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- 03 I