renewal 521
1973 in Greenwich Village and now the largest gay and lesbian syna-
gogue in the United States, reveal how complicated it is to bring such a
congregation together, but also how synagogue practices have evolved
to reflect both Jewish and gay values, despite the great variety of types
of Judaism (and indeed gay identities) within its membership.^9
The self- conscious assertion by those who describe themselves as
‘queer Jews’ of a right to innovate in order to give Judaism its place in
the modern western world does not go as far as those North American
Jews who, since the 1960s, have sought to create a Judaism without
God. Humanistic Jews, whose worldview is based on the autonomous
human rather than the divine, seek like other humanists to use reason as
the basis of ethics but also gather in communities to cultivate Jewish
languages, study Jewish culture and celebrate Jewish holidays and life-
cycle events, sometimes under the leadership of a guide or rabbi. The
International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism has provided
training since 1986, and a series of guides for appropriate ceremonies in
the liturgy were devised by Sherwin Wine, originally ordained as a Reform
rabbi but, from 1963, when the first Humanistic Judaism congregation
was founded in Michigan, dedicated to a Judaism without God:
Humanistic Jews have two important identities. They are Jews, part of the
Jewish people, members of an ancient kinship group, bound together by a
social destiny with all other Jews. They are also connected to all other
humanists whatever their kinship attachments and whatever their ethnic ori-
gin. For some humanistic Jews, their Jewish identity is the strongest emotional
bond. For other humanistic Jews, their intellectual and moral commitment to
humanism is more powerful than their tie to their Jewishness. Both groups
value their Jewish identity – but in varying degrees. Humanistic Judaism has
room for both commitments. Humanistic Jews share a Jewish agenda with
other Jews. Holidays, Israel, anti- Semitism, and the study of Jewish history
are some of the items on this list of common activity.Wine insisted that Humanistic Judaism is a positive creed:
It is very important never to allow others to define you publicly in terms
of their own attachments. Humanists not only do not believe in biblical
creation; they do believe in evolution. They not only do not believe in the
efficacy of prayer; they do believe in the power of human effort and
responsibility. They not only do not believe in the reality of the supernatu-
ral; they do believe in the natural origin of all experiences ... Believers tell
people first what they believe, not what they do not believe.