A Jewish Buddhist is a person with a Jewish background who believes in the tenets of a form of Buddhism.
Some practice forms of Dhyanam Buddhist meditation, chanting or spirituality. When the individual practices a particular religion, it may be both Judaism and Buddhism. However, in many cases their ethnic designation is Jewish while the individual's main religious practice is Buddhism. Rodger Kamenetz introduced the term JewBu or JUBU in his 1994 book The Jew in the Lotus.
Origins
At the 1893 Parliament of the World's Religions, a Jewish man named Charles Strauss declared himself a Buddhist following talks by Buddhist delegates Soyen Shaku and Anagarika Dharmapala.
After Zen's rise in popularity with the Beat Generation, a new wave of Jews became involved with Buddhism in the late 1960s. Prominent teachers included Joseph Goldstein, Jack Kornfield, Shinge Roshi Sherry Chayat and Sharon Salzberg who founded the Insight Meditation Society, Sylvia Boorstein who teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, all of whom learned vipassana meditation primarily through Thai teachers. Another generation of Jews as Buddhist teachers emerged in the early 2000s, including author Taro Gold, expounding Japanese traditions such as Nichiren Buddhism.
Notable people
Alfred Bloom
Bhikkhu Bodhi
Sylvia Boorstein
Tara Brach
Thubten Chodron
Leonard Cohen
Surya Das
Robert Downey Jr. Mark Epstein Anthony Ervin Zoketsu Norman Fischer Allen Ginsberg Philip Glass Tetsugen Bernard Glassman Craig Taro Gold Natalie Goldberg Yuval Noah Harari Joseph Goldstein Shinge Roshi Cherry Chayat Julius Goldwater Daniel Goleman Dan Harris Goldie Hawn Jon Kabat-Zinn Ayya Khema Jack Kornfield Jay Michaelson Ethan Nichtern Mandy Patinkin Jeremy Piven Linda Pritzker Nick Ribush Jonathan F.P. Rose Larry Rosenberg Sharon Salzberg Morrie Schwartz Nyanaponika Thera Helen Tworkov Adam Yauch Shinzen Young
See also
Jews and Buddhism
List of converts to Buddhism
References
Further reading
Musch, Sebastian. Jewish Encounters with Buddhism in German Culture. Between Moses and Buddha(1890-1940). Palgrave 2019. .