Religious Deaths in the News (original) (raw)

I read this article too. Rabbi Wine visited the DC area probably a number of times...there is a Humanistic Judaism community here in the DC metropolitan area (two actually)...and my wife and I did go to see him once. Very haimisha guy. He talked a bit about the movement, and how it began. Also, personally, he helped me understand the conditions under which I went to the synagogue I went to, when I grew up. That is...although neither of my parents were orthodox...an orthodox shul was in our vicinity, and it was the culture of the time do adopt the local shul...whatever denomination it was. Rabbi Wine helped me understand that.

Their local group in DC is called Machar. It is attractive, and my wife, who is not Jewish, went to at least one of their programs together with me. Later...inasmuch as I co-chaired our Religious Education committee at the Reform Temple where we ARE members...I went to their Bnei Mitzvah program...where their class of 7 were together Bar & Bat Mitzvahed. The children did dig into projects with depth, and I understand that their children's understanding of Judaism is pretty rich in context. My wife, however, found it somewhat odd for them to, on the one hand, be effectively atheist, and on the other hand...still be cohesive as a Jewish Community. I think that, although philosophically we might be more in tune with Machar than not...the whole gestalt works better for us with Reform...where, as the Humanistic Jews say...the reformers believe as the humanistics do anyway.