The History of Secular Jews — Transcript

Every now and then I open up a newspaper. I don't open up newspapers anymore. I open up the web page for a newspaper or I'm emailed a link to an article, an op-ed piece in the Washington Post or The Huffington Post or the New York Times. And the op-ed writer says, "I'm a Jewish person who isn't really that religious. I don't think I believe in a God. I don't really want to pray to one that I don't believe in, but I still want to celebrate Passover. I still want to find meaning in Yom Kippur. I still want to light Hanukkah candles, so I guess I have to invent my own way to do it from scratch, all by myself." When I hear these articles, uh, hear of these articles, I read these articles, I get three people emailing me the same article. Part of me says, "Yes, another one of us." And part of me says, "Ah, again, again, someone doesn't know how to use Google, can't find us." Why does this happen over and over again? That people think they have to reinvent the wheel, they're the only one out there who thinks this way, who feels this way. Well, it's no longer a big deal to be Jewish and to not be conventionally religious. Eighty percent or more of American Jews do not keep kosher, and a large proportion of American Jews don't even believe in a conventional idea of God. There's just too many of us out there. Everybody knows somebody who fits that category. In 2020, the Pew Religious, uh, sorry, research, the Pew Research Center conducted a study of American Jews, and it found that over one-fifth of American Jews do not believe in the God of the Bible and also do not believe in any kind of higher power or spiritual force. So even if you make it fuzzy, they still don't believe in it. They are a no. And so that's well over a million American Jews who fit that description. So you'd think that secularized Jews could find each other, but the problem is that these individual secularized Jews who might have been raised Reform or Conservative or even Orthodox, they still believe that Judaism has to be religious. Even if a Jewish person can be secular, Judaism needs to be religious. It needs a God. It needs a Torah as a binding source of commandment. It needs prayers and blessings that invoke a God, which if you're secular, you're stuck with because that's what you say. The blessings, maybe they're nostalgia, maybe they're irrelevant, maybe they're even alienating to what you actually believe, but too bad, Judaism is religious. You're stuck with it. And because of that belief, this liberated individual who's no longer personally conventionally religious, they think that they're weird to want to find secular ways to celebrate Judaism. We had someone find our congregation who has had children in high school already. He had married a Catholic woman who wanted to raise the kids Catholic, and they did. He was fine with that, but he himself had always been a secularized Jew, and he found our congregation, and he was so excited. He brought his wife to High Holiday services, and she was disturbed because she thought he was the weirdo, and now here's a room full of people who are saying the things he says and who are celebrating Judaism the way he does. These secularized Jews out there who write these op-eds reinventing the wheel, they don't even know what to Google or how to Google it, what might be out there. They can't even imagine that there were organized Jewish communities of various kinds of secular Judaism over a hundred years ago. They don't even imagine that they could find other people who agree with them today who've already traveled that road and found each other. And so the op-ed writer reinvents the wheel again or finds the least objectionable religious Judaism to conform to or simply leaves behind Judaism altogether for the secular world. And so I say to all of you tonight, both here and online, yasher koach, congratulations, well done. You've found us. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. You don't have to ponder, "What shall I say when I light Hanukkah candles?" There's a whole booklet of options in the lobby and on our website. You can also invent your own. We're happy to empower you to do that too, but you don't have to. Organized Humanistic Judaism started 60 years ago, but you might not realize that Humanistic Judaism itself was built on a foundation of previous secular Jewish experiences, sort of like an archaeological tell where later civilizations build on those that came before. I want to share with you five layers of earlier secular Judaism, and you might find that these help define you or your family's experiences, or they might influence your own approach to your own Judaism. The oldest layer of secular Jews goes back to a few centuries before the year zero, so the last couple centuries BCE. We find in later books written in the Hebrew Bible questioning, challenging. It's often condemned in certain passages. There's a passage in the book of Kings, for example, that says, "The people are terrible who say, 'Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Enjoy this life.' " And oh well, that's it. I actually made that into a t-shirt. That's part of our message: this is the life we have, let's enjoy it. Or in the Book of Proverbs, I believe, "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.'" Well, evidently someone back then was saying that. If they want to call them a fool, so there's the questioning impulse, but there's also even sources that made it into the Bible itself that question. Think of the Book of Ecclesiastes, recently read during the holiday of Sukkot, that wonders, "Do good things really happen to the righteous? Are the wicked really punished? Or is it all the same? And we have to live our best life here and now because who knows what happens after?" Or the Book of Job, which challenges that claim of divine justice and is told in the end, "Who do you think you are?" It doesn't say he's wrong, but it says, "Who are you to challenge the powerful God or the powerful Oz?" Sounds similar. But these made it into the canon, these questions, these challenges. And by the first few centuries of the Common Era, there was a term for that kind of Jew. It was an Epicurean. Epicurus comes from the Greek philosopher Epicurus, and if you read Epicurus, he sounds like us. "Don't worry about the gods. They don't care what happens to you. They live their own existence far away from humanity. This life is the only life we know. Do not worry about an afterlife because when we die, the atoms disperse. The best thing we can do in life is to enjoy each other, to enjoy simple pleasures because those can always be met, and to treasure friendship and the good life." Sounds pretty good. But to the rabbis of that era, it was bad because you weren't following the commandments. You weren't worried about the world to come. And so they called the Jewish heretics who lived that Greek Hellenistic lifestyle Epicureans or Epicureans. They were the heretics of Rabbinic Judaism. The preeminent Epicurean was a man who actually was a rabbi originally. His name was Elisha ben Abuyah, but in Rabbinic literature he became known as Aher, the Other, because they didn't even want to mention his name. The story goes that he would be sitting in the house of study, and when he stood, the Greek books he was hiding in his lap would fall to the ground, revealing the fact that he wasn't actually paying attention to the law being discussed. An anecdote is related that he went into the house of study and he told all the rabbinical students who were there, "What are you doing wasting your time with this? Go out and be a painter, build a house, make something, do something with your life." I know some yeshivas in different parts of the world that could use that message even today. And the most famous story of Elisha ben Abuyah was a day that he was out in a garden and he saw a man violate the Sabbath to steal a bird with its mother's eggs, uh, a bird, I'm sorry, with the eggs of the mother all together, breaking the Torah commandment and get away. And another man waited until the end of Shabbat, climbed up the tree, shed away a mother bird and took only the eggs following the commandment. And on descending from the tree, he was bitten by a po-

York Times and the oped writer says I'm a Jewish person who isn't really that religious I don't think I believe in a God I don't really want to pray to one that I don't believe in but I still want

to celebrate Passover I still want to find meaning in yum Kapur I still want to light Hana candles so I guess I have to invent my own way to do it from scratch all by myself when I hear these article uh hear

of these articles I read these articles I get three people emailing me the same article part of me says yes another one of us and part of me says Ah again again someone doesn't know how to use Google can't find

us why does this happen over and over again that people think they have to reinvent the wheel they're the only one out there who thinks this way who feels this way well it's no longer a big deal to be Jewish and to not be

conventionally religious 80% or more of American Jews do not keep kosher and a large proportion of American Jews don't even believe in a conventional idea of God there's just too many of us out there everybody knows somebody who fits that category in 2020

the Pew religious uh sorry research the Pew Research Center conducted a study of American Jews and it found that over one fifth of American Jews do not believe in the god of the Bible and also do not believe in any kind of higher power or

spiritual Force so even if you make it fuzzy they still don't believe in it they are a no and so that's well over a million American Jews who fit that description so you'd think that secularized Jews could find each

other but the problem is that these individual secularized Jews who might have been raised reformed or conservative or even Orthodox they still believe that Judaism has to be religious even if a Jewish person can be secular Judaism needs to be religious it needs a

god it needs a tor as a binding source of commandment it needs prayers and blessings that invoke a god which if you're secular you're stuck with because that's what you say the blessings maybe they're Nostalgia maybe they're irrelevant maybe

they're even alienating to what you actually believe but too bad Judaism is religious you're stuck with it and because of that belief this liberated individual who's no longer personally conventionally religious they think that they're weird to want to find secular ways to

celebrate Judaism we had someone find our congregation who has had children in high school already he had married a Catholic woman who wanted to raise the kids Catholic and they did he was fine with that but he himself had always been

a secularized Jew and he found our congregation and he was so excited he brought his wife to high holiday services and she was disturbed because she thought he was the weirdo and now here's a room full of people who

are saying the things he says and who are celebrating Judaism the way he does these secularized Jews out there who write these op-eds Reinventing the wheel they don't even know what to Google or how to Google it what might be

out there they can't even imagine that there were organized Jewish communities of various kinds of secular Judaism over a 100 years ago they don't even imagine that they could could find other people who agree with them today who've already traveled

that road and found each other and so the op-ed writer reinvents the wheel again or finds the least objectionable religious Judaism to conform to or simply leaves behind Judaism altogether for the secular world and so I say to all of you tonight

both here and online yasher koah congratulations well done you've found us you don't have to reinv vent the wheel you don't have to ponder what shall I say when I light hanuka candles there's a whole booklet of options in

the lobby and on our website you can also invent your own we're happy to empower you to do that too but you don't have to organized humanistic Judaism started 60 years ago but you might not realize that humanistic Judaism itself was built

on a foundation of previous secular Jewish experiences sort of like an archaeological tell where later civiliz ations build on those that came before I want to share with you five layers of earlier secular Judaism and you might find that these help Define you or your

family's experiences or they might influence your own approach to your own Judaism the oldest layer of secular Jews goes back to a few centuries before the year zero so the last couple centuries BCE we find in later books written in

the Hebrew Bible questioning chall chenging it's often condemned in certain passages uh there's a passage in the book of Kings for example that says um the the people are terrible who say let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die

enjoy this life and oh well that's it I actually made that into a t-shirt that's part of our message this is the life we have let's enjoy it or in the Book of Proverbs I believe the fool has said in his heart there is

no God well evidently someone back then was saying that if they want to call them a fool so there's the questioning impulse but there's also even sources that made it into the Bible itself that question think of the Book of Ecclesiastes

recently read during the holiday of sukot that wonders do good things really happen to the righteous are the wicked really punished or is it all the same and we have to live our best life here and now because who knows what happens

after or the Book of Job which challenges that claim of divine Justice and is told in the end who do you think you are doesn't say he's wrong but it says who are you to challenge the powerful God or the powerful Oz sounds

similar but these made it into the Canon these questions these challenges and by the first few centuries of the Common Era there was a term for that kind of Jew it was an opic chorus aporus comes from the Greek philosopher epicurus and

if you read epicurus he sounds like us don't worry about the gods they don't care what happens to you they live their own existence far away from Humanity this life is the only life we know do not worry about an afterlife because

when we die the atoms disperse the best thing we can do in life is to enjoy each other to enjoy Simple Pleasures because those can always be met and to treasure friendship and the good life sounds pretty good but to the rabbis of that

era it was bad because you weren't following the Commandments you weren't worried about the world to come and so they called the Jewish Heretics who lived that Greek helenistic lifestyle aorus or appic Corum they were the Heretics of rinic

Judaism the preeminent aorus was a man who actually was a rabbi originally his name was Alicia Ben ofuya but in rinic literature he became known as air the other because they didn't even want to mention his name The Story Goes that he

would be sitting in the house of study and when he stood the Greek books he was hiding in his lap would fall to the ground revealing the fact that he wasn't actually paying attention to the law being discussed an anecdote is related

that he went into the house of study and he told all the Rabin students who were there what are you doing wasting your time with this go out and be a painter build a house make something do something with your life I know some

yeshivas in different parts of the world that could use that message even today and the most famous story of Alicia Ben ofuya was a day that he was out in a garden and he saw a man violate the Sabbath to steal a bird with its

mother's eggs uh a bird I'm sorry with the eggs of the mother all together breaking the Torah commandment and get away and another man waited until the end of Shabbat climbed up the tree shed away a mother bird and took only the

eggs following the commandment and on descending from the tree he was bitten by a poisonous snake and he died immediately after the Commandment to she away the motherb bird and only take the exit says in the Torah do this

and you will live a long life you will be rewarded and Alicia saw this incident and he said where is this man's long life where is his reward and in the retelling of the story supposedly he said de there is no judge and there is

no justice the challenge of job right but going one step further to say not just there is no justice but maybe there is no judge what happened to these helenistic Jews those who were attracted to this Greek philosophy some of them became

subsumed under rinic Judaism they found their way back into the mainstream some of them became the ancestors of what was called the romaniote community which dates back to Roman times but was a prominent community in Greek and Italian

territories until the Holocaust and some of them ultimately became Christians because after all when saulpaul went around to preach he went to synagogues and he was preaching to Jews but mostly helenistic Jews there's even Echoes of this period in modern

Jewish practice today do you remember what you eat at the end of the Seder the last thing to have it's called the afikoman but the afikoman comes from a Greek word EP comos which means what you eat at the end of the meal or dessert

there are little clues of Greek thought and culture that made their way into the talwood into Jewish sources and so the influence of the epicurus uh Trend and the aicuris Jews continues now between the early rinic period and modern times we have a second

layer this is what I would call The Rebel now Sherwin wine who was my Rabbi one of the founders of humanistic Judaism would try to claim an underground tradition that there were always skeptical Jews who secretly passed on their teachings or uh you know

disagreed with the rinic consensus all along I don't find a lot of evidence for that in the sources we might want there to be that but that doesn't mean there is something there but what there was instead was a kind of domesticated

skepticism where you can find passages in the talmood where rabbis argue with God or rabbis challenge some of the consensus opinions because doesn't make sense to them and so they're not fully secular but they're secular is they're they're on the way you have in the 9th

century a man named kiwi albal who lived in Central Asia who questioned the Bible so powerfully that the preeminent Rabbi of his day sya goon had to write a rebuttal we don't actually have kiwi's book we have the rebuttal but it lets us

know that he was there in the 12th century in Italy an author wrote a book called The Voice of the fool where the fool criticizes the mangor claims of rabic Judaism so effectively that you begin to wonder whether the author

really meant it and didn't mean that he was as foolish as he claimed and most famously in the 1650s baru Spinosa was expelled from the Amsterdam Jewish Community for sharing his truth about God Israel and the Torah for him God was

the universe not a personality who intervene Israel was the nation of Israel when it lived in the land and after it was gone that's not a basis for an ongoing identity and for him the Torah was the law that the Israelites

give gave themselves when they lived in their own kingdom and when they were no longer there they had no basis for law so with no law and no Israel as a state and no personal God Spinosa was beyond

the pale and was expelled from the Jewish Community there were some of these Rebels who repented and returned Orel D Costa for example in the same era of Spinosa was forced to recant and return and there were others who left Judaism

behind Solomon mman wrote an autobiography detailing his grappling with Jewish faith or hinr H the famous German poet left his Judaism behind as he said he wasn't any more religious as a Christian than he was as a Jew but his

conversion was his passport to European culture some will debate whether my Mones was one of these rebels in the closet some would say yes some would say no well as we can say you have your monties I have my

monties now in the premodern period to be Jewish was to be part of an ethn religion it was a peoplehood it was a set of religious beliefs and those were one and the same there was no line between the two but with the dawn of

Enlightenment Scientific Revolution the 19th century and the opportunity to be a citizen now what does it mean to be Jewish if you can be a German citizen an American citizen potentially a Russian citizen well now there are many ways to be

Jewish as you experience democracy integration in Western Europe and and the Americas and a rising ethnic nationalism with less chances for freedom in Eastern Europe the enlightenment the Romantic Movement and its response the scientific and Industrial revolutions Mass migration

all impacted Jewish ideas and identities this is the period of the birth of reformed Judaism and then Orthodox Judaism responding to reform saying you've gone too far and then conservative Judaism finding a place in between Orthodox and reform it was also the period of a birth

of of myriad of varieties of secular Judaism and I'll share with you just three the first was a universalism many secular Jews in the 19th and early 20th centuries worked for a global proletarian Revolution most Jews in that period were

not doctors and accountants they were working in factories they were part of the working class and communism at the time was anti- anti-Semitism and so they found uh fellow Travelers in that movement it was a movement that promised a Utopia a kind

of secular messianism but of course it was also anti-religion remember Mark said religion was the opiate of the masses and so if you were a secular Jew who was in the working class and was inclined to support a Glo Global proletarian

Revolution who wanted to be part of a bigger team than just Jewish workers I can be part of the workers of the world then I might join an organization called the international workers order or the international workers of the world in

fact the international workers order was organized by language sections and the Yiddish language section was by far the largest of any of the language sections in the international workers order and probably plenty of the people who listed themselves as speaking Russian or

English also were Jewish so Jews were a predominant part of this movement because they were leading the Vanguard of international identity of a kind of cosmopolitanism remember to be a Cosmopolitan is to be a citizen of the world Cosmos and police you are

connected to every human being a famous revolutionary Rosa Luxembourg wrote I have no special room in my heart for Jewish suffering my suffering is with any suffering people anywhere in the world that's the Cosmopolitan the Universalist they might have

acknowledged a Jewish background Jewish birth Jewish family but in the end they were part of this world culture if you saw the movie Oppenheimer you saw a little bit of a peak into a world called ethical culture ethical culture was a

movement founded by a former reformed Rabbi named Felix Adler who wanted this Universal culture of ethics and progress and Cosmopolitan identity so that was one idea one possibility for secular Jews a second one was to connect to that

ethnic nation in diaspora the vast majority of Jews in the late 19th century lived outside of Israel and their experience of being Jewish included their persecution as Jewish people not by their beliefs not by what they ate especially in Eastern

Europe where the bulk of Jews in Europe lived they were an ethnic group with their own language their own customs their own schools their own communities and they demanded respect for that identity and some autonomy the right to

run their own Affairs the ideology of these diaspora nationalists they sometimes use the Yiddish phrase doite doite means heess do is here we're here in this country we speak the Yiddish language and so we want to adapt and

adopt and shift our government's approach to acknowledge our national ity and our right to be a part of this just as Lithuanian nationalists and polish nationalists and Ukrainian nationalists want the right to use their language and have respect for their

culture often these diaspora nationalists were socialists just like the Communists but they wanted to maintain an active and a future Jewish identity when the first socialist Jewish schools were formed in America they debated do we want to just make

socialists or can we teach them Jewish history can we teach them yish language can we teach him to celebrate Jewish holidays because after all we want to make Jewish socialists not just socialist socialists if you've heard of the Bund

in in Europe or the Workman circle now worker Circle in America these were an expression of this kind of diaspora nationalism or the historian shumov was another example less socialist more Bourgeois in the end these secular Jewish communities and schools had to

choose what was relevant from Jewish culture there was a vici ious debate over what Bible stories to include because after all they agreed religion is the opiate of the masses but if you want to be literate in Jewish culture

you've got to read the Bible and there's a lot of God in there so what do we do my mother grew up in one of these communities and in that community's Passover hagata it described how Moses parted the Red Sea it's news to me if

you read the Bible it isn't Moses that Parts the sea it's God but if you make Moses the magician then it's not God it's the story but it shifted a bit they even debated which holidays do we celebrate some were an Easy Choice

Passover for socialists easy right workers Rebellion Stick it to the bosses works out very well porum that worked well right undermine the uh despotic Authority Hanukah rebel against the outside Powers all good yam Kapur atonement fasting probably not sim Torah no sh no

Mayday yes and different communities debated there was even I love this line in the discussion that was printed about this they wanted to celebrate the Russian Revolution but they couldn't decide which one do they do it in March do they do it

in November do they do it in October do they do it in November depending on the count it was was a big debate and it split communities over which Russian Revolution they really wanted to celebrate but they were celebrating

Jewish holidays too they were creating a secular Jewish identity for the next generation and the third option was a nationalism but a nationalism that included a political Nation today we call this Zionism remember in the 19th century there was a lot of nationalist fervor in

Europe it led to World War I unfortunately but you had this principle that came out of the Versa treaty called Ethnic self-determination National self-determination if you have a distinct language a distinct culture a distinct religion a distinct identity

then an ethnic Nation could demand some kind of political sovereignty instead of being forced to live under a multi-ethnic Empire like the Russian Empire with all of its ethnicities or the austr Hungarian Empire with all of its ethnicities or the Ottoman Empire

with all of its territories the Jews who became involved in early Zionism were not waiting for a messiah to bring them back to Israel one of their early slogans was House of Jacob let's get up and go don't wait move the kabut movement was

started on action and on a secular and practical Zionism let's move let's set our roots in the land literally and let's create the new Judaism and the new Jew they used to say to build the land and to be built by

building the land it will change us not just the territory these were largely secular Jews who made new communities new holiday celebrations new ritual symbols and a reinterpretation of tradition they created a public space celebration of Purim not in the

synagogue but in the street a festival called adlo yadada from the line that you should drink so much you can't tell the difference between morai and hmon AD Lo until you cannot know the difference they made it a

Festival it's like the Jewish Halloween because everyone gets in their costumes and goes out in public and has street fairs and juggling it that's something new it's a new interpretation of the old Festival those kibuts reinterpreted Shavuot originally Shava

was a Harvest Festival for the summer but it had become the Harvest of the Torah and it was all about Torah Torah Torah and now again it was about fruits and harvest from the kibud one of their most famous songs of

the Guardian organization they called hasher the Guardians was based on a line from the Psalms that says the guardian of Israel the sh Israel neither Slumbers nor sleeps now in the Torah sorry in the Book of Psalms it was about God but in

the song of the early Zionist it was about the people the Guardians who do not Slumber and who do not sleep now the peak of these secular options the secular zionists the secular Yiddish diaspora nationalist the internationalists was before World War

II you had political parties in Poland for both the Zionist and the Bund who won seats in the Polish parliament in 1935 secular Jewish schools in America enrolled 20,000 students 10% of all the young Jews getting a Jewish Education

were doing it in some variety of secular Jewish Community there was even a famous example in Upstate New York where there were three summer camps around the same Lake one was called Camp Kinderland and that was the international workers order

Universalist socialist Camp they sang the international in yish when they raised a red flag in the morning the second group was Camp Kinder velt that was the um Bund or the Workman Circle Camp they sang the Bund Anthem dhua in

Yiddish when they lifted the Bund flag in the morning and the third Camp was uh I'm sorry Kinder ring was the um you had Kinder I'm trying to keep them straight there's three of them there's Kinder Lon Kinder velt and Kinder ring so Kinder

Lon was the international socialist Kinder ring was the Workman Circle because it was the Arbiter ring in Yiddish and kindervelt was the labor Zionist camp and there they sang haika in yish and in Hebrew when they lifted the Zionist flag in the morning they

were on other sides of the lake they would not talk to each other how dare you deal with those other people but they were all varieties of secular Jewish Community what happened to them those 20,000 students in those schools well

there are many factors for the decline of these secular Jewish Alternatives first of all they were very attached to yish language many of them and after World War II the closing of immigration to America even before that the

integration to America by generation yish didn't last it faded a second weakness was many of them were attached to social social ISM and leftist politics and as you may know the late 40s early 50s was not a good time

to be connected to socialist politics in America also the late 40s and 50s were actually a good time for economic development Jews became more affluent they did start becoming doctors and accountants they earned more money they had a house with two cars in the suburbs

who wants a socialist Revolution when you have two cars in your house in the suburbs they also moved out to Suburbia and when you're not living in a dense ethnic neighborhood where everyone's speaking iish and everyone is connected

to Jewish community in that way you're out in the suburbs and what are the Jewish institutions people join they might join a JCC parallel to a YMCA but they'll also join a synagogue because that was respectable it was the Eisenhower era

where Eisenhower supposedly said I don't care what kind of God you believe in as long as you believe in something the Communists were the atheists and anybody who was ER was was suspicious and so you joined a synagogue

might also be that you married someone who was more religious than you and the secular person said okay I'll acques we'll do something more religious I went to a release party for a book on the history of secular Yiddish

camps it was held at a synagogue and skoki the audience was full it was a jam-packed room many of them were younger people who had brought their parents who were in their 70s and 80s who had been part of the world of

secular Jewish camping and what was amazing was the the book was printed with a CD of music from these camps and they started playing one of the songs that was common to many of these varieties of secular Jewish camps

it was called a fire around the fire a room in fire M singing leader around the fire we sing songs they played it and everyone started singing in the room they probably hadn't sung those songs in 40 or 50 years but it was part of who

they were and in the Q&A afterward I asked the author I said what happened to all these secular Jews and she said well you know the McCarthy era did a lot but many of them simply acclimated to the broader

accepted model of Jewish Community which in the 50 6070s was join a synagogue in the suburbs and so they did in the end of course when humanistic Judaism started in 1963 and 1964 some of each each of those options

were still around there were still Workman Circle schools and shom Alum institute schools but they were not as robust and they were beginning to show their age there was a need for something new and what humanistic Judaism did was

it combined the strengths of a religious community having professional leadership having a full Jewish holiday calendar not grappling over what to do about yum Kapur having a full life cycle not saying if you want to Bar Mitzvah go

find a rabbi we could do it ourselves answering the big question of life with philosophy and not just make it up make up your own mind and what a humanistic Jewish Community could do is take those traditional elements and fill

them with the relevance and meaning of a secular approach to life the empowerment of a positive humanist philosophy a creative approach to Jewish culture and the creativity of a secular Jew standing in a humanistic synagogue and saying all

of Judaism is mine also because it was made by the Jewish people it's all mine to choose from now I do have a hope my hope is that in the future this will be less uncommon 15 years ago this happened for

the first time a couple found me to officiate at their wedding because they were shopping for cbas online and they found a kba that was labeled humanistic and they thought wow I really like this I wonder if there are

humanistic communities or they had the buzzword the Google search term and they found us they found me we've had Generations married by humanistic rabbis and by humanistic ceremonial efficients we've had generations of people educated in our communities it's easier than ever to

find us from anywhere in the world I recently did a wedding for a couple who's if you do the math three4 Jewish one of the partners had a Jewish parent and a non-jewish parent the other had two Jewish parents they're from New

York City they had roots in Chicago but hadn't lived here for many years but instead of writing an oped in The Huffington Post saying how are we going to celebrate our wedding we're secular but we're very Jewish and we want to

include things they found us they found me and they said that's us this is who we are we enjoyed a beautiful humanistic Jewish wedding celebration where they wrote their own vows and they created new seven blessings that their friends

offered to them we included breaking of the glass and aopa and other Traditions that were valuable to them it was a marvelous connection of the personal the Jewish the secular and the inspirational another generation from now I hope an apped will start the same

way I'm a secular Jew I was raised more religious I'm not sure how I'm going to celebrate Hanukkah this year and then I Googled and look what I found