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Contemporary Humanistic Judaism
Beliefs, Values, Practices
Adam Chalom (Edited by), Jodi Kornfeld (Edited by)
9780827615649
Paperback / softback, published 1 January 2025
306 pages, 1 appendix, index
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.3 cm, 0.46 kg
Opening up multidimensional ideas, values, and practices of Humanistic Judaism to Jews of all backgrounds and beliefs, Contemporary Humanistic Judaism collects the movement’s most important texts for the first time and answers the oft-raised question, “How can you be Jewish and celebrate Judaism if you don’t believe in God?” with new vision.
Part 1 (“Beliefs and Ethics”) examines core positive beliefs-in human agency, social progress, ethics without supernatural authority, sources of natural transcendence, and Humanistic Jews’ own authority to remake their traditional Jewish inheritance on their own terms “beyond God.” Part 2 (“Identity”) discusses how Humanistic Judaism empowers individuals to self-define as Jews, respects people’s decisions to marry whom they love, and navigates the Israel-Diaspora relationship. Part 3 (“Culture”) describes how the many worlds of Jewish cultural experience-art, music, food, language, heirlooms-ground Jewishness and enable endless exploration. Part 4 (“Jewish Life”) applies humanist philosophy to lived Jewish experience: reimagined creative education (where students choose passages meaningful to them for their bar, bat, or b mitzvah [gender-neutral] celebrations), liturgy, life cycle, and holiday celebrations (where Hanukkah emphasizes the religious freedom to believe as one chooses).
Jewish seekers, educators, and scholars alike will come to appreciate the unique ideologies and lived expressions of Humanistic Judaism.
Preface: Introducing This Volume Part 1. Beliefs and Ethics 1. The Jewish Experience 2. The God Question 3. Positive Humanism 4. Ethics 5. Spirituality Part 2. Identity 6. Jewish Self-Definition 7. Welcoming and Inclusion 8. Israel/Zionism and Diaspora Part 3. Culture 9. Cultural Judaism 10. A Cultural Jewish Canon Part 4. Jewish Life 11. Living Humanistic Judaism 12. Liturgy 13. Life Cycle 14. Education Afterword: Choosing to Live as a Secular Humanistic Jew: Declaration of Eighth Biennial Conference of the International Federation of Secular Humanistic Jews, 2000 Go Forth and Learn
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Judaism beyond God, Torah, and Israel
Introduction
Sherwin Wine, “Jewish History-Our Humanist Perspective” (1985)
Sherwin Wine, “Judaism without God” (1983)
Yaakov Malkin, “God as a Literary Figure” (2007)
Sherwin Wine, “Believing Is Better Than Non-Believing” (1986)
Greg Epstein, “What Is Humanism?” (2009)
Peter Schweitzer, “Purpose” (2022)
Daniel Friedman, “After Halakha, What?” (1996)
Adam Chalom, “Are There Jewish Values?” (2009)
Amos Oz, “Jews Argue with God” (2017)
Denise Handlarski, “Truth and Reconciliation on Race” (2016)
Yaakov Malkin, “What Makes the Secular Need Spirituality” (2003)
Judith Seid, “A Secular Spirituality” (2001)
Terry Toll, “Lighting Candles” (1994)
Humanistic Judaism Facebook Discussion on Ritual Practice (2020)
Introduction
Sherwin Wine, “Kinship” (1985)
International Federation of Secular Humanistic Jews, “Who Is a Jew?” (1988)
Association of Humanistic Rabbis, “Statement on Conversion/Adoption” (2005)
Karen Levy, “Changing Perceptions, Changing Realities” (2002)
Tamara Kolton, “Healing the Jewish People through Pluralism” (2005)
Jeffrey Falick, “Dancing at Two Weddings” (2014)
Miriam Jerris, “Gate Openers: Reaching Out to the Next Generation of Children from Intermarriage” (2017)
Society for Humanistic Judaism, “Radical Inclusion” (2021)
Sherwin Wine, “Being a Secular Humanistic Jew in the Diaspora” (1993)
Shulamit Aloni, “One Hundred Years of Zionism, Fifty Years of Statehood” (2000)
Tzemah Yoreh, “Constructive Conversations about Israel” (2019)
Introduction
Amos Oz, “A Full Cart or an Empty One? Thoughts on Jewish Culture” (1983)
Yehuda Bauer, “Judaism Is . . .” (1995)
Daniel Friedman, “Recovering Our Stories” (1995)
Sivan Malkin Maas, “Cultural Zionism: Reclaiming Convention” (2009)
Julian Levinson, “People of the (Secular) Book: Literary Anthologies and the Making of Jewish Identity in Postwar America” (2009)
Jodi Kornfeld, “Of Course There’s Jewish Art!” (2022)
Jonathan L. Friedmann, “Music by, for, as Humanistic Jews” (2023)
Nathan Englander, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank” (2012)
Etgar Keret, “My Lamented Sister” (2016)
Nicole Krauss, “Adding to the Jewish Story” (2017)
Introduction
Eva Goldfinger, “Is Judaism Worth Preserving?” (1995)
Society for Humanistic Judaism, “Statement of Values” (2021)
Marcia Falk, “Honoring Torah” (1996)
Adam Chalom, “Our Quarterback, Our King: Two Problems with Liberal Theology” (2007)
Adam Chalom, Jodi Kornfeld, Jeremy Kridel, Peter Schweitzer, and Frank Tamburello, “Liturgical Readings” (2019)
Yehuda Amichai, “A Man Doesn’t Have Time” (1986) and “The Waters Cannot Return in Repentance” (1986)
Peter Schweitzer, “The Passover Symbols” (2003)
Leadership Conference of Secular and Humanistic Jews, “Circumcision and Jewish Identity” (2002)
Camila Grunberg, “The Meaning of Life” (2016)
Association of Humanistic Rabbis, “Wedding Ketubah Texts” (1999)
Sherwin Wine, “Sitting Shiva” (1992)
Mitchell Silver, “Treasures of the Legacy” (1998)
Ruth Duskin Feldman, “Jewish Education and the Future” (1991)
Sherwin Wine, “The Torah” (1985)
Denise Handlarski, “The Torah, the Ten Commandments and Us” (2019)
Society for Humanistic Judaism, Curriculum for Children’s Education, “Philosophy” (2013)
Source Acknowledgments
Appendix: American Jews’ Identity and Beliefs
Notes
Bibliography
Index