I can't see how a Jew can be an atheist - ex-Jews perhaps. I think Americans with broader minds should stop defining themselves in terms of archaic beliefs, As I frequently say, I don't believe there is a special element that causes fires, but I do not describe myself as an antiphlogistic. Bear in mind that most American 'Christians' seem to believe only in getting rich.
You can be an atheist and a Jew. Being Jewish is also a cultural designation. My father always moved us to Jewish neighborhoods for this reason,that they accept atheists. My father is an atheist and was raised an atheist.
We are a family of atheists. My children were raised in my wife's catholic church but they are now atheists too.
Two of my grandparents were Jewish so by the standards of Israel I believe that I could be considered to be Jewish even though I am an atheist. But we were never taught or study the Jewish religion, or any religion for that matter.
Likewise my only sibling, my brother's family are all atheists. They did go to another church that accepts atheists, called something like Universalists, I think, because he thought that his children were missing something social by not belonging to a church or some other spiritually based groups. But this only lasted for a few months when his two sons told my brother and sister-in-law that no, they weren't missing the crap that they had to put up with in the Universalist Church.
I remember now, the Unitarian Universalist Church.
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