Shalom and welcome to the website of the Association of Humanistic Rabbis.
This is the place where you can find all types of information about Secular Humanistic Judaism in general and Humanistic Rabbis in particular.
One of the most frequently asked questions that we receive is, “If you are non-theistic, why do you call yourselves rabbis?” Well, the fact is that our education covers the same areas of any other liberal Jewish denomination and we receive the same pastoral training. Several of our members were, in fact, ordained by older rabbinical schools. As a new movement, we have only recently established our own school for training rabbis, educators and other leaders within our philosophy. The International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism was established in 1985 and since then we have had our own path to rabbinical and other leadership roles.
So much for our credentials! But it still begs the question about why we call ourselves rabbis? We certainly don’t pretend to any special authority based upon access to divine texts. This would not be in keeping with our humanistic philosophy. We do have a certain kind of “authority” that anyone can achieve that comes with education and access to resources. This alone would be sufficient to retain the title “rabbi.” We also want to be part of the larger Jewish world where leaders who have our educational and training background are still called “rabbi.”
The word “rabbi” is, of course, the English version of the Hebrew “rah-bee” or “rav” which simply means “master,” as in someone who masters an area of learning. This ancient/modern word is the heritage of the whole people of Israel.
–Rabbi Jeffrey Falick, Miami Beach, Florida, USA