Humanistic Judaism: Encyclopedia II - Humanistic Judaism - Principles of belief and practice

Humanistic Judaism - Principles of belief and practice

In some ways, the principles of belief of Humanistic Judaism are similar to those of many within Reconstructionist Judaism, with its emphasis on retaining Jewish identity while accepting a scientific, materialist worldview and a Dewey-like ethical outlook. However, Humanistic Judaism presents a far more radical departure from traditional Jewish religion than Mordecai Kaplan ever envisioned. Kaplan redefined “God” and other traditional religious terms so as to make them consistent with the materialist outlook, and 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.

Humanistic Judaism was developed as a possible solution to the problem of retaining Jewish identity and continuity among non-religious, secular North American Jews at a time when other organizational forms of secular Jewish identity were fading, including Jewish cultural nationalism, Yiddishism, and various forms of Zionism. 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, for example, Reform temples, but which expressed a purely Secular Humanistic viewpoint. The International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism, which is sponsored by the Society for Humanistic Judaism, the Congress of Secular Jewish Organizations, and the Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring, trains rabbis and other leaders in the United States and in Israel.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Principles of belief and practice", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki