Bennett Muraskin on Humanistic Judaism
Audio here!
Unlike Christianity and Islam, Judaism was founded – at least according to some – on the notion that we must always question religious authority and “wrestle” with God when philosophizing about our behavior and actions in this world. Judaism was/is, therefore, supposed to be more about making this world better and not about the afterlife.
Indeed, much social progress has been either a direct or indirect result of persons who came from Jewish backgrounds – often secular one, of course – such as Fraud, Marx and Miller. Though we are today, still, sadly, witnessing the regressive nature of Judaism – that Judaism which bases its social political ideologies on religion – secular Jews, in particularly humanistic Jews, are still among the progressive ranks.
What is humanistic Judaism? Why has Judaism led to so many progressive movements? Who were/are the progressive Jews. These are some of the questions we will ask of Mr. Muraskin. But also, we will ask him about how such Jews fare in separating the clearly regressive and conservative writings of the Old Testament, and the persistence of supernatural ideas of Jewish culture, with a progressive world view?