Why should I be proud to be Jewish?

From a non-affiliated point of view Id say: Think of it as an exclusive close knit family/club. We have gone through tons, we have sacrificed for each other. For thousands of years our ancestors sacrificed for us, and we continue in their ways. As communities go you wont find a more helping one. Agudah Achas, Ahavas Yisroel. Without getting into The Chosen People shmooze.

From a purely politically correct standpoint, there are many mushy answers you could give. Any spin on what the people above me wrote would work.

In truth, though, you’ve asked a stumper. Why would a completely irreligious Jew be proud to be Jewish?

We say every night in Krias Shema Al Hamitah, “Ve’Atah Hashem magen ba’adi, kevodi u’merim roshi…” Hashem is my source of pride. That’s the source of Jewish pride.

Without God, what is a Jew?

That being said, an American takes pride in his/her country’s accomplishments. A black person will take pride in black people’s accomplishments.

So you could point out to this group in plain statistical terms the huge percentage of “accomplishments” which Jews have garnered. Think Hollywood, Nobel prize winners, leading medical researchers, and even the military power of the IDF.

Though this is not the true Jewish pride we as religious Jews strive for, it can definitely instill a feeling in them that God is clearly on our side.

Re post by Toi: If Jews invented herring, I might agree with you.

Pride in being Jewish is as unsound as any other form of ethnic pride, or any pride in anything other than one’s own accomplishments. I did not survive a concentration camp, or a pogrom. I did not discover penicillin or the theory of relativity, I did not write the Mishneh Torah or the Shulchan Aruch.

I give tzedukkah – that is something to be proud of. Hashem requires me, as a Jew, to give tzedukkah – that is nothing to be proud of, unless I do it. Hashem gives me a Jewish soul – that is nothing to be proud of. Hashem requires me to put on tefillin – that is nothing to be proud of, but putting on tefillin – that’s something to be proud of.

LevAryeh: that is EXACTLY what I was thinking. I just didn’t have time to write it.

Why should someone who isn’t affiliated be proud to be Jewish? Why be proud of something you demonstrate that you couldn’t care less about?

The ONLY thing I can think of is what you mentioned about accomplishments. It’s like when an alumnus/a of your school from ten years ago goes on to do something famous and every time you hear their name, you’re like, “Wow! That’s so cool! I KNOW that person!” even though you two never met in your lives. You just went to the same school ten years ago, but the school is a community you identify yourself with so that you identify with other members of the community. But I think that’s coming at it from the wrong angle. First you need to establish the connection, the feeling that it’s important that I’m Jewish just like he is. If Judaism isn’t an important part of your life in the first place, why would I care about or identify with someone who’s Jewish?

So the first step would seem to be to get the people to identify with being Jewish. But how do you do that? By making them proud to be Jewish. And so the cycle continues.

But either way, nfgo3, I so agree with you, happens to be.

I always wondered why it is that people feel pride when a local sports team wins. I’m not talking about big fans, but people who might not even be able to name one player on the team. For example, if a little league team from Brooklyn goes to the Little League World Series, everybody in Brooklyn, and even throughout NY, is so proud of them even though they had never even known of their existence until now. But when they hear that this “local” team won, they feel pride. This seems to be a natural thing that people feel a connection to the people who they have some sort of “shaychus” to. This shaychus can be that they live in the same city or country (olympics) or it could be that they are somehow “related”. That same pride can be felt about “family” even if it is family that you’ve never met. And all Jews are “family”.

This doesn’t have anything to do with Judaism itself, it is just a natural feeling. Once a person has that feeling you can try to use it to bring them closer to the religious part of the religion.

Charles Short,

Of course. Also, you should be proud to be a human being.

@david wrote “because you HASHEM’S child

(what a stupid question )”

And an equally stupid answer. For starters, everyone is Hashem’s child. For another thing, that is not an accomplishment.

mdd: True, but I was taking “unaffiliated” at face value. Of course, if the people already identify with, well, I guess a way to put it could be Judaism as opposed to Yiddishkeit, then your job is made a lot easier.

It’s if Judaism is an absolute nothing in your life (as was my probably unfounded assumption) that you’re REALLY in trouble.

Once one has some form of Jewish identity this all becomes a lot easier.

@nfgo3 As the mishna in Avos says (don’t remember the exact lashon) Im lamad’ta Torah harbeh al tachzik tova l’atzmecha ki lekach notzarta.

“ For starters, everyone is Hashem’s child.”

Not necessarily, as was well explained >>HERE<<.