The Portland, Oregon area where I live has congregations affiliated with ten(!) different Jewish denominations (plus some unaffiliated ones and not counting the Messianic Jews): Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative, Modern or Traditional Orthodoxy, strict Orthodoxy, Chassidic, Sephardic, Crypto-Jewish (their Spanish ancestors converted to Christianity and they're now trying to get back to their Jewish heritage, and actually they have no affiliation but are a specific variety), Jewish Renewal, and Humanistic. It's a rich feast, with a variety of ways of doing Judaism to satisfy a variety of people who find meaning in different ways of expressing their Jewish needs. Jews and Judaism have probably survived for these thousands of years because of an ability to adapt--and there has never been a time when "one size fit all" and there weren't different approaches (at some times more varied than at others, and our freedom of choice, as well as more knowledge, makes our era about the most diverse in history, in the U.S.).

While the vision of Reconstructionism is that Judaism is an expression of the culture of the Jewish people (an view with which Humanistic Jews concur), and that God is something of a metaphor, as a part of that expression; and while Reform Judaism's platforms have been less than explicit in endorsing the supernatural; and while many Jews in many denominations are in different stages of agnosticism or atheism, the liturgy of all denominations uses language that portrays God as a being with human physical and emotional characteristics (hands, ears, heart, love, anger, sorrow, etc.). Such a characterization of a supreme being or power in the universe resembles early man's religious imaginings of gods, just a little larger than humans but not very different except in having awesome power.

Only Humanistic or Secular Judaism (in its two North American varieties) does not use this kind of language in the liturgy for our ceremonies and celebrations. (We don't call them "services," which begs the question of "service to whom" or is short for "worship service.") We recognize and acknowledge that there is no independently verifiable way of proving or disproving the existence of God. We look at human history and see no evidence of an intervening supernatural being who is kind, loving or just--or otherwise. That kind of god would be one with whom people interact and form a personal relationship with, one they can praise and pray to and who may respond. We see a world governed by random natural events, indifferent to the human agenda. Nature behaves randomly, cruel people do cruel things and good people do good things--no god deciding to kill thousands with an earthquake or to afflict some individuals with fatal diseases or accidents, or to reward some nation with victory in war, or to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

Therefore, we do not make any statements which assume the existence OR the non-existence of a god, while being pretty clear that if there is a supernatural power, it's not something that intervenes in human affairs. (Many of the founding fathers of America were deists, holding this kind of god-view. Rabbi Harold Kushner says essentially the same thing in his book, _When Bad Things Happen to Good People_.) And he's a Conservative rabbi. It may be that we differ more in our language than in beliefs!

So we are careful to use language that reflects things upon which we can all agree, whether we're deists, agnostics or atheists. That language deals with ideals for human behavior, the values we think of as "Jewish" (although they were pronounced by the ancient Greeks and we share them with most of the Western world), and appreciation of Jewish history and culture--along with a dash of universalism to offset being too chauvinistic or self-centered, to the exclusion of the rest of our fellow humans.

We thus are able to provide a valuable service to the Jewish community: there are many unaffiliated Jews who have avoided joining Jewish congregations or even their Jewish identities, because they're uncomfortable with the worship services that have been available, but are glad to find their place within Humanistic Judaism. Their Jewish identity is reinforced and that of their children is fostered, through joyous celebrations of Judaism in a way they find believable and meaningful. Humanistic Judaism doesn't appeal to all Jews, certainly, but it is the ONLY viable alternative for some of us, who would otherwise be Unitarians or pagans. We're a good addition to the "Baskin & Robbins" of Judaism, offering another flavor that attracts more Jews. We also welcome without reservation non-Jews who are married to Jews or who choose Judaism.

As to your question, "I don't understand why they have services, temples, seders, etc.--what is done at a Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur service?", the short answer is that we have and do these things because we're a denomination of Judaism. They are part of our heritage, and a bond with all the other Jews over time and space. A second answer is that, stripped of theology, a functional definition of religion is that it performs several important roles: reinforcing and enunciating ethical values, providing a close community, celebrating life cycle events, offering occasions that are inspiring or inspirational (some would say spiritual) and that satisfy affective as well as cognitive needs, and giving us roots in a culture. Humanistic Judaism fulfills these functions. (The remaining function is worship, which we don't do, although we certainly have reverence and appreciation for those things in the temporal world which are worthy of such.)

Holidays in different religions almost always have their origins in practices that pre-dated the religion and became attached to it through the adoption of legends that were created by and pertain to that religion. Obviously this is true of the seasonal holidays; early man marked the changing seasons that were of utmost importance to survival in the primitive world. Christians turned them into Christmas and Easter, Jews adopted celebrations of Hanukkah, Passover, and Sukkot, as well as the High Holidays. So we have two reasons for celebrating such holidays. In Passover, for instance, we can celebrate the arrival of spring and we can celebrate many kinds of journeys from "narrow places" to greater degrees of freedom, using the Exodus legend as a model for all of these journeys, which legend forms a bond between Jews of many stripes. Pesach for us celebrates the human courage and responsibility that moves us from our own bigotry or dependency, and by which we resist and escape political persecution, social stigmatization or oppression such as sexism, racism, ageism and homophobia.

To connect us to our Jewish roots, our Seder has the children chanting the MaNishtana, finding the afikoman, and opening the door for Elijah. There are questions and answers for four types of children, although not the old stereotypes of wicked, etc. and not the same answers. We sing "Eliyahu Hanevi" and "Dayenu" (it would be sufficient if the world were at peace, there were no hunger, etc.). And there is much more that has meaning for our lives today. Not to mention knaidlakh, gefilte fish, and charoset!

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are clearly occasions which prompt us to examine our motives and behavior with a desire to improve them and be better people. We don't use the metaphor of a divine judgment that will inscribe us or not in a book of life, depending on whether our repentance is good enough. WE are responsible. It is incumbent on us to live rightly because life is better that way, not because we were commanded to act in certain ways or fear punishment. Here again, we find the tradition meaningful and important to our Jewish "neshama," and we have lovely, inspiring ceremonies with a cantor, a shofar, the Kol Nidre, and non-theistic adaptations of many blessings and songs. We recite a Sh'ma (Hear, O Israel, our people are one, all humanity is one). We have a non-theistic kaddish, praising life and honoring our deceased. We light Shabbat candles with a humanistic b'rukha (Blessed is the light of the world, blessed is the light of humanity, blessed is the light of peace, blessed is the light of Shabbat).

In short, we honor and appreciate Judaism and its traditions, while not being bound by those traditions to saying things we don't believe. We want to believe fully in what we do say. We respect the right of other Jews to practice their Judaism in ways that are fulfilling to them, and we expect the same consideration from others. We certainly don't have to agree with each other, but we want others to understand where we're coming from. The Jewish world can't afford to exclude those who aren't regarded as "kosher" in some quarters!

Does this help to answer your questions and further your understanding?

B'shalom,
Jane
Kol Shalom Community for Humanistic Judaism, Portland, OR