This Week

THE FUTURE Is

Metro Detroit's Jewish
assisted living community

Care That
Changes With You

24 hour personal care
assistance in a warm,
Jewish environment
that offers
nutritious Kosher meals
and Jewish programs.

Contact
Marjorie Olson, M.S.W.

at

(248) 386-0303

26051 Lahser
Southfield, MI 48034

ST
TRAX

EVENT PRODUCTIONS

THE GREATEST

n.
INTERACTIVE
ENTERTAINMENT

IN THE COUNTRY!

(AND WE'RE RIGHT IN YOUR BACKYARD)

VIDEO

SPECIAL PRICING FOR
WEDDINGS & BAR MITZVAHS

(248) 263-6300

DETROIT PITTSBURGH • WASHINGTON D.C.
CLEVELAND • INDIANAPOLIS

Now from page 7

find a place within the framework of
the Jewish people.
Many Jews are Humanistic in
thinking, he said, but are attached to
the Conservative or Reform move-
ment and would feel guilty not using
the traditional vocabulary.
"They are cultural Jews," he said.
These people seek him; he doesn't
go out and proselytize. "We're not
invading Reform or Conservatives.
We're serving a constituency that his-
torically was unaffiliated."
Still, some mainstream, traditional
Jews felt threatened by Rabbi Wine's
vision of Judaism. Along the way,
there were attempts at exclusion from
the Jewish community: But now, after
more than 35 years, there's less hostili-
ty and more acceptance. "If you are
successful and survive, it provides
legitimacy," Rabbi Wine said.
"We don't really consider that as an

Get Your
Faucet Fired!

Check out the Plumbers in
our Marketplace
Home and Service
Guide.

4%'•

10/1
1999

'\

10 Detroit Jewish News

alternative or a legitimate mode of
observing our Torah," said Dr.
Mandell Ganchrow, president of the
Orthodox Union in New York.
"Humanism is a universal type of
approach that, in general, deals with
situational ethics and situational
morality. Our Torah deals with a
morality that is God-given, not man-
made, that is unchanged throughout
the ages from Sinai to the present.
Whatever this is, it plays no role in
the Orthodox community or in any
other community that I'm familiar
with."
"Judaism is more than a religion,"
said Rabbi Jerome Epstein, executive
vice president of the United
Synagogue of Conservative Judaism in
New York. But the religion is, in my
mind, an essential component of
Judaism. What they do does not
dilute religion, but I think one cannot

be a full Jew, a complete Jew, without
the religious aspect."
"A belief in God is fundamental to
who we are and to our understanding
of what Jewish tradition has been,"
said Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the
Union of American Hebrew
Congregations, which represents the
Reform movement and is based in
New York City. "Rabbi Wine offers a
different approach."
A number of years ago, the
Congregation of Cincinnati-
Humanistic applied for membership
in the Union, Rabbi Yoffie said. "We
had a full debate with our entire
national board. In essence, while we
wish them well, their way was not our
way, and they really didn't belong in
our movement.
The approach to Secular
Humanistic Judaism is to provide a
very intense education in Jewish histo-

Colloquium
Presenters:

Looking Forward

• Shulamit Aloni: founder of the Israeli
civil rights movement, former Knesset
member and minister in the Israeli gov-
ernment.
• Ze`ev Chaietz: Israeli journalist and
author, columnist for The Jerusalem
Report, commentator on. CNN and
National Public Radio.
• Marcia Falk: Californian creator of a
new Jewish liturgy that includes a femi-
nist perspective, poet, translator and uni-
versity professor.
• Tirzah Firestone: author and rabbi in
the Jewish Renewal movement.
• Yaakov Malkin: founder of the College
for Pluralistic Judaism in Jerusalem,
organizer of Secular Judaism in the
Jewish State, scholar and author.
• Sherwin T. Wine: founder of Secular
Humanistic Judaism, rabbi of
Birmingham Temple, lecturer and author.
• Emanuel
Goldsmith: author
and professor of
Yiddish language,
literature and
Jewish studies at
Queens College,
New York.

Secular Humanistic Judaism movement presents
forum on Jewish identity.

Clockwise:

Don't
Be A Drip!

Colloquium '99

Rabbi Tirzah
Firestone

Shulamit Aloni

Ze'ev Chafetz

SHELLI DORFMAN
Staff Writer

I

s it important for Jews to remain
Jewish? Is the return to tradition
the Jewish answer for non-tradi-
tional Jews? Did the
Enlightenment undermine Jewish faith
and lead to assimilation?
These questions and more, posed by
the International Institute for Secular
Humanistic Judaism under the theme
"The Struggle for a New Jewish
Identity," are complex and thought-pro-
voking, and have no one answer.
The dialogue these questions are
expected to generate has been termed a
colloquium, a biennial gathering of the
Institute's faculty; who are joined by
guest speakers in a public meeting
spread over four days beginning
Thursday, Oct. 7, at the Birmingham
Temple in
Farmington Hills.
With the move-
ment's educational
staff dispersed
throughout the
world, Colloquium
`99 brings them
together with reli-
gious scholars and

leaders to learn from one another and
share views. Organizers expect 300
attendees, with some coming from as
far away as Israel, England and South
America.
Bonnie Cousens, executive director
of the Society for Humanistic Judaism
in Farmington Hills, sees the topic as
one that "appeals to everyone, asking
questions that we all have as Jews.
Although the conference is
Humanistic in sponsorship, "the mod-
ern reaction to a return to Judaism is
something discussed in many; move-
ments," said Marilyn Rowens, executive
director of the Institute. "It is so rele-
vant no with various movements
struggling a with it."
Each speaker will deliver an hour-
long lecture, followed by a panel discus-
sion. A closing dialogue with all
Colloquium participants will include a
question-and-answer period.
"It's a marvelous way to share infor-
mation and upgrade our seminars and,
at the same time, bring the community
a special kind of dialogue typically avail-
able only on a college campus," Rowens
said.
Speakers will include representatives
from the Reform, Reconstructionist,
Renewal, Yiddishist and Zionist move-