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Membership
Members meet for Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk at Sherwood Island State Park.
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Community Service
As a member of local community and religious groups whose goals and values we share, we volunteer where help is needed.
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Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur
The shofar is heard at CHJ Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur Family Services.
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Social Justice
After Charlotttesville
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Tu B’Shvat
Celebrating nature at the Tu B’Shvat seder is a joyous event filled with music and good food.
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We’re a Cooperative!
Members all play a role in making the congregation work. Read about how CHJ is organized.
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Teen Tzedakah Group
Teen Tzedakah Group shows off backpacks ready for Mercy Center school kids.
Tu B’Shvat 2022
Tu B’Shvat seder of 2022 will take place virtually on Zoom, due to the pandemic. It is even more important to gather and feed our spirits through connection even if only virtually. Guitarist Adam Feder will once again lead the singing and the joyful service celebrating nature and reminding us of the threats to its continuity by… Read More
Shabbat & Adult Education Continue on ZOOM!
For the almost two years since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, CHJ has never let our programs lapse. Zoom stepped in to keep us connected, with celebrations of Shabbat right through the summer and our Adult Ed programs offering another opportunity to listen, learn and discuss topics relevant to Humanistic Judaism. Read more about… Read More
Invitation to Join
Families are the future of CHJ. Our inclusive, warm, welcoming Congregation includes families of all stripes coming together to celebrate Judaism and being Jewish. From Baby Naming to Sunday School to Bar & Bat Mitzvah to the Teen Tzedakah Group to Adult Ed, you’ll find a community for families and kids of all ages. Humanistic… Read More
Letter from the President
There is a good chance that you are here because you are seeking to learn more about the Congregation for Humanistic Judaism (CHJ) and about Humanistic Judaism. This site is designed to provide you with that introduction. By navigating on the menu bar at the top of the page you will find a wealth of information.
CHJ is affiliated with the Society for Humanistic Judaism (shj.org) and is part of a movement that celebrates Jewish culture and heritage through a non-theistic, human-centered approach. Our membership reflects a diverse group of people who have enriched our community by collectively representing many different personal and professional backgrounds.
CHJ is very affordable. Membership for a two-adult household is only $450 per year. For a one-adult household it is $300 per year. After a successful initial pilot program, CHJ has continued to offer a 50% reduction for the first year of membership. This means that first year membership is now only $225 for a two-adult household and $150 for a single-adult household. We want to make “trying CHJ on for size” as easy and as affordable for you as possible.
Thank you for visiting our website and please look around. I encourage you to ask questions or obtain additional information by emailing us at info@humanisticjews.org or by calling 203-293-8867. We would be very happy to assist you.
If you have already decided to join simply click onto the Membership Form page to complete and submit your form.
With Kind Regards,
President
Upcoming Events
Like the trees, we too need strong and deep roots for nourishment.
Share in the social and spiritual sustenance as together
we honor “The New Year of the Trees.”
Saturday, January 22, 2021
6:00 – 7:15 p.m.
Please join us as we celebrate the Earth’s abundance with a family-friendly seder accompanied by the exuberant and talented song leader, Adam Feder, live from NYC.
This event is free and open to the public. 
TO REGISTER: Email events@HumanisticJews.org with your first and last name and town of residence. Zoom link will be provided a few days ahead of the event.
MEMBERS: Please register by Jan. 8 to reserve your Seder ceremonial food gift bag (includes: nuts, dried fruit, apples and more). First come first served. One bag per family unit. Available while supplies last. Pick up at locations near you, to be announced, or request delivery.
CHJ’s Journey to Racial Justice, Part 2 (Relationships)
Friday, January 28, 2022, 7:30PM
Relationships:
Putting a human face on racism, real stories from real people
In this climate of heightened awareness of institutionalized racism, social inequity and white privilege provoking both tensions and interest, story is uniquely positioned to bring people together in an environment of co-respectful telling and listening.
The Ubuntu Storytelling experience fosters a safe space to engage in self-reflection and authentic dialogue. Listeners will hear stories of “being in the skin we’re in as well as stories of simply being.”
Please prepare by viewing:
This event is open only to CHJ members
This is a virtual event: Zoom link will be sent early on Jan. 28
9:30 Shmooze
10:00 Meeting
Join Women’s Rap vis Zoom, to stay connected at a distance. All CHJ women members are welcome. It’s a great way to get to know each other.
The Zoom link will be sent just prior to the meeting date. Please RSVP Roberta Frank if you plan to attend.
All CHJ members are invited to this board meeting. Please contact Ruth Light if you are planning on attending.
All CHJ members are invited to join a discussion of Caste: the Origins of Our Discontents via Zoom
In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings.
. Please let Irene Blumenthal know if you plan to attend..
Join Women’s Rap vis Zoom, to stay connected at a distance. All CHJ women members are welcome. It’s a great way to get to know each other.
The Zoom link will be sent just prior to the meeting date. Please RSVP Roberta Frank if you plan to attend.
All CHJ members are invited to this board meeting. Please contact Ruth Light if you are planning on attending.
All CHJ members are invited to join a discussion of A Play for theEnd of the World by Jai Chakrabarti via Zoom.
The haunted man at the heart of this book is one of the few survivors of a generation, a Polish immigrant in New York who can’t forget the makeshift family that was transported to Treblinka without him. . . . As the novel moves between [America and India] with interludes that return to the Warsaw ghetto, we come to understand Jaryk’s guilt-stricken ‘need to burrow into oblivion’—and to hope that another need will somehow uproot it.” —The New York Times Book Review
. Please let Irene Blumenthal know if you plan to attend..
Join Women’s Rap vis Zoom, to stay connected at a distance. All CHJ women members are welcome. It’s a great way to get to know each other.
The Zoom link will be sent just prior to the meeting date. Please RSVP Roberta Frank if you plan to attend.
All CHJ members are invited to join a discussion of Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell via Zoom. Drawing on Maggie O’Farrell’s long-term fascination with the little-known story behind Shakespeare’s most enigmatic play, HAMNET is a luminous portrait of a marriage, at its heart the loss of a beloved child.
. Please let Irene Blumenthal know if you plan to attend..
All CHJ members are invited to this board meeting. Please contact Ruth Light if you are planning on attending.
Join Women’s Rap vis Zoom, to stay connected at a distance. All CHJ women members are welcome. It’s a great way to get to know each other.
The Zoom link will be sent just prior to the meeting date. Please RSVP Roberta Frank if you plan to attend.
All CHJ members are invited to this board meeting. Please contact Ruth Light if you are planning on attending.
Facebook Activity
CHJ's George Rockmore is quoted in this piece on Tu B'Shvat from Tablet magazine:
www.tabletmag.com/sections/holidays/articles/tu-bshevat-pagan-roots-asherah
Searching for the Roots of the ‘New Year for Trees’
www.tabletmag.com
Some Jews believe Tu B’Shevat grew out of a pagan festivalWhat is Humanistic Judaism??!!!
Humanistic Judaism is:
shj.org/meaning-learning/what-is-humanistic-judaism/
