CLOSE-UF1

WITHOUT GOD

Secular Jews pursue currents of
belief outside the mainstream

DAVID HOLZEL

Staff Writer

I

think my father took us shop-
ping on Rosh Hashanah on pur-
pose, just so we would have some-
thing to do," Betty Schein re-
calls. "As a youngster, I didn't
feel at ease when the holiday times
came. There was no place for me!'
The dilemma was common to
many Jewish families in the early
decades of the century. Synagogue
worship and holiday celebrations
were taboo, according to their socialist
or assimil4tionist beliefs.
And when the pendulum began to
swing back toward an acceptance of
Jewish particularism, the children of
these Yiddish-speaking East Euro-
pean immigrants, like Schein, now
president of the Sholem Aleichem In-
stitute, found themselves without the
general Jewish "skills" to fit comfor-
tably into traditional Jewish institu-
tions, such as the synagogue. To the
grandchildren, traditions seemed
remote or irrelevant.
The answer for some was to drop
out of Jewish life entirely. Others, for
whom the Jewish urge was irresisti-
ble but not the call of synagogue and
prayer, banded together in various
groups and formats, seeking to draw
themselves and like-feeling Jews back
from the abyss of total assimilation
and alienation.
Pursuing what has been called, in
turn, cultural, secular and
Humanistic Judaism, these men and
women have sought to fashion a
Jewish identity disconnected from
traditional rabbinic Judaism, which
defines Judaism as a religion taking
its marching orders from the Deity.
They differ, too, from traditional
Zionists who view Jews as primarily
a nation whose future lies in Israel,
the national homeland. They define
Jews as a people, an ethnic group; not
a religion or nation.
Sholem Aleichem Institute is one
of these secular organizations."Grow-
ing up in Sholem Aleichem made me
feel part of the Jewish community
without the religious background
that I would have to have," Schein
explains.
Three additional local organiza-
tions are pursuing secular alter-
natives: Workmen's Circle, the Birm-
ingham Temple and the Jewish

24

FRIDAY, JANUARY 15, 1988

75 "friends," according to Schein.
Sholem Aleichem Institute has add-
ed seven new names to its member-
ship rolls in the past six months.
"That's good for our sized organiza-
tion," she comments.
But is it enough to propel the
group into the 21st Century? How
much of the membership are young
newcomers? "When you talk young,
you're talking my age," she answers,
laughing, "and that's 60s already."
At Oak Park's Roosevelt Middle
School, the organization offers High
Holiday services — a mixture of
readings and song in Yiddish, Hebrew
and English, which attracted about
500 people this past year — plus other
holiday celebrations, Ongei Shabbat
and an annual art show which, Shein
says, provides the institute with one-
third of its budget.
The decline of Yiddish as a spoken
language is reflected in Sholem
Aleichem's meetings and activities,
which are now conducted primarily in
English. The group continues to have
an all Yiddish Oneg Shabbat series,
but there are fewer and fewer Yiddish
speakers to participate. Schein ad-
mits, "It's a dying thing!'
"Yiddish isn't the binding factor,"
a
cautions Robert Benyas, a past presi-
dent of Sholem Aleichem Institute,
who
doesn't see the organization's
Betty Schein: "Sholem Aleichem made me feel a part of the Jewish community."
demise around the corner. "It's the
Parents Institute. Members of these adapting to American soil. Yiddish family feeling that keeps Sholem
groups contend that they may hold a was so prevalent that it seemed Aleichem going!'
He concedes that young families
significant key to attracting some of perfectly natural to build a Jewish
the 50 percent of American Jews who Diaspora society upon Yiddish who would help perpetuate the
have no communal affiliations. They language and culture rather than on organization are no longer joining. It
was the school, which closed its doors
offer a revolutionary response to in- God and synagogue.
Sholem Aleichem Institute in 1973, which attracted new
termarriage, which studies indicate is
now nearing 50 percent in the U.S. reflected this vitality. Even during members seeking education for their
And they insist on recognition that the Depression years of the 1930s, it children.
most U.S. Jews no longer believe in operated three schools, a youth club,
f you define Judaism as a religion,
a summer camp and was one of three
traditional Judaism.
it's different than if you define it
Detroit's Sholem Aleichem In- partners in a Jewish cultural high
as an ethnic group," comments Ed-
stitute was founded as a school in school. Although founded by people of
1925 by "people who wanted to a socialist and Zionist bent, the win Shifrin of Workmen's Circle's
educate themselves and their organization was, and remains, Michigan District Committee. "I don't
children and to keep Yiddish alive," apolitical. Its preoccupation was the believe in a personal god, but I value
transmission and preservation of Yid- the things Judaism has taught the
says Schein.
Yiddish cultufe was then in its dish culture. On that foundation the world?'
Workmen's Circle, founded in
golden age, with music, literature, institute rose and fell.
The organization today operates 1892, brought together Jewish
poetry and even cinema being created
in its two great centers: Eastern out of two small, book-lined rooms in workers committed to socialism and
Europe and the United States. The Farmington Hills. Membership con- offered , the benefits of a fraternal
language itself was flourishing and sists of 75 families, plus an additional order. Its ideology — radical, anti-

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