Nobel prize physicist on the Jewish tradition

I.I. Rabi commenting on why he thought Robert Oppenheimer never advertised his Jewish identity [American Prometheus pp. 76]:

"Oppenheimer was Jewish, but he wished he weren't and tried to pretend he wasn't...The Jewish tradition, even if you don’t know it in detail, is so strong that you renounce it at your own peril. [This] doesn’t mean you have to be Orthodox, or even practice it, but if you turn your back on it, having been born into it, you’re in trouble. So that poor Robert, an expert in Sanskrit and French literature...[Rabi's voice here trailed off into silent thought.]"

(Rabi grew up in an Orthodox home where “Even in casual conversation, G-d centered, not every paragraph, more like every sentence.” But of course, as with most very successful people, soon enough, “the formal religion fell away.”)