Nontheistic alternative to religious Judaism
Humanistic Judaism
(
Hebrew
:
????? ?????????
Yahadut Humanistit
) is a
Jewish movement
that offers a
nontheistic
alternative to contemporary branches of
Judaism
. It defines Judaism as the
cultural
and
historical
experience of the
Jewish people
rather than a religion, and encourages Jews who are
humanistic
and
secular
to celebrate
their identity
by participating in
relevant holidays
and rites of passage (such as
weddings
and
bar/bat mitzvahs
) with inspirational ceremonies that go beyond traditional literature while still drawing upon it.
[1]
[2]
Origins
[
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]
In its current form, Humanistic Judaism was founded in either 1963
[1]
or 1965
[2]
(sources differ) by American
Rabbi
Sherwin Wine
.
[1]
[3]
[4]
As a rabbi trained in
Reform Judaism
with a small,
secular
, non-theistic congregation, he developed a Jewish liturgy that reflected his and his congregation's philosophical viewpoints by combining Jewish culture, history, and identity with
humanistic
outlooks while excluding all prayers and references to a god of any kind. This congregation developed into the
Birmingham Temple
in
Farmington Hills, Michigan
. It was soon joined by a previously Reform congregation in
Illinois
and a group in
Westport, Connecticut
.
In 1969, all three congregations were organizationally united with other groups under the umbrella of the
Society for Humanistic Judaism
(SHJ). The SHJ had 10,000 members across 30 congregations in the United States and Canada in 1994; however, there are many congregations that identify with Humanistic Judaism's teachings but are not members of the SHJ.
[5]
As of 2020, the
Pew Research Center
estimated that Humanistic Judaism, along with
Reconstructionism
and other smaller denominations, constituted 4% of the United States's 7.5 million Jews.
[6]
The
International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism
(IISHJ), founded in 1986, is the academic and intellectual center of Humanistic Judaism. It currently has two centers of activity: the original in
Jerusalem
and another in
Lincolnshire, Illinois
. Rabbi Adam Chalom is the dean of the IISHJ's American site. The IISHJ offers professional training programs for spokespersons, educators, leaders (also referred to in Hebrew as
madrikhim/ot
or Yiddish as
vegvayzer
), and rabbis, in addition to its publications, public seminars, and colloquia for lay audiences.
[7]
Principles of belief and practice
[
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]
According to the SHJ,
[8]
the philosophical foundation of Humanistic Judaism includes the following ideas:
- Judaism is the culture of the Jewish people, which includes many religious and secular traditions.
- A Jew is any person who chooses to identify with the faith and culture of the Jewish people.
- After
the Holocaust
, it is clear that the meaning of
Jewish history
is that Jews must be responsible for their own fate.
- Every person is entitled to be the master of his or her own life, subject to the final authority of his or her own conscience.
- The power to achieve human survival, happiness, and dignity is a human power.
Humanistic Judaism presents a far more radical departure from traditional Jewish religion than
Mordecai Kaplan
, the co-founder of
Reconstructionist Judaism
, ever envisioned. Kaplan redefined God and other traditional religious terms so as to make them consistent with the
naturalist
outlook, but continued to use traditional prayer language. Wine rejected this approach as confusing, since participants could ascribe to these words whatever definitions they favored.
Wine strove to achieve philosophical consistency and stability by creating rituals and ceremonies that were purely non-theistic. Services were created for
Shabbat
,
Rosh Hashanah
,
Yom Kippur
, and other Jewish holidays and festivals, often with reinterpretation of the meaning of the holiday to bring it into conformity with
secular humanistic
philosophy.
[10]
Humanistic Judaism was developed as a possible solution to the problem of retaining Jewish identity and continuity among non-religious Jews. Recognizing that congregational religious life was thriving, Wine believed that secular Jews who had rejected theism would be attracted to an organization that provided all the same forms and activities as the religious branches of Judaism, but which expressed a purely secular humanistic viewpoint. In terms of social issues, the SHJ has
outlined its stance
in a series of ongoing statements.
See also
[
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]
References
[
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]
- ^
a
b
c
Karesh, Sara E.; Hurvitz, Mitchell M. (2005).
"Humanistic Judaism"
.
Encyclopedia of Judaism
. Encyclopedia of World Religions.
J. Gordon Melton
, Series Editor. New York: Facts On File. p. 221.
ISBN
0-8160-5457-6
.
- ^
a
b
Cohn-Sherbok, Dan
(2006). "Humanistic Judaism". In
Clarke, Peter B.
(ed.).
Encyclopedia of new religious movements
. London; New York: Routledge. pp. 288?289.
ISBN
9-78-0-415-26707-6
.
Archived
from the original on 2022-04-16.
- ^
"International Federation for Secular & Humanistic Judaism"
. Archived from
the original
on 2011-05-16
. Retrieved
2010-12-16
.
- ^
Hevesi, Dennis (July 25, 2007).
"Sherwin Wine, 79, Founder of Splinter Judaism Group, Dies"
.
The New York Times
.
Archived
from the original on 2011-12-06
. Retrieved
2010-12-16
.
- ^
Niebuhr, Gustav (June 30, 1994).
"Humanist Synagogue Tests Reform Judaism"
.
The Washington Post
.
Archived
from the original on August 9, 2022.
- ^
Alper, Becka A.; Cooperman, Alan; et al. (2021-05-11).
"Jewish Americans in 2020"
.
Pew Research Center
.
Archived
from the original on 2022-08-09
. Retrieved
2022-08-09
.
- ^
"Mission"
.
International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism
. 2016-01-18.
Archived
from the original on 2021-04-19
. Retrieved
2022-08-09
.
- ^
"Secular Humanistic Judaism"
.
International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism
. 2016-01-18.
Archived
from the original on 2022-03-07
. Retrieved
2022-08-09
.
- ^
Rosenfeld, Max (1997).
Festivals, folklore & philosophy: A secularist revisits Jewish traditions
. Sholom Aleichem Club.
ISBN
978-0961087029
.
Further reading
[
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]
External links
[
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]