Jennifer Gilmore Quotes

There's no such thing as being a cultural Jew. You're religious or you're not.

I'm not super, super religious. If this is okay to say, I'm more culturally Jewish.

As a matter of fact, part of being Jewish is the whole question of what it is to be a Jew.

I believe in Judaism, I was raised a Jew, I'm happy to be one - or proud to be one.

I consider myself more of a cultural Jew; I'm not religious in any way.

Spiritually, I'm Jewish.

Jewishness is a very big part of my identity. I am a proud Jew, I would say, who doesn't practice very actively.

I love being Jewish, but I think that our generation is the first generation that crossed that line between being a cultural versus a practicing Jew.

Judaism is not, per se, a religion in the sense most Americans think of. Even if you don't adhere to the various precepts, you're still a Jew.

I'm rather secular. I'm basically Jewish. But I think I'm Jewish not because of the Jewish religion at all.

If you are trying to raise a child to be a Jew, then you have to create a sense of Jewish identity. You really weaken that sense of identity if you celebrate two religions.

I grew up in a secular suburban Jewish household where we only observed the religion on very specific times like a funeral or a Bar Mitzvah.

Though I am not religious in the least, I am very proud to be Jewish.

You know, I get much more Jewish in Israel because I like the way that religion is done there.

I mean, I talk about being Jewish a lot. It's funny because I do think of myself as Jewish ethnically, but I'm not religious at all. I have no religion.

For years, Judaism has been a sort of product put on the religious shelf, and on holidays, we would take it off the shelf and let seculars play with it for a bit. Now, Judaism is going back to being something that more closely touches everyone.

It's not what the rabbis say that defines Jewishness but what we Israelis do every day - our actions and our values.

I was brought up a Jew but, you know, that way of being Jewish - the New York way. We were stomach Jews; we were Jewish-joke Jews. We were bagel Jews. We didn't go to synagogue. I'm frightened of synagogue to this day.

When it comes to being Jewish, I can't help myself.

As a journalist, I've always treaded carefully about being Jewish and caring a lot about Israel and having that not become too big of an issue that could affect my journalism. But I also don't think it's essential to my Judaism, as I think it might be for some other people.

I grew up in the classic American-Jewish suburbia, which has a whole different sense of what it means to be Jewish than anywhere else in the world.

My six handbooks to Jewish life and lifecycle events mostly followed the trajectory of my adult Jewish life.

I was the kind of Jew who'd be in a bar, somebody would say it's Yom Kippur, and I'd go, 'Really?'

I am very proud of being Jewish. I went to a Jewish school all my life.

Most of the Jewish writer friends I have are American, and I feel closer to them because they're always obsessed with one issue - identity: what does it mean to be an American Jew?