Is it common for Israeli seculars to object to being called Jews rather than Israelis...?

I don't know how common it is, but sadly, this phenomenon does exist. First of all, a point of clarification: While the majority of Israel's citizens are Jewish, by no means are all Israelis Jews. Just for example, a significant portion of Israel's population is in fact Arab, and among those you'll find Muslims and Christians.

It gets confusing because in some languages, Israeli (a citizen of the modern state of Israel) and Israelite (a descendant of Israel, in particular nowadays this refers to Jews) are one word. While perhaps the majority of Israelis are Israelites, not all Israelis are Israelites, and the majority of Israelites are not Israeli.

Where was I going with this? Oh, right, so a lot of Israelis aren't Jews to begin with. But looking at the majority who are, among those you have Jews of varying degrees of religious conviction, from G-d-fearing, to completely secular. Secular Israeli Jews are still Jews from the Torah's perspective (the Torah being the essential core of Judaism). But whether or not they think of themselves as such depends on the individual. Many identify as Jews for "cultural" reasons. And there are those who will insist "I am an Israeli, not a Jew". It's one of the sad ironies of history that a state founded so the Jewish people could flourish has, for many, diluted their Jewish identity. The problem is that when we're scattered among the nations, our Jewishness is brought into sharp relief. When you have a whole country of Jews, for some, it's like Jewishness is cheapened (please hold your jokes), G-d forbid. It's like... I live in Arizona, and when I'm walking home from synagogue on Saturday, and I see another guy with a yarmulke, we greet each other and wish each other a good Sabbath. Because it's not so common to see another Jew. In Israel, Jews are a dime a dozen, and it's like, any other major city - people just keep to themselves. When I was living in Israel (attended school there for a while), strangers would occasionally greet me on the Sabbath and holidays, but it was the exception rather than the rule.

So, are there secular Jews who wish to shed their Jewishness in favor of "Israeliness"? Sadly, yes. I have to figure that this is the minority, however. Are "Jew" and "Israeli" synonyms? For sure not. However, Israel was founded in the ancient Jewish homeland, to be a Jewish state. Right now it's more a state of Jews than a Jewish state. We're working on that.

I hope you find this information helpful.

Not synonymous but I have still to meet an Israeli (secular) who has objections to being called a Jew.

I guess people just don't want to be lumped.

I would never consider an atheist a Jew or a Christian. Or to have good sense.

Nope. More often they won't even think about it. They might present themselves as Israeli's, but would acknowledge that, technically, they are Jewish.

It's rare that an Atheist Jew will claim he's not a Jew, in fact sometimes when religious and Atheist Jews argue about God the Atheist will say to the religious Jew "you think you're more Jewish than me"? LOL

I witnessed this several times.

Calling an individual by his religion is not proper by any standard.

An Israeli is to be called an Israeli, if he is not Jewish you might introduce him as an Israeli ....

israeli is a nationality. jewish is a religion. there are over a million non-jews that are citizens of israel. non-religious jews are still jews, but non-jews are not jews. they are all israelis.

Atheism is a rare concept in Israel.

Although most of the Jewish Israelis describe themselves as Hilonim (non-religious Jews) or Masortiyim (partially observant), everyone identify themselves as Jewish.

Such definitions connect us to the cultural and national aspects of Judaism.

Still, everyone has some kind of affinity to the Jewish religion and tradition and almost everyone practice its customs to a certain degree: http://www.avi-chai.org/Static/Binaries/Publicatio...

I always call them jews. For some reason, I've noticed that most of them don't like being called jew.

I am an atheist or agnostic (I am really confused myself), but if you call me a Christian it is OK with me.

The truth and nothing but the truth is that they are all jews.

What's your problem widdat?

Do I "object" myself being called up ...a Christian? Nope.

As easy as pie.

Steel