Beth Ami - Our Beliefs and Values

Our Beliefs and Values

Humanistic Jews believe:

Each Jew has the right to create a meaningful Jewish lifestyle free from supernatural authority and imposed tradition.
The goal of life is personal dignity and self-esteem.
The secular roots of Jewish life are as important as the religious ones.

Freedom from supernatural authority
Theistic religions assert that the ultimate source of wisdom and of the power of the solution to human problems is found outside of people - in a supernatural realm. Humanistic philosophy affirms that knowledge and power come from people and from the nature in which they live.

Secular Jewish Roots
Judaism is an ethnic culture. It was not invented by a divine spokesperson. It was created by the Jewish people. It was molded by Jewish experience. Holidays are responses to human events. Ceremonies are celebrations of human development. Music, art and literature are the expressions of human needs.

Society for Humanistic Judaism

Humanistic Judaism’s founding congregation The Birmingham Temple videos

Rabbi Adam Chalom, Dean Of International Institute of SHJ, speaking about Jewish history

Humanistic Jewish values

Truth: Rely on what we know about human experience and needs. Discover new powerful truths about our history and present. Advance ethical and moral goals.

Integrity: Say what we mean and mean what we say. Welcome all who seek connections with Jewish culture and history.

Dignity: Embrace the joy, power, and responsibility to shape our own lives. Our dignity goes hand in hand with the dignity of all peoples.

Reality: Employ reason, observation, experimentation and creativity to address questions and understand experiences in this world.

Judaism: Recognize that the Jewish people created Jewish culture. To be a Jew is to identify with the Jewish people.

— Rabbi Adam Chalom, Dean of the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism

Our History

The first Humanistic Judaism community was established in 1963 when Rabbi Sherwin Wine and several others founded the Birmingham Temple in a suburb of Detroit. In 1969, a North American central organization, the Society for Humanistic Judaism (www.shj.org) was founded to establish and support local affiliates and to provide leadership to the growing movement (which now has 33 communities in the US and Canada). In 1985 the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism was created, to coordinate the various national organizations and to train rabbi and lay leaders for the local communities.

Originally, there were two Humanistic Judaism communities in Colorado: the Colorado Congregation for Humanistic Judaism (CCHJ) was established in Denver in 1991 and Beth Ami was established in Boulder a couple of years later. In the year 2002, with the urging of Rabbi Wine, these two communities were merged into a single community, Beth Ami-CCHJ.

With the establishment of a Jewish Cultural Family School, as well as the addition of two Professional Leaders/Madrikhot, we began offering a full array of programs and services.