Charles Strauss stood up and declared himself a Buddhist. He had just heard talks delivered by two Buddhist delegates, Soyen Shaku and Anagarika Dharmapala, and the encounter changed him. That single act of self-identification planted a seed that would eventually grow into one of the more quietly remarkable religious crosscurrents of the modern world.

  Who are the people known as Jewish Buddhists, and how did a demographic overlap this distinctive come to exist? What draws someone raised in one of the world's oldest monotheistic traditions toward the contemplative practices of Buddhism? And what does it mean to hold both identities at once, sometimes fully, sometimes in tension?

• 2. Naming the Phenomenon

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  Rodger Kamenetz gave this demographic its most widely recognized label in his 1994 book The Jew in the Lotus, introducing the term JewBu, also rendered as JUBU. The book brought a name to something many people were already living. Those within the community have also adopted BuJews and BuddJews as self-descriptions, a playful doubling that reflects the genuine duality of the identity.

  A Jewish Buddhist is defined broadly: a person of Jewish ethnicity who practices a form of Buddhism, with or without also observing Judaism. That flexibility matters. Some are ethnically Jewish while Buddhism serves as their primary religion. Others hold both traditions simultaneously, weaving Jewish observance and Buddhist practice into a single life. The label accommodates that range without forcing a resolution.

• 3. How Many, and Where

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  Emily Sigalow, writing in her 2019 book American JewBu, attempted to put numbers to what had long been a matter of impression and anecdote. Her demographic survey estimated that ethnically Jewish Buddhists make up somewhere between 16.5% and one-third of all non-Asian American Buddhists. That range is wide, but even the lower bound is striking given that Jewish Americans represent a small fraction of the overall United States population.

  The concentration in the United States points to something specific about the American religious landscape. American JewBu traces the contours of a community that emerged and concentrated largely within one country, shaped by its particular mix of immigration history, cultural openness, and institutional Buddhism.

• 4. The 1960s Wave

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  In the late 1960s, following the rise of Zen within the Beat Generation, many Jewish Americans began moving toward Buddhist practice in numbers too large to be incidental. The Beat Generation had made Zen intellectually fashionable in certain literary and counterculture circles, and the wave that followed carried a distinct set of individuals who would go on to shape American Buddhism itself.

  Shinge-shitsu Roko Sherry Chayat became a prominent figure in Zen Buddhism. Joseph Goldstein, Jack Kornfield, and Sharon Salzberg founded the Theravada-based Insight Meditation Society, one of the most influential meditation institutions in North America. Sylvia Boorstein took up teaching at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. These teachers primarily worked in the Vipassana tradition as transmitted by Thai teachers. Another cohort of Jewish Buddhist teachers emerged in the early 2000s, extending the lineage into a new generation.

• 5. Practices and Forms

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  Jewish Buddhists do not follow a single path. Some practice dhyana, the meditative absorption central to many Buddhist traditions. Others focus on Vipassana, the insight meditation taught through careful attention to breath and sensation. Chanting, broader Buddhist spirituality, and various other contemplative forms also draw practitioners from this community.

  The founders of the Insight Meditation Society brought a particular Theravada framework to North American audiences, and that influence remains visible in how many Jewish Buddhists describe their practice today. Sylvia Boorstein and Jon Kabat-Zinn, both Jewish Buddhists, have each contributed to making mindfulness-based practices accessible to wider audiences, though the full range of figures the community claims runs well beyond meditation teachers.

• 6. A Roster of Notable Figures

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  The list of people identified as Jewish Buddhists spans an unusual breadth of fields. Leonard Cohen, the poet and musician, studied Zen intensively over many years. Allen Ginsberg, whose writing was central to the Beat Generation that helped introduce Zen to American culture, was himself a Jewish Buddhist. Philip Glass, the composer, has spoken publicly about his Buddhist practice.

  Yuval Noah Harari, the historian, meditates intensively and has attributed much of his intellectual method to Vipassana practice. Goldie Hawn and Jeremy Piven are among the entertainment figures on the list. Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys became a devoted Buddhist and Tibetan rights advocate. Morrie Schwartz, whose final conversations became a widely read book, also appears among the named figures. The breadth of the roster, from poets to physicians to athletes like Anthony Ervin, suggests the crosscurrent runs through many corners of American cultural life, not only one.