Sherwin Theodore Wine (January 25, 1928–July 21, 2007) was a rabbi and a founding figure in Humanistic Judaism. Originally ordained a Reform Jewish rabbi, Wine founded the Birmingham Temple, the first Humanistic Jewish congregation in 1963, in Birmingham, Michigan, outside Detroit (the temple later relocated to its current location in Farmington Hills, Michigan).

In 1969 Wine founded the Society for Humanistic Judaism. He later was a founder of several other organizations related to Humanistic Judaism, a humanist movement within Judaism that emphasizes secular Jewish culture and Jewish history rather than belief in God as sources of Jewish identity. Wine was also the founder of several humanist organizations that are not specifically Jewish, such as the Humanist Institute and the International Association of Humanist Educators, Counselors, and Leaders, as well as the co-founder of Americans for Religious Liberty, which promotes separation of church and state. Wine was the provost of the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism at the time of his death.

The following quotes appeared on the program for a memorial service for Rabbi Wine at the Congregation for Humanistic Judaism in Sarasota, Florida, and was compiled by Rabbi Tamara Kolton of the Birmington Temple in Michigan.


Believing is better than non-believing (This is a reference to CHJ’s belief in human beings.)

It’s not easy these days to be a Humanistic Jew.

The joy is in the climbing.

“I don’t know.” Is a brave and dignified answer, especially when it’s true.

Death is real; death is an intrusion.

We are here today because our ancestors did not lose hope.

You have to fight gravity.

Shabbat was still Shabbat, even in Timbuktu.

Self-respect is never a gift; it is always an achievement.

Youth is not so much a condition of the body as it is a state of the mind.

Family and friendship are like the air we breathe, we cannot really live without them.

After 2,000 years of undeserved persecution and murder, the appropriate response to all this misery is not “Thank you.”; it is “Oy gevalt!”

We stand alone, and yet together, to create the world we want.

Underneath the different color, underneath the different speech, underneath the different costume, every person is a human being.

Never lose your cool; no matter what they say to you, just smile and say “Thank you.”

If the Jewish people cried, they also danced.

People are their behavior, not their words.

Sometimes the kindest thing you can say about God is that he doesn’t exist.

Potential unrealized is potential betrayed.

Laughing has always seemed to be more Jewish than praying.