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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.^[1][2][3]

Origins

At the 1893 Parliament of the World's Religions, a Jewish man named Charles Strauss declared himself a Buddhist^[4] following talks by Buddhist delegates Soyen Shaku and Anagarika Dharmapala.^[5]

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.^[6][7][8] Another generation of Jews as Buddhist teachers emerged in the early 2000s, including author Taro Gold, expounding Japanese traditions such as Nichiren Buddhism.^[9]

Notable people