Humanistic Judaism ( ''Yahadut Humanistit'') is a
Jewish movement that offers a
nontheistic
Nontheism or non-theism is a range of both religious and nonreligious attitudes characterized by the absence of espoused belief in the existence of god or gods. Nontheism has generally been used to describe apathy or silence towards the subject o ...
alternative to contemporary branches of
Judaism
Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...
. It defines Judaism as the
cultural
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human Society, societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, and habits of the ...
and
historical
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
experience of the
Jewish people
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
rather than a religion,
and encourages Jews who are
humanistic
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "humani ...
and
secular
Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...
to celebrate
their identity by participating in
relevant holidays and rites of passage (such as
weddings
A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage vo ...
and
bar/bat mitzvahs) with inspirational ceremonies that go beyond traditional literature while still drawing upon it.
Origins
In its current form, Humanistic Judaism was founded in either 1963 or 1965 (sources differ)
by American rabbi
Sherwin Wine
Sherwin Theodore Wine (January 25, 1928 – July 21, 2007), Hebrew name שמעון בן צבי, Shimon ben Tzvi, was an American rabbi and a founding figure of Humanistic Judaism, a movement that emphasizes Jewish culture and history as sou ...
.
As a rabbi trained in
Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism, also known as Liberal Judaism or Progressive Judaism, is a major Jewish denomination that emphasizes the evolving nature of Judaism, the superiority of its ethical aspects to its ceremonial ones, and belief in a continuous searc ...
with a small,
secular
Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...
, 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
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "humani ...
outlooks while excluding all prayers and references to a god of any kind. This congregation developed into the
Birmingham Temple
The Congregation for Humanistic Judaism of Metro Detroit (founded as The Birmingham Temple) was the first Humanistic Jewish congregation.
As being part of the Humanistic Judaism movement, the congregation observes holidays, traditions and ritual ...
in
Farmington Hills, Michigan
Farmington Hills is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. Part of the affluent suburbs northwest of Detroit, Farmington Hills is the second most-populated city in Oakland County, after Troy, with a population of 83,986 at the 20 ...
. It was soon joined by a previously Reform congregation in
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
and a group in
Westport, Connecticut
Westport is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, along the Long Island Sound within Connecticut's Gold Coast. It is northeast of New York City. The town had a population of 27,141 according to the 2020 U.S. Census.
History
...
.
In 1969, all three congregations were organizationally united with other groups under the umbrella of the
Society for Humanistic Judaism
The Society for Humanistic Judaism (SHJ), founded by Rabbi Sherwin Wine in 1969, is an American 501(c)(3) organization and the central body of Humanistic Judaism, a philosophy that combines a non-theistic and humanistic outlook with the celebratio ...
(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.
As of 2020, the
Pew Research Center
The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan American think tank (referring to itself as a "fact tank") based in Washington, D.C.
It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the w ...
estimated that Humanistic Judaism, along with
Reconstructionism and other smaller denominations, constituted 4% of the United States's 7.5 million Jews.
The
International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism The International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism (IISHJ) is the academic and intellectual center of Humanistic Judaism. It was established in Jerusalem in 1985 and, with its second center of activity based in Farmington Hills, Michigan. Th ...
(IISHJ), founded in 1986, is the academic and intellectual center of Humanistic Judaism. It currently has two centers of activity: the original in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
and another in
Lincolnshire, Illinois
Lincolnshire is a village in Vernon Township, Lake County, in the U.S. state of Illinois. The village is a northern suburb of Chicago. Per the 2020 census, the population was 7,940. Lincolnshire was incorporated on August 5, 1957, from the uni ...
. 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.
Principles of belief and practice
According to the SHJ,
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
Mordecai Menahem Kaplan (born Mottel Kaplan; June 11, 1881 – November 8, 1983), was a Lithuanian-born American rabbi, writer, Jewish educator, professor, theologian, philosopher, activist, and religious leader who founded the Reconstructionist ...
, the co-founder of
Reconstructionist Judaism
Reconstructionist Judaism is a Jewish movement that views Judaism as a progressively evolving civilization rather than a religion, based on concepts developed by Mordecai Kaplan (1881–1983). The movement originated as a semi-organized stream wi ...
, 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
Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical storie ...
,
Rosh Hashanah
Rosh HaShanah ( he, רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה, , literally "head of the year") is the Jewish New Year. The biblical name for this holiday is Yom Teruah (, , lit. "day of shouting/blasting") It is the first of the Jewish High Holy Days (, , " ...
,
Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur (; he, יוֹם כִּפּוּר, , , ) is the holiest day in Judaism and Samaritanism. It occurs annually on the 10th of Tishrei, the first month of the Hebrew calendar. Primarily centered on atonement and repentance, the day's ...
, and other Jewish holidays and festivals, often with reinterpretation of the meaning of the holiday to bring it into conformity with
secular humanistic philosophy.
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
*
Hillelism
Homaranismo ( en, Humanitism) is a philosophy developed by L. L. Zamenhof, who laid the foundations of the Esperanto language. Based largely on the teachings of Hillel the Elder, Zamenhof originally called it ''Hillelism''. He sought to reform Ju ...
*
History of the Jews in Metro Detroit
Jews have been living in Metro Detroit since it was first founded, and have been prominent in all parts of life in the city. The city has a rich Jewish history, but the Jewish community has also seen tensions and faced anti-Jewish backlash. Today ...
* ''
Jews and Buddhism
''Jews and Buddhism: Belief Amended, Faith Revealed'' (1999) is a documentary narrated by Sharon Stone that compiles interviews and archival footage of prominent Jewish, Buddhist, and Jewish-Buddhist personalities—including the Dalai Lama, Dav ...
''
*
Jewish Buddhists
A Jewish Buddhist is a person with a Jewish background who practices forms of Dhyanam Buddhist meditation, chanting or spirituality. When the individual practices a particular religion, it may be both Judaism and Buddhism. However, in many ca ...
*
Jewish secularism
Jewish secularism refers to secularism in a Jewish context, denoting the definition of Jewish identity with little or no attention given to its religious aspects. The concept of Jewish secularism first arose in the late 19th century, with its ...
*
List of Jewish atheists and agnostics
This page lists well-known Jewish atheism, Jewish atheists. Based on Jewish law's emphasis on matrilineal descent, religiously conservative Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox Jewish authorities would accept an atheist born to a Jewish mother as Who is ...
*
Reconstructionist Judaism
Reconstructionist Judaism is a Jewish movement that views Judaism as a progressively evolving civilization rather than a religion, based on concepts developed by Mordecai Kaplan (1881–1983). The movement originated as a semi-organized stream wi ...
*
Secular humanism
Secular humanism is a philosophy, belief system or life stance that embraces human reason, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, and superstition as the basis of morality an ...
*
Felix Adler
References
External links
Society for Humanistic JudaismInternational Institute for Secular Humanistic JudaismAssociation of Humanistic RabbisBBC - Religions - Judaism: Humanistic JudaismInternational Federation for Secular & Humanistic JudaismLeadership Conference of Secular and Humanistic JewsIsrael program of International Institute for Secular Humanistic JudaismPortal of Jewish Secular Rites in IsraelThe City Congregation for Humanistic Judaism - New York CityScholasticism and Humanism in Classical Islam and the Christian WestJewish and humanist: secular Jews who helped shape the humanist movement in Britain
{{Jews and Judaism
Secular Jewish culture
Judaism, Humanistic
Secular humanism