Sherwin Wine

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Sherwin T. Wine (b. January 25, 1928 in Detroit, Michigan), is the founder of the Society for Humanistic Judaism.

He was educated at the University of Michigan and at Reform Judaism's Hebrew Union College. He founded the Birmingham Temple (the first Humanistic Jewish congregation) in Farmington Hills, Michigan (a suburb of Detroit) in 1963.

Wine is given credit for coining the term Ignosticism, defined as "finding the question of God's existence meaningless because it has no verifiable consequences." The American Humanist Association named him Humanist of the Year for 2003.

He is part of a small group of secular and non-theistic Jews who hold that cultural expressions of Judaism are a viable approach to modern Jewish identity and believe that such groups should be accepted on a par with theistic Judaism.

The Birmingham Temple Bar/Bat Mitzvah experience is rather unique. The Jewish boy or girl picks a hero in Judaism with whom he or she connects and writes a rather lengthy paper which is ultimately given to the congregation. The Mitzvah boy or girl works with a mentor (senior member at the temple) in studying many different heroes before finally choosing one to write the paper on. The paper highlights important contributions the individual makes/made in his or her life to humanity, and why and how the hero was humanistic. While most Bar Mitzvah services do not include applause, since the Bar or Bat Mitzvah is assumed to be participating in prayer with the congregation rather than delivering a performance to the congregation, at the Birmingham Temple there is usually a round of applause in recognition of a job well done.