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Humanist of the Year Sherwin Wine Mourned

The Humanist movement lost a visionary this weekend. Rabbi Sherwin T. Wine, the creator of Humanistic Judaism and the 2003 Humanist of the Year, was killed Saturday, July 21, in a car crash while vacationing in Morocco. He was 79.

Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association said:

“[Rabbi Wine] taught that values such as reason and compassion were humanity’s saving grace, not adherence to religious dogma. He knew that we must live our one and only lives to the fullest, and do as much good as possible in the limited time we have on this earth.”

Rabbi Wine founded several humanist organizations, such as the Center for New Thinking, the Society for Humanistic Judaism, the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism, and the Humanist Institute. In addition, he lectured and debated frequently, taking on such fundies as Jerry Falwell and Meir Kahane. He will be deeply missed, but his legacy will live on.

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This entry was posted by Karen on July 23, 2007 at 4:21 pm and is filed under AHA In The News. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
  • http://arlinc.org Edd Doerr

    Sherwin Wine, whom I knew well for over 30 years, was one of the finest humanists ever. His contributions cannot all be listed, but among them are writer and philosopher of great depth, founder of the Humanistic Jewish movement, and co-founder of Americans for Religious Liberty. He will be sorely missed