ROUND UP
Step Forward
For Secularists
Staff Report
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In what's being called a
step forward for Jewish secu-
lar identity, an Ann Arbor
Jewish woman has been cer-
tified to conduct weddings ac-
cording to Michigan state
law.
Judith Seid, director of
Ann Arbor's Jewish Cultural
Society and a long-time
teacher in or director of
Jewish secular schools, re-
ceived the certification after
being named a vegveiser
(Yiddish) or madrichah (He-
brew) — instructor — by the
Leadership Conference of
Secular and Humanistic
Jews. Seid and Leonard Cher-
lin of New York, president of
the Society for Humanistic
Judaism, are the only two
persons in the U.S. to hold
such a designation.
According to Miriam Jerris,
executive director of the
Society for Humanistic
Judaism, Seid's appointment
"is a very big step forward.
Secular Jews now have an
identity. We exist, we have a
Jewish identity. We don't
have to go to a justice of the
peace or to the religious
community" for marriage
ceremonies.
What it means for Seid,
Jerris said, is that it "recog-
nizes that a body of people
feel she's skilled and capable
of being a secular Jewish
leader."
Seid earned a master's de-
gree in Jewish communal
service at Hebrew Union Col-
lege. While living in the De-
troit area she was a member
of the Jewish Parents Insti-
tute, a secular Jewish educa-
tional body. She is the author
of Secularist Ritual and Cele-
bration and has written a
curriculum for the education
of Jewish adults.
Among the wedding cere-
monies she will perform in
her new role is that of her
youngest sister..
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Vol. XCI No. 10
4
Friday, May 1, 1987
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
May 1, 1987
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