Sarasota News Leader

02/01/2013

Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/107047

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 75 of 95

Sarasota News Leader February 1, 2013 Page 76 THE HISTORY OF THE SOCIETY "It's another level of chutzpah to edit someone FOR HUMANISTIC JUDAISM (SHJ) who's written a survey history of the Jews of Chalom's lecture at The Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee on Jan. 17 served as an introduction to the SHJ and the life and works of its founder, Rabbi Sherwin T. Wine, who established the organization in 1969. Of particular focus was Wine's final book, A Provocative People: A Secular History of the Jews, which, though not finished at the time of Wine's passing in 2007, was published in June 2012 after Chalom edited it and wrote an introduction for it. "Initially I was a bit trepidatious to tackle it," Chalom told the audience, describing his reaction when the manuscript found its way to his desk. "After all, it takes a certain amount of chutzpah to write a survey history of the Jews of all times and places," he said, eliciting chuckles from the crowd for his use of the Yiddish word for "audacity." all times and places." In examining the book, Chalom — who had been taught, bar mitzvahed, confirmed, ordained and married by Wine — offered a brief overview of Wine's life leading up to the establishment of SHJ. He discussed Wine's traditional Jewish upbringing, extensive education in philosophy, training and ordination as a Rabbi and the formation of a philosophical viewpoint that would lay the foundation for the organization's teachings. "Sherwin Wine took the pursuit of truth very seriously — truth in philosophy, truth in science, truth in the history of his people," Chalom said. "He ultimately found his calling, even though there was no one really on the other end of the phone, in the early 1960s," Chalom continued, "when he formed the Bir- Rabbi Sherwin T. Wine's A Provocative People: A Secular History of the Jews, was published posthumously last year. The introduction, which Rabbi Adam Chalom wrote, describes the book as 'arguably Wine's magnum opus, the culmination of half a century of reading, writing and teaching on Jewish history and its meanings.'

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Sarasota News Leader - 02/01/2013