The 140-member Reform congregation of the Birmingham Temple in suburban Detroit came to the defense today of its rabbi who has proclaimed himself from the pulpit to be an atheist.
Rabbi Sherman T. Wine has also challenged a number of traditional Jewish positions in his sermons. No issue of revoking his ordination for alleged heresy has been raised because Reform Judaism has no such procedures. The congregation is not affiliated with the Union of American Hebrew Congregations or any other Jewish religious grouping.
At a recent “godless” Chanukah Sabbath service, Rabbi Wine, who is 36, declared that Judah Maccabee was not as great a figure as he is portrayed in Jewish history. He said it was “absurd” to believe that “all Greeks were adulterers and murderers and all Jews were good.” He also said that the premise that there would be no morality in the world if it were not for the Jewish-Christian tradition “is for the birds.” He also expressed the belief that the Hellenist, or Greek, Jews of the Maccabean period were “the Reform Jews of their day.”
Mrs. Suzanne Velick. Temple secretary, issued the congregation’s statement in support of Rabbi Wine which asserted that all religions have concerned themselves with the problem of human destiny and have tried to help man understand and control his future. To solve this problem, the statement said, “man needs to know the truth about himself and the world in which he lives. He can best do this through use of the common sense or empirical method.”
“Commonsensical people invite every idea to be tested by the evidence of human experience,” the congregation statement continued. “If the idea passes this test, it is worthy of belief. We at Birmingham Temple are committed to the use of this empirical method in the discovery of essential truth. Like the men of science, our minds are open. There is no belief we are unwilling to alter if the evidence proves us wrong.”
The statement emphasized that the congregations “will also use all customs and ceremonies that can effectively symbolize the values we hold sacred. We want to preserve whatever in Judaism is both rational and humanistic,” it declared.
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