Can somebody be an atheist Jew?

Atheist Jew does NOT mean former-Jew, now Atheist... I am an atheists and a Jew at the SAME TIME. This website explains it pretty well... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheist_Jew

I am Jew culturally AND because my mother is Jewish... and yet I don't believe God exists.

Many Jews (if not a majority of Jews) are Atheists.

First of all, you cannot be an "ex-Jew". If your mother was a Jew, then so are you, for all your life. Even if you convert to another religion, you will still always be a Jew by birth, if your mother is a Jew.

If your mother wasn't a Jew, then you never were either, regardless of what your father was. It is the mother who passes down being Jewish, not the father. The father only passes down tribal lineage.

The only other way a person can be a Jew is if they convert to Judaism according to the laws for conversion in Jewish law. A person cannot just say "I am a Jew from now on" and think that they are a Jew. It doesn't work like that. The conversion must be according to Jewish law rules.

As for the athiest question, yes. My mother, a born Jew, was an athiest since she was a teenager. It has no effect on her being a born Jew, she was a Jew by blood because her mother was a Jew. It meant that she wasn't a participant in the Jewish community too much, etc. but she was still a Jew because she was born that way.

Born Jews who convert to other religions are still Jews by blood. However, they are not allowed to participate in synagogue, not given any place in the religious community, etc. and are considered heretics - even though they are still by birth Jews. They are welcomed back into the community if and when they renounce their heresy and return.

EDIT: For OmegaRed. Yes, it is that simple. In fact, the Jewish Gene has now been discovered, guess where. On the FEMALE mtDNA (Mitochondrial DNA). A Jewish mother will pass this down to both her sons and daughters but ONLY HER DAUGHTERS will continue to pass it down to their children. Her sons cannot. If her sons want to have Jewish children, they need to marry Jewish women who will then pass down the Jewish Gene through their mtDNA.

You may or may not know that the Kohen Gene (the priest gene) was also found a few years back. This was found on the male Y chromosome. If a father has it, so does his son. Over 75% of the Jewish men who had the family tradition of being Kohanim (priests) tested positive for this gene.

http://www.cohen-levi.org/jewish_genes_and_genealo...

So yes, it does matter whose vagina you come out of. I refer you to Bennett Greenspan of FamilyTreeDNA.com and Dr. Michael Hammer at the University of Arizona for further information on both the Female Jewish Gene on the female mtDNA and the Kohen Gene found on the male Y chromosome.

Yup, science has finally caught up with the Torah, which has held for over 3,300 years that being Jewish is passed down by the mother only, while tribal affiliation is passed down by the father only. Now how do you supposed Jews 3,300 years ago knew these genetics?

In part, being Jewish is a matter of birth. If your mother was a Jew, you are a Jew. So, the current state of your religious or non religious observance has nothing to do with your 'membership'. However, if you want to convert to Judaism, then you have to go through a religious/Jewish Law/Halachic conversion and your religious observance is a very big factor. However, if after you convert & your religious observance slips, you can't un-convert. Once a Jew, always a Jew. Judaism does not recognize coherced conversions out or into Judaism and it considers, because of the massively unequal power between Judasim and any other religion, any conversion out of Judaism as coherced.

As for the belief in G-d. There are 613 Mitzvahs/Commandments that a Jew is responsible for. Believing in G-d is only one of them so you still are responsible for the other 612.

Some scholars claim that believing in G-d is not a Mitzvah because you can not command or force a person to obey or punish a person for what they think but only for what they do.

I get into a very strong argument with my friends about this all the time. They argue that being Jewish is a race, but I say it is a religion. I can imagine however, that if a Jew believed it were a race based on birthright and blood, that person could very well be an atheist religiously but a Jew "by birth". I personally don't agree with that particular way of thinking. Being Jewish is a choice and a task that requires a lifetime of effort and work, it is not something that is as simple as whose vagina you come out of.

If you read the whole history of the Jews in the Old Testament, there were lots of Jews who either didn't believe in God or at least acted as if they didn't.

Pastor Art

Jew/Jewish is a nationality and a religion. So the answer is yes.

A Jewish friend who lives in Jerusalem told me that Jerusalem is full of Jewish atheists.

I was born and raised Jewish, and the cultural and ethnic bit is still a part of me.

However, I identify as an agnostic--which, IMO, is *very* Jewish--and no longer practice my religion.

I've been wondering that too, actually. I've had two people tell me that's what they were. It doesn't really make sense, since atheism by definition involves not believing in God, but whatever. Maybe they follow some Jewish moral principles but have no faith?

they consider it a race to be Jewish also.

so yes there are many Atheist Jews.