Jewish Converts to Buddhism and the Phenomenon of Jewish Buddhists (JuBus) in the United States Germany and Israel

Scientific Essay from the year 2012 in the subject Jewish Studies grade: Not graded course: Treten Sie ein! Treten Sie aus! Warum Menschen ihre Religion wechseln language: English abstract: The aim of this article is to shed some light as far as it is possible at the present time on the part played by Jews in the spread of Buddhism since its arrival in the west as a religious practice. We shall also take a look at the special case of Jewish Buddhists (JuBu) among Jewish converts and suggest a tentative definition.It is more than 120 years now since Buddhism began to get a foothold in western countries and began slowly and steadily to become at home here. The first historically-attested convert on the soil of the USA was Charles T. Strauss who at the 1893 World Parliament of Religions in Chicago declared his conversion to Buddhism and took his Buddhist vow in a small solemn ceremony in the present of an Asian master. Strauss came from New York and was the son of Jewish parents. After this key event Buddha-Dharma the doctrine of the Enlightened One seems to have exercised a remarkable power of attraction for many Jews. Thus Buddhism owes its transformation and growth in the west to many intermediaries with a Jewish background: Philipp Kapleau Bernard Glassman Nyanaponika Mahathera Ayya Khema Jack Kornfield Joseph Goldstein Sharon Salzberg Sylvia Boorstein Rabbi Alan Lew Nathan Katz Lama Surya Das Thubten Chödron to name but a few.A glance at the Buddhist centres of the great east and west coast cities of the USA shows that up to 30% of their members are of Jewish descent. The renowned Buddhist master Chogyam Trungpa from Tibet once joked that there were so many Jews among his disciples that he would be able to found a special Buddhist school for them the Oy Vey School of Buddhism. In these centres some of the members assert that they are passionate Buddhists and faithful Jews at one and the same time. This phenomenon of