In Search of Identity and Spirituality in the Fiction of American Jewish Female Authors at the Turn of the 21st Century. Dorota Mihulka
all Jews to its views by means of rational argument, whereas the latter turns its back on reason and favors intimacy and mystique” (2002: 80).
The concept ‘secular Judaism’ has two meanings. The first meaning denotes the extensive body of culture and creative work produced by secular Jews over the past 250 years, whereas the second one refers to the section of the Jewish people who do not feel bound by any observance of religious commandments. Despite the fact that ‘secular or cultural Jews’ have chosen to abandon the religious way of life, they have not rejected their Jewish identity or their attachment to the Jewish people. Jewish secularism has its roots in the Haskalah (the Jewish Enlightenment) and Emancipation, the secular nationalism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the democratic revolution of modern times, and the Holocaust experience, all of which have taught secular Jews to value pluralism, ethics, and human responsibility (cf. Lange, 2002: 80; Gordan, 2011: 341).
Humanistic Judaism emerged in Detroit, Michigan, in 1963, as a name for Jewish secularism, with its own ideology, an intellectual underpinning for a secular Jewish identity,26 and an organized structure. Established by Rabbi Sherwin Wine, Humanistic Judaism deliberately avoids theological-religious terms and instead maintains that Judaism is an ethnic culture created by the Jewish people and shaped by the Jewish experience. Jews are defined as those who identify with the history, culture, and future of the Jewish people. Humanistic Judaism’s worldview centers around the autonomous human and not a God figure, as a result of which God-language and worship are regarded as inappropriate to a humanistic style of life. In secular Judaism, as Yaakov Malkin points out the Biblical God is perceived as “a literary figure” and hence [individuals] […] “bear exclusive responsibility for their actions, laws, and moral values.” Moreover, secular humanistic Jews believe in the universality of moral values which guarantee human rights, equality, and personal freedom. Secular Jews see themselves as committed to the struggle against any kind of discrimination, whether it is economic, social, or spiritual one, within their own and in other cultures (2005: 111–112).
The fact that secularism has a long tradition in Jewish life in the United States seems to be confirmed by the results of The Pew Research Center 2013 Survey of U.S. Jews, which suggest that Jewish identity is changing in America, where 22 percent of Jews now describe themselves as having no religion (commonly ←57 | 58→called Jews of no religion, or secular/cultural Jews). Moreover, when asked a question about Jewish identity: ‘What is more important in being Jewish: ancestry/culture or religion?’ 62 percent of all U.S. Jews (regardless of denomination) admit that being Jewish is mainly a matter of ancestry and culture, while just 15 percent say it is mainly a matter of religion (“A Portrait of Jewish Americans,” 2013: 7–10).
Although there is scarce data concerning gender distribution within Humanistic Judaism, the analysis of the documents and resolutions available on the official website of the Society for Humanistic Judaism (SHJ) indicates that this movement is fully committed to egalitarianism with respect to gender and gender identification, Jewish status, and sexual orientation. Humanistic Judaism ordains both men and women as rabbis, and its first rabbi was a woman, Tamara Kolton ordained in 1999, who today however, identifies with the Jewish Renewal and Reform movements (Falick, 2014: 9). The Society for Humanistic Judaism passionately supports full rights for women, including the right to terminate pregnancy in accordance with women’s own ethical standards (“Society for Humanistic Judaism Says Reproductive Choice Is a Fundamental Right,” 1996). Not only does the SHJ approve of intermarriage, but in 2004 it also issued a resolution supporting “the legal recognition of marriage and divorce between adults of the same sex,” affirming “the value of marriage between any two committed adults with the sense of obligations, responsibilities, and consequences thereof” (“Society for Humanistic Judaism Supports Marriage Rights of Same-Sex Couples,” 2004). On the whole, Humanistic Jews believe that gender equality is the cardinal principle which should be the basis of human behavior among all nations around the world, but at the same time they are fully aware that much more progress still needs to be made both in North America and around the world to ensure full equality between men and women (“Society for Humanistic Judaism Supports August 26 as Women’s Equality Day and Condemns Gender Discrimination,” 2013).
Humanistic Judaism holds much in common with Reconstructionist Judaism, with its emphasis on retaining Jewish identity while accepting a scientific worldview and a humanistic ethical outlook. However, Humanistic Judaism is more radical than Reconstructionism in the sense that it departs further from traditional Judaism by developing and performing non-theistic, secular rituals and ceremonies. Indeed, nowadays a large number of secular Jews take part in Jewish cultural activities, such as the celebrations of Jewish holidays as historical and nature festivals, filled with new content and form, or life-cycle events in a secular fashion. (cf. Gordan, 2011: 341; Lange, 2002: 81–82; Malkin, 2005: 107).
At the opposite end of the spectrum there is a plethora of smaller groups that have abandoned the larger, uninspiring, spiritually empty organizations in pursuit of an authentic religious experience turning to various denominations within the Jewish tradition. All of these groups can be subsumed under one movement within contemporary non-Orthodox American Judaism, namely Jewish Renewal Movement which emphasizes intense personal spirituality, mysticism, serious and creative text study, and social justice. This is how the movement is defined by its members themselves:
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Jewish Renewal is a trans-denominational approach to revitalizing Judaism. We combine the socially progressive values of egalitarianism, the joy of Hasidism, the informed do-it-yourself spirit of the havurah movement, and the accumulated wisdom of centuries of tradition. […] We create innovative, accessible, and welcoming prayer experiences. We shape halacha (Jewish law) into a living way of walking in the world. And we seek to deepen the ongoing, joyful, and fundamental connection, with a God Who connects us all, which is at the heart of Jewish practice. […] (“ALEPH. What is Jewish Renewal? Mission and Vision”)
As Jeffrey K. Salkin notes in his article “New Age Judaisms: Contemporary Expressions of Judaism,” Jewish Renewal emerged in the 1980s and 1990s, “as a result of Judaism’s encounter with the American counter-culture and as a reaction to an American Judaism that had become, in the view of many, stultified and in need of renewal” (2005: 1256). Jewish Renewal can be regarded as a successor to the havurah movement, which promoted small, mostly non-synagogue-based worship and study communities and minyanim (‘alternative communal prayer groups’). The first havurah was founded in Somerville, Massachusetts in 1968, and others were soon established, frequently in university towns. They devised forms of worship and spiritual fellowship with great freedom, and generally with an emphasis on equality of the sexes. So successful was the havurah movement that it was partially adopted by the religious establishment, with Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist synagogues setting up their own havurot (‘religious fellowship groups’) not only for worship but for study or for social purposes (Lange, 2002: 82–83; Salkin, 2011: 342).
Like Hasidism before it, Jewish Renewal reclaimed the spiritual heritage of the Kabbalah, and indeed Hasidic wisdom itself became a major source of spiritual renewal for this movement.27 Apart from that, Jewish Renewal draws heavily from rabbinic teachings, interests in mysticism, and the healing potential of prayer, combining them with the insights of contemporary feminism, psychology, and ecology. Jewish Renewal also emphasizes an intimate, creative, and participatory involvement of its followers, in which each participant becomes an active worshipper. Therefore, it is not surprising, as Jeffrey K. Salkin remarks that, “Jewish Renewal’s unique worship style embraces the use of ‘New Age’ techniques, such as chant, meditation, and even yoga, as well as new artistic expressions, in its efforts to create a modern intensity in worship” (2011: 342).28
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The second-wave feminism has had a lasting and significant effect on the whole Jewish spectrum in the United States, from Orthodox to more liberal Jewish denominations, including Jewish Renewal. Indeed, as Dr. Arthur Waskow, director of the Shalom Center affiliated with ALEPH (the umbrella organization for a network of Jewish Renewal communities) puts it, “I can’t imagine Jewish Renewal in the last thirty years without the full involvement of women in Jewish life. […] Jewish Renewal and feminist Judaism are very deeply intertwined”