Humanism

In my first year in Urim I felt the lack of a source of inspiration.
When later I moved to the city to work with a youth group this feeling was intensified.
I felt that Socialism could be such a source, but it was old hat for many. I did not want to turn to Judaism because all three major divisions worshipped a false God.

10 years before, Time magazine had on it's cover the "Death of God". I wrote to the Library of Congress (U.S.).  It is known as one of the largest libraries.
I asked them if there were religions that did not worship gods.
They recommended that I  contact the Quakers and the Unitarian Universalists. I asked both of them to send me their ideas to read. I learned a lot from both of them.

I asked both of them if I, as a Jew, could join them. The Quakers said that their followers are all Chistians and therefore this would not be appropriate.
The UU agreed

I learned that the UU had two parts. One accepted Jesus as a divine being and the other did not worship any god.
After one of their leaders wrote an article why we shouldn't believe in a "God" I applied to join.
UU has a saying which I like - There is no problem getting along with someone with whom you agree. How do you get along with someone with whom you don't agree ?

From their newsletter I learned about Humanist groups.
Humanism is different than humanitarianism. The latter is part of all the religions and means caring for humans and taking care of them. Of course Humanists are also humanitarianists, but there is something more.

Humanists maintain that only humanity is responsible for all our problems and that we can't rely on a deity to be responsible.   Like everything else there are different kinds of Humanists
(as there are different kinds of Zionists).
One of the divisions is based on the question of whether Humanism can be a religion or only secular.

In the literature I found Humanistic Judaism, and I became the Israeli representative of the U.S. organization. That's where most of their Temples exist.

One day I received a telephone call from Professor Katz who visited them. He asked me if there was anything in Israel.  I told him that a lawyer (Glaizer) and I were working on a statement in order to form a group. We were both members of the Israeli Secullar Humanist group and wanted to have one that related to Judaism.
Professor Katz asked if he could join us.
I told him that at present the coast was clear, that if he wanted he could take the ball and run.
Btw. Shlamit Aloni was in contact with them. I didn't discuss this with her.

Humanistic Judaism exists now in Israel, and they have trained a number of "Rabbis" (including women).  They perform weddings and Barei Mitzvot. One of them came to lead Kabbalot Shabat in my kibbutz (Kfar HaMaccabi).

My youngest son and I organized his bar mitzvah with no mention of any god.
The portion of the week was about speaking evil about people (lashon hara). There is plenty to say about that.