Jews Without Judaism

It's impossible to explained to an American, even to my own children, how one can be Jewish ethnically without professing Judaism.  Now that my family we have joined Humanistic Judaism, the question is moot at least for us, but it annoyingly keeps coming up.

Apparently, many Israeli Jews have been considering this question as well. I was, frankly, astonished when I found out that in Israel, one had to go to court to declare oneself an atheist.  Living in the US, we take a lot of rights for granted ("...self-evident, that all men are ... endowed ... with certain unalienable Rights"), including the freedom of conscience (although there is a dire need for a non-profit to take up this cause, since the government is not always up to the task).

Recently, the Israel Supreme Court ruled that the author Yoram Kaniuk has the right to change his official religious affiliation to "without religion" (http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israel-court-grants-author-s-request-to-register-without-religion-1.387571):

In May Kaniuk asked the court to order the Interior Ministry to allow him "to be liberated from the Jewish religion" by changing his "religion" entry in the Population Registry from "Jewish" to "without religion." The ministry had refused his earlier request.

This apparently prompted many other Israelis to follow suit and officially declare themselves "without religion"
(http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/following-court-ruling-hundreds-of-israelis-to-declare-themselves-without-religion-1.388848).  I understand the Israeli government's need to keep track of how many Jews live in the "Jewish state", but there's got to be a better way to do this than to record religious affiliation.


It seems the Israeli government shares Josef Stalin's view that Jews are not a nation, which is kind of ironic and definitely sad.