…This is why the idea of a secular Jew is an oxymoron. Someone who calls himself a secular Jew is using words he misunderstands. Jew comes from Yehuda, the name Mother Leah gave to her fourth son. She expressed hope three times previously, giving birth each time to a boy, that she hoped would finally win Jacob’s love. This time she just thanked G-d for son number four. His name thus resonates with the very concept of thanking God, and that is one reason why humankind suffers from a predilection to hating Jews, for our existence as a nation, as a community, has proven so far to be immortal and thus a proof of the existence of G-d as Jews conceive of Him, He Whose first lesson to his greatest creation is to know that there is good and there is evil, G-d wants man to choose the good and not the evil. And people don’t want to hear that because it means reining our worst impulses and urges. So much pleasure is succumbing to temptation, instant gratification, but long term sorrow.

So someone who calls himself a secular Jew, when secularism means against religion, and Jew connotes a G-d-thanker. Jews are constantly thanking G-d, and if so, and anti-religionist G-d-thanker makes no sense…