Professor Henry Srebrnik

Professor Henry Srebrnik

Friday, February 15, 2019

Humanistic Judaism’s Quest to Retain Jewish Culture


By Henry Srebrnik, [Calgary] Jewish Free Press
 
Humanistic Judaism was founded in 1963 by Rabbi Sherwin Wine. As a rabbi trained in Reform Judaism with a small secular, non-theistic congregation in Michigan, Wine developed a Jewish liturgy that reflected his and his congregation’s philosophical viewpoint by emphasizing Jewish culture, history, and identity along with humanistic ethics, while excluding all references to God. 

This congregation developed into the Birmingham Temple in suburban Detroit. It was soon joined by a previously Reform congregation in Illinois, as well as a group in Westport, Connecticut. 

Wine set up the Society for Humanistic Judaism in 1969 and an International Institute for Secular Judaism in 1985.

The movement, which began with a congregation of eight families is now a presence in forty communities across the United States, claiming forty thousand members, and is also found in Canada, Israel, and other countries.

The first Canadian affiliate was the Oraynu Congregation in Toronto, founded in 1969. Eva Goldfinger, its spiritual leader, told the Canadian Jewish News in 2001 that the secular emphasis on personal responsibility can lead to a stronger, more committed Judaism.

The Calgary Community for Humanistic Judaism meets in the city’s southwest.

In an interview with Toronto writer Bill Gladstone in the Globe and Mail in 1999, Rabbi Wine stated that “The Judaism of the ancient world is not the Judaism of the modern world. Judaism adapts itself to new environments. It’s more accurate to view Judaism as a culture, because a culture can accommodate a wide variety of belief systems.”

Humanistic Judaism offers cultural and secular Jews a nontheistic alternative in contemporary Jewish life. It defines Judaism as the cultural and historical experience of the Jewish people yet retains the structure of theistic religions. 

Humanist Jews define Judaism and Jewishness as a matter of cultural identification and not a matter of birth or conversion. They do not believe in the divine, therefore they do not believe in divine providence or sanction. They assert that men and women are responsible for their own destiny. 

The belief in eternal life is the product of wishful thinking and scientists have found no evidence of life after death. Humanistic Jews find religious beliefs that promise a deliverance from death an insult to human reason.

Humanistic Jews do not see Jews as different or better than other peoples or the nation of Israel as a favourite nation in the eyes of God. Neither do they accept the idea that He performed many miracles in order to preserve and promote the good of the Jewish nation.

Nevertheless, they do encourage a positive response towards Israel and its right to survive.

The philosophy of Humanistic Judaism is inclusive and celebrates love wherever it is found. On the basis of this principle their rabbis accept and officiate at ceremonies confirming same-sex commitment. 

Humanistic Jews also see traditional Judaism as an enemy of feminism and abortion as a right that belongs to the woman.

Humanistic Jewish weddings are non-theistic, emphasising the relationship between wife and husband rather than the relationship between a couple and God.

Over the years, Wine created an alternative English and Hebrew liturgy, stripped of references to God. He retained most of the traditional holidays and life cycle as part of their Jewish culture, since they provide a link with Jewish history and a bond with other Jews, but recast them in humanist guise. 

Rosh Hashana affirmed spiritual and natural renewal; Yom Kippur encouraged introspection and self-forgiveness; Pesach celebrated freedom and the political genius of Moses.

Some of the people who influenced Wine’s thinking include Mordecai Kaplan, the founder of the Reconstructionist Jewish movement, who, in describing Judaism as a civilisation, viewed it not only as a form of religion but also as a great source of culture. 

Rabbi Wine, who died in 2007, tried his best not to leave his followers lost in a void. In his 1996 book Judaism Beyond God: A Radical New Way to Be Jewish, he argued that the legitimacy and identity of the Jewish people are not tied to the existence of God.

His earlier book Celebration: A Ceremonial and Philosophic Guide to Humanists and Humanistic Jews, published in 1988, was written to supply a demand within the movement for those who value their Jewish identity but do not want to be linked with conventional religion.

The movement’s challenge remains to engage the many Jews who share its worldview but do not yet recognize the benefit of affiliating with a Jewish community.

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