Mission and Core Principles

Society for Humanistic Judaism Mission Statement

The Society for Humanistic Judaism mobilizes people to celebrate Jewish identity and culture consistent with a humanistic philosophy of life independent of a supernatural authority. As the central body for the Humanistic Jewish Movement in North America, the Society assists in organizing and supporting congregations and in providing a worldwide voice for its members.

Core Principles of the Society for Humanistic Judaism

• We affirm our identity as members of the Jewish People. We draw strength from the history, culture, and achievement of our people. We see Jewish history as testimony to the continuing struggle for human dignity and, like the history of other peoples, as a product of human decisions and actions.
• We demonstrate our bond to the Jewish people through humanistic celebrations of Jewish holidays and life-cycle events. We create and use non-theistic Jewish rituals, services, and celebrations that invoke the ethical core of Jewish history, literature, and culture. Our aim is to foster a positive Jewish identity, intellectual integrity, and ethical behavior among celebrants.
• We affirm the value of study and discussion of Jewish and universal human issues. We rely on such sources as reason, observation experimentation, creativity, and artistic expression to address questions about the world and in seeking to understand our experiences.
• We seek solutions to human conflicts that respect the freedom, dignity, and self-esteem of every human being. We make ethical decisions based on our assessment of the consequences of our actions.
• We believe that it is human beings who have the responsibility for solving human problems. We are committed, in the enduring Jewish tradition of support for social action and social progress, to community service and actions for social justice. We each take responsibility for our own behavior, and all of us take collective responsibility for the state of our world.

We are committed to passing these values on to present and future generations through education and by our example.

— October 8, 1999