Sukkot, Summer 1990 OPENING SONG Hinnay Ma Tov How good and how pleasant it is for brothers and sisters to celebrate together. S ’TAV Autumn is here. The days and nights are colder. The leaves are turning brown and gold and red. The sun spends less time with us and darkness arrives earlier than before. […]
Return to Tradition, summer 1992 The return to tradition. Everybody in the Jewish world is talking about it. Secular children have become Lubavitchers. Young, liberal couples are sending their children to day schools. Reform rabbis are donning yarmulkes and waist-length tallises. Lighting Shabbat candles with the children is becoming the rage. “Benching” is again a […]
Tradition and Humanistic Judaism – How Do They Mix? Autumn 1987 For many Jews, Judaism is identified with the literature of the Bible, the Talmud, and the Siddur. This literature is often called “the tradition” and has served as the ideological basis for Orthodoxy for over fifteen hundred years. Can these books, which are so […]
Colloquium 07 – Summer 08 Since the advent of Zionism, the Arab and Muslim worlds have become obsessions in Jewish life. And since September 11, 2001, the world of Islam has become an obsession in American life. Similarly, Jews and Americans take the center stage in the Muslim perception of evil. The demonization of the […]
Reason and Emotion for Humanistic Jews, Autumn 1986 Reason and emotion: Are they compatible? Or are they the polar opposites of the human potential? So often humanists and Humanistic Jews are accused of being coldly rational, of denying the emotional side of the human personality. Our opponents proclaim this dichotomy between the mind and the […]
The Jewish Humanist, May_June 1997, Vol. XXXIII, Number 10 Andre Aciman. Norman Cantor. Sonya Friedman. Three good reasons for coming to the first Birmingham Temple Book Fair. They will be speaking. A new special weekend experience is on the Temple and community calendar. A spring book fair will debut in the very same place where our […]
Humanistic Judaism, Summer, Volume 10, No. 2, 1982 There are many Jewish roots of Jewish humanism. As a non-establishment Jewish tradition, humanism has been embraced by many Jews throughout Jewish history. But not until the age of science and the secular state did Jewish humanists feel free to announce themselves publicly. In the last two […]
Humanistic Judaism, Autumn/Winter, Volume 4, No. 1, 1975-76 In recent years I have encountered a persistent objection to the vocabulary of the Birmingham Temple. Many perceptive and sensitive observers have affirmed the value of the Temple philosophy and program. They readily acknowledge that the group work and fellowship are meaningful experiences. But they encounter with […]
Humanistic Judaism, Autumn, Volume 9, No. 3, 1981 Every community needs leaders. If the leaders must possess expert knowledge they need to be trained leaders. Humanistic Jews need leaders. They also need trained leaders. Up until now we have not dealt directly with the problem of leaders for Humanistic Judaism. We have simply taken advantage […]
Humanistic Judaism, Summer/Autumn 1977 This issue is about Congregation Beth Or. Congregation Beth Or was a reform congregation. It is now a humanistic one. Beth Or is humanistic-because of the special power and integrity of its rabbi, Daniel Friedman-And also because of the unique courage and hutspa of its own members. Beth or is also […]