Exodus
to Humanism: Jewish Identify without Religion
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-David Ibry
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The son of a Jewish father and
a mother raised in Catholicism-two people who rejected their inherited
religions and planned to raise a "Jewish nonreligious family"
-- Ibry was born in Israel, where his father had gone to build
a new secular society. But by 1933, his father had died, and the
young boy along with his mother and sister moved to Italy, where
Ibry's Jewish background needed to be hidden. He later returned
to Israel as a soldier.
Based on these life events, Ibry
came to reject the very idea of religion, and he turned to humanism,
in which he envisions a coming together of people born as Jews,
Christians, and Muslims but who reject what he considers the narrowness
of establishment views. Where he differs from Secular Humanistic
Jews is in his apparent rejection of "movements and groups of
humanists with a Jewish background who celebrate the Jewish festivals
with an entirely nonreligious and secular humanistic content."
He goes on: "I wish to suggest that in view of the fact that Christianity
is an offshoot of Judaism, why should humanists with Jewish as
well as Christian background not celebrate together Judeo-Christian
festivals with an entirely nonreligious and secular humanistic
content?"
In the final two chapters of the
book, Ibry acknowledges and quotes those who see no conflict or
danger in maintaining their sense of Jewishness even while rejecting
the religion of Judaism. But he also acknowledges those who feel
Jewish but who anticipate that Jewishness without the religion
of Judaism will not long survive in the Diaspora. So has Ibry
accomplished anything in this slim (143-page) book? The author
himself ends with this thought: "Exodus to Humanism puts
forward some questions about the dilemma of Jewishness in the
modern world and analyzes them in the light of various experiences
and opinions of both prominent and ordinary Jews the world over
and then leaves it to the reader to elaborate answers"
[author's emphasis].
[Notes by Francine Weinberg, a member of
The City
Congregation for Humanistic Judaism, New York City; March
2001]
Amherst,
NY: Prometheus, 1999. ISBN 1-57392-267-6.
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$20.00.
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