Many if not most Jews today navigate life through a humanistic worldview, even though many if not most have never heard the word “humanist” before!
For millennia, it was dangerous to admit you don’t believe as the dominant religion demands. Even today, there are many nations where blasphemy is a crime, in some countries punishable by death.
Baruch Spinoza was excommunicated from his Dutch Jewish community in 1656 for challenging the conventional view of God. During the Red Scare of the 20th Century, “atheist” became synonymous with “communist,” and in 1956 the U.S. changed its national motto from “Out of Many, One” to “In God We Trust”—literally discarding atheist Americans, and those of other non-Abrahamic faiths, for perceived unity.
Today, non-theists are still underrepresented but we are a growing minority. It is imperative that more people can engage on the key social issues from an openly humanistic perspective.
SHJ celebrates those who help promote secular humanistic Jewish values through our “Sherwin T. Wine Lifetime Achievement Award,” named for our movement’s founding rabbi. We also maintain national and international Affiliations with organizations in both the Jewish and secular organizing world, and sister organizations within the Humanistic Judaism movement.
The posts below track how Humanistic Judaism informs positive change in the world—the ideas, the people, and the communities making news in the movement.
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