Sherwin Theodore Wine was an American rabbi and a founding figure of Humanistic Judaism, a movement that emphasizes Jewish culture and history as sources of Jewish identity rather than belief in any gods.
23 Facts About Sherwin Wine
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Sherwin Wine was originally ordained as a Reform rabbi but later founded the Birmingham Temple, the first congregation of Humanistic Judaism, in 1963.
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In 1969, Wine founded the Society for Humanistic Judaism.
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Sherwin Wine was later a founder of several other Humanistic Jewish organizations, and was the founder of several humanist organizations that are not specifically Jewish as well as the co-founder of Americans for Religious Liberty, which promotes separation of church and state.
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Sherwin Wine was the provost of the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism at the time of his death.
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Sherwin Wine lectured on a wide array of topics after 1976 under the auspices of the Center for New Thinking, which he founded.
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Sherwin Wine was born in Detroit on January 25,1928, the son of immigrant parents from Poland.
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Sherwin Wine attended Detroit public schools with almost completely Jewish student bodies, and his religious upbringing was in Conservative Judaism at Congregation Shaarey Zedek.
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Sherwin Wine's parents kept a kosher home and observed Shabbat.
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Sherwin Wine attended the University of Michigan, earning a BA and later an MA in philosophy.
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Sherwin Wine served in the US Army, becoming a First Lieutenant and later volunteering as a chaplain, after his ordination as a rabbi and served as associate rabbi at the Reform Temple Beth El in Detroit for six months while awaiting induction.
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Sherwin Wine began his service as an Army chaplain in January 1957 and was stationed in Korea.
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In 1963, a disaffected group from Temple Beth El in Detroit contacted Sherwin Wine and asked him to meet with them about forming a new Reform congregation in the northwestern suburbs of Detroit, where the members now lived.
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Sherwin Wine began leading services for the new group, initially eight families, in September 1963 in Farmington Hills, Michigan.
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Sherwin Wine referred to this stance as "ignosticism" rather than atheism or agnosticism.
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Sherwin Wine served as the rabbi of the Birmingham Temple until his retirement in 2003, at which time he began devoting most of his efforts to his work as Dean for North America and Provost of the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism as well as to lecturing on a wide range of topics under the auspices of the Center for New Thinking, which he had founded in 1976.
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In 1982, Sherwin Wine founded the North American Committee for Humanism, a confederation of the six major humanist organizations in North America, and The Humanist Institute, a graduate school in New York for training humanist leaders.
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Sherwin Wine served as President of both of these organizations from 1982 until 1993.
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Sherwin Wine composed a poem that is considered to be the central expression of the outlook of Humanistic Judaism:.
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Sherwin Wine's view has been that criticizing people for marrying whomever they choose is not only unethical but counterproductive to efforts to ensure Jewish continuity.
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Sherwin Wine has been closely affiliated with the non-Jewish Humanist movement.
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Sherwin Wine's Judaism Beyond God is a description of the history and outlook of the Humanistic Judaism movement.
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An openly gay man, Sherwin Wine was a member of Triangle Foundation's Board of Advisors.