Colloquium 2009: Challenging Convention: Secular and Humanist and Jew

Colloquium ’09 sought to explore the many identities of the Secular Humanistic Jew, all of which challenge popular conventions. We seek a public square without invocations and nations not “under God.” We challenge conventional wisdom, looking for meaning and community in this world, not beyond. We challenge universalist secular conventions, insisting on our particular Jewishness. And we challenge Jewish convention in Israel and North America, asking questions and celebrating realities that others fear.

You will be able to read more about Colloquium ’09, including synopses of the major speakers, in the forthcoming printed volume Challenging Convention: Secular and Humanist and Jew (IISHJ/Milan Press).

Video for each Colloquium presentation and the following panel discussion is now available on the IISHJ YouTube channel. Click here to see the complete playlist, or on each title for that specific video.

Panel Discussion

Rabbi Adam Chalom

Rabbi Adam Chalom -Explores the Interplay of Multiple Identities
Rabbi of Kol Hadash Humanistic Congregation in suburban Chicago and Dean for North America of the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism.

Jacques Berlinerblau – A Manifesto for a New Secular Judaism
Associate professor and director of the Program for Jewish Civilization at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. Author of The Secular Bible: Why Nonbelievers Must Take Religion Seriously.

Lori Lipman Brown – Who are Secular Americans? Why Must We Have a Voice?
Founding director of the Secular Coalition of America, former Nevada state legislator. To see the panel’s response to this presentation, click here.

Ron Aronson – Who are Secular Americans? Why Must We Have a Voice?
Distinguished Professor of the History of Ideas at Wayne State University, author of Living Without God: New Directions for Atheists, Agnostics, Secularists, and the Undecided. To see the panel’s response to this presentation, click here.

Ron Aronson – Building Humanism: Purpose, Compassion and Community Without God
Distinguished Professor of the History of Ideas at Wayne State University, author of Living Without God: New Directions for Atheists, Agnostics, Secularists, and the Undecided. To see the panel’s response to this presentation, click here.

Rabbi Greg Epstein – Building Humanism: Purpose, Compassion and Community Without God
Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University, author of Good Without God: What a Billion Non-Religious People do Believe. To see the panel’s response to this presentation, click here.

Caryn Aviv – The New Jewish Diversity
Posen Lecturer in Secular Jewish Culture at the University of Denver’s Center for Judaic Studies, and academic director of the Certificate in Jewish Communal Service at DU’s Graduate School of Social Work. She also serves as Director of Research with Jewish Mosaic: The National Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity. Co-editor/writer of New Jews: The End of Diaspora. To see the panel’s response to this presentation, click here.

Rabbi Sivan Malkin Maas – Challenging Judaism in Israel
Dean of Tmura-IISHJ in Israel, training Secular Humanistic rabbis, and director of The Secular Library, publishing works on Judaism as Culture. To see the panel’s response to this presentation, click here.

Rabbi Adam Chalom – Where Do We Go From Here?
Rabbi of Kol Hadash Humanistic Congregation in suburban Chicago and Dean for North America of the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism.

Challenging Our Conventions
A panel of Leaders and Rabbis in Secular Humanistic Judaism explore challenging questions related to movement philosophy and organization.