Note: This article is by Jane Goldhamer, a member of the board of the Society for Humanistic Judaism. She writes here in her personal capacity. Jane is the founder and coordinator of Kol Shalom, Community for Humanistic Judaism in Portland, Oregon, U.S.A., and SHJ affiliate. She can be reached by e-mail at:
HUMANISTIC JUDAISM
Secular or humanistic Judaism has existed as an alternative in Jewish life for over 100 years. For most of its history, it was an informal option--secular Jews weren't organized as such, but participated in a variety of movements such as Zionism, Yiddish nationalism or Bundism, Jewish schools, cultural associations, and Jewish communal organizations. Only recently has the movement specifically for Humanistic Judaism taken form. The history is this:
Early 1963--A group of Jews who were members of Temple Beth El in Detroit wanted to start a new, small-but-hip, suburban--and very Reform--congregation. They approached 36-year-old Rabbi Sherwin Wine, who had been Beth El's assistant rabbi and moved from there to leading a Reform congregation in Windsor, Ontario. Rabbi Wine was known as a brilliant and dynamic speaker, but was within the Reform framework.
August 1963--Sixteen couples met at the home of one of them in Birmingham, Michigan. They wanted to start a Reform temple that was open to "creative development." Eight of the couples ended up joining what was dubbed, that night, the Birmingham Temple.
Initially, services were held on Sundays because Rabbi Wine was still leading Friday night services in Windsor. Aside from being on Sunday, the new congregations's services were traditional Reform.
Little by little, things started changing. Members of the ritual committee began discussing philosophical issues such as the nature of God. Finally they decided on a definition of God as an ideal man--all that a person could become, the notion of a perfect human being. But then the question was, if God is a notion, who is listening when people pray? Gradually the language in the services moved farther away from making any definitive statements about God, or talking to God.
June 1964--By now, all theistic language had been eliminated from the services. The media had gotten wind of the "atheistic rabbi" and "Godless congregation." Local newspapers, Jewish publications, and Time magazine carried articles. The state organization of Masons asked the Birmingham Temple to leave the Masonic Temple in Bloomfield Hills where the congregation had been meeting. The Reconstructionists told Rabbi Wine to recant or leave the Jewish fold. Detroit's Council of Orthodox Rabbis publicly denounced Humanistic Judaism. The reactions of Reform rabbis ranged from incredulous to aghast, but a move to "defrock" Rabbi Wine didn't succeed.
Yet the Birmingham Temple continued to grow. Services attracted 300 to 500 people. At the end of its first year, the Birmingham Temple had 120 families; a year later, 210. By 1993 the membership stood at 425 families.
1969--The Society for Humanistic Judaism was established in Detroit, to help spread the movement by starting affiliated communities in other cities. The quarterly Journal of Humanistic Judaism began to be published.
At about the same time, a number of previously independent secular Jewish associations banded together as the Congress of Secular Jewish Organizations. The Society for Humanistic Judaism and the CSJO established a relationship, although not a merger, as the two associations had some differences in philosophy and approach.
Both associations went together to form the North American Section of the International Federation of Secular Humanistic Jews, which was organized by Rabbi Wine and Israeli scholars who shared the SHJ approach. As of now, the Federation is made up of national organizations in the U.S. and Canada, Mexico, Uruguay, Australia, Great Britain, Belgium, France, the former Soviet Union, Italy and Israel. Every other year, an international conference is held. To date, they've taken place in Detroit, Chicago, Brussels, Jerusalem, Moscow, Paris, Tel Aviv, and New York City. The conference for 2002 will be held in Brussels, followed by a tour of Czechoslovakia led by Rabbi wine.
The educational arm of the Federation is the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism, with headquarters in Jerusalem and Detroit. The Institute trains rabbis, lay leaders called madrikhim, and teachers, as well as offering educational programs and seminars for the general membership. To be a Humanistic rabbi, one must get a Master's degree (and preferably a Ph.D) in Judaic Studies from a university, and complete the Institute's course of study in Humanistic Judaism and rabbinic training. At present there are three rabbis who started out as Reform rabbis; two who were formerly Conservative rabbis; and four Institute-trained rabbis, the first ordained in 2000 and three more in October 2001. More are in training. Their prospects are a little "iffy" right now. Of the 36 SHJ affiliates in the U.S. and Canada today, very few are large enough to support a full-time rabbi (except for those which already have rabbis). Yet, it's agreed that having a rabbi helps a congregation to grow.
Today, the Birmingham
Temple and
the Society have come a long way. The
Temple has an attractive building, housing all the functions normal to
a
congregation, and the Society has a building adjoining the Temple. In odd-numbered years, the Institute sponsors colloquia, held at the Temple and
attracting large audiences, with panels of respected scholars in Jewish
Studies
and related fields For each of these
events, the Jewish Federation of
Detroit has made a very generous grant to help underwrite the event. Rabbi Wine
speaks in other congregations and
the Temple gets speakers from the community. When
the United Jewish Appeal and the United Jewish Federations combined as
United
Jewish Communities in 2000, the Society
for Humanistic Judaism was invited in as one of the branches of
Judaism, and
has participated in the UJC's Annual Gatherings.
I first learned of Humanistic Judaism about 1981 in Dayton, Ohio, when Rabbi Wine was a speaker at the Temple Men's Club Sunday brunch-lecture series. He said that no one has been able to prove whether or not God exists and, since there seem to be no observable, verifiable consequences of God's existence or non-existence, it's not a question we should be concerned with. The question, he said, is where the power lies; if we can't depend on an all-wise, all-powerful supernatural being to arrange for everything that happens, we must take that responsibility ourselves. We must have the courage to face life in a world that is completely neutral. The good are not always rewarded, the bad not always punished, and things often don't work out for the best. Actually, Rabbi Harold Kushner said very similar things in his book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. Kushner ended up saying, essentially, that God within people is what makes them kind and supportive of each other. Rabbi Wine would say, if God is the goodness in people, why not just call it the goodness in people? Or if God is the grandeur of nature, why not just say the grandeur of nature? Of course, I recognize that many people would say that God is the infinite something-or-other which is expressed in the goodness of people or the grandeur of nature. I'm not fond of quarreling with other people's beliefs, and in fact I like to say that's why they make 48 flavors of ice cream. If vanilla were the only choice we had, there would be far fewer ice cream lovers! For me, talking about God--much less talking to God--is something I can't do. It ends up seeming like a conversation with an anthropomorphic, imaginary being who is somehow created in my image! And so it became more and more impossible for me to have any kind of a positive experience in participating in a Jewish worship service. I avoided them, but missed the connection with Jewish life.
Humanistic Judaism is not, however, about what we don't believe, but what we do believe. It must be that, if it's going to be a positive value in our lives. So here are some of the things we believe:
1. We have the power and responsibility to shape our lives, independent of a supernatural power or authority.
2. We have the responsibility to try to make things better for ourselves, our families, our community, and our world.
3. There may or may not be "something" that underlies creation (we differ among ourselves on this question), but if there is, it isn't anything we can manipulate through prayer or certain behaviors.
4. Our Jewish heritage is precious to us, and we feel a connection to the Jewish people, traditions, history, values, and culture. The essence of Judaism is the experience of the Jewish people.
5. We believe in intellectual freedom in the pursuit of truth and knowledge, for our children and ourselves. There are no questions that may not be asked, no answers that are forbidden. New knowledge may bring new understandings.
6. We interpret Jewish history, holidays and ceremonies without reference to a supernatural being, focusing on the values we see underlying them.
7. A Jew is someone who identifies with the history, culture, and future of the Jewish people. Being a Jew, in other words, does not depend on matrilineal or patrilineal descent, or on conversion by circumcision and a trip to the mikvah., which are the traditional criteria. Nor does it depend on holding a certain set of beliefs. Jewish beliefs have varied widely among Jews for all of history. If belief were the criterion, how many Jews would pass the test? Who would rule out Einstein, Freud, and probably over half of U.S. and Israeli Jews? In the past, the Pharisees looked down on Hellenistic Jews, Spinoza was excommunicated, and there has never been a time when all Jews agreed on what was religiously correct!
8. We believe that the guidelines for ethical behavior lie in circumstances, conscience, and consequences. "Thou shalt not kill" may not be a rule for all circumstances, and there's no universal agreement about what circumstances justify killing. Unless one is a psychopath or sociopath, one can generally rely on conscience as a guide--we give ourselves positive feedback when we behave well and negative feedback when we don't. Consequences, both personal and societal, are a very important guideline; this is where responsibility is most important.
9. We believe that human happiness is a primary goal in living: the happiness that can be attained by independence, security, courage, self-actualization, achievement, responsible ethical behavior, good relationships, etc. We think that no one should put stumbling blocks in the way of a person's choice of a life partner--such as race, religion, or gender identity.
10. Pluralism is what lends vitality, creativity, and the chance of survival to Judaism. Humanistic Judaism is not for everyone, but it should be one of the available options for Jews for whom the other Judaisms are not a comfortable fit. Some of our members, of course, are not Jews, but we want them to feel comfortable and welcome among us. If they choose to become Jews, we will help them in that journey.
So what do Humanistic Jews do? Our Portland congregation was organized in the fall of 1993. We are completely volunteer-run (except for our children's education director and teachers), although we do get periodic rabbinic visits and occasionally have a weekend with one of the madrikhim visiting from out of town. One of these years, we hope to have a madrikh or madrikha in residence as our lay leader. Many of the congregations have one.
We have a Seder each year at Passover, attracting over 100 people. We have an Erev Rosh Hashana service, and a Yom Kippur service with a cantor, shofar, and a cello and piano performance of Kol Nidre (on Yom Kippur afternoon, since we have no service the night before), with a moving Memorial service and a closing service. We have a Purim party with costumes, a Megillah reading, and grogers. We have a Hanukkah party with lighting of many khanukiot. We have a children's education program in which we teach Jewish history, holidays, and values, with a little Hebrew, songs, dances, and cooking. We have a Bar/Bat Mitzvah program. We have several Shabbat or Havdalah potlucks at members' homes during the year. Sometimes we have Friday night services. We have a book discussion group, and an adult study group on the first and third Sunday of each month during Sunday school, and a Yiddish class. We have an annual picnic and an annual hike. We have a social action program. We have a musical group which performs and leads us in singing--which we like to do a lot. We create our own services from a variety of sources, Jewish and non-Jewish, traditional and modern. Some of our songs are secular to begin with, such as Hineh ma tov and Shalom khaverim. Others have been adapted, or their words changed to something non-theistic. We also say a non-theistic Sh'ma, kaddish, and b'rukhot. These changes are such that the results feel comfortably familiar and Jewish, but don't force us to say things we don't believe. I think this is what distinguishes us from other secular Jews: we care about our Judaism, want to practice it, have strong ideas about our beliefs, and want to say what we believe and believe what we say.
We're a small movement and growing slowly, not only because we're different and may seem to be more revolutionary than we actually are, but also because of a lack of sufficient funds and personnel to get affiliates started and thriving in a lot of likely places. But we're confident that there is a place for us within Judaisn, that we have an important service to perform in the Jewish community by helping develop, encourage and preserve Jewish identity among Jews who will otherwise leave their Jewish lives behind. As Alan Dershowitz wrote, in The Vanishing American Jew:
The Jewish tent must be open to all who wish to participate in the Jewish dialogue, without litmus tests about belief in the supernatural. There already exists the beginning of such a secular Jewish branch of the menorah. The Society for Humanistic Judaism, which describes itself as "a non-theistic alternative in contemporary Jewish life," has a presence in about twenty [sic] American and a dozen other cities. It offers schools, Sabbath and High Holiday services, bar and bat mitzvahs, and other "life cycle" celebrations. One of its leaders, Yehuda Bauer, is a world-renowned Holocaust scholar. They study the Torah, Talmud, and other Jewish sources in order to understand the beliefs and behavior of their ancestors without feeling compelled to agree with the beliefs of the past. They seek to explore the entire range of Jewish experience, past and present, and to choose what is reasonable and useful. Are such nontheistic Jews authentic Jews? Of course they are. In a diverse Jewish world that has always changed and adapted to new realities, there has to be room for those who wish to explore Judaism from a human-centered perspective.
Jane Goldhamer
Portland, Oregon
1998 Updated 2001