Machar: the Washington Congregation for Secular Humanistic Judaism

This area has event  flyers and event-related documents.

This area is for Jewish Cultural School documents.

The Machar Jewish Cultural School's current curriculum was made possible through grants from from the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington DC Initiative in Congregational Education. It is a product of many teachers' and parents' efforts to create a Secular, Humanistic Jewish educational experience that helps children find and cherish an identity that fits them and their lives.  As a curriculum is meant to be, ours is dynamic and will evolve with the changing needs of our students.

It is our intention that the teaching of Jewish rituals and customs in the classroom will augmented by Machar’s family activity days and other congregational gatherings/services.

Miscellaneous calendars.

Rabbi Binyamin Biber's commentaries provide a fascinating and revealing picture, not only of the rabbi, himself, but also of the values embodied in Secular Humanistic Judaism. Here are links to a sample of his teaching.

Machar newsletters in PDF.

Every year we hold a B'nei Mitzvah ceremony for children ages 12-13 who are completing their Jewish Cultural School studies. For these children, the full preceding year is dedicated to research and group activities in preparation for the B'nei Mitzvah ceremony. Each child presents her/his own researched project (presented as a speech or creative performance) at the ceremony.

Copies of presentations are available in this library section.

Here you will find a selection of Secular Humanistic Jewish holiday ceremonies developed for Machar mainly by Rabbi Binyamin Biber. We believe in creating new liturgy reflecting some of the old, familiar traditions, but in a new way that is free of reference to any supernatural force.

Our ceremonies are secular and humanistic expressions of Jewish values, spiritualities, and folkways. Our focus is on human endeavor, the richness and strength to be found in community and personal relationships, and on working together to improve the world.

The "blessings" / b'rakhot, in our ritual celebrations draw inspiration from close readings of our old texts and rites but also makes use of more recent Jewish expression. The act of "blessing" can be understood as intentionally giving something of ourselves, something of value, and using special signs to demonstrate the significance of the giving such signs as wine and bread, fire and water, music and ceremonial objects. 

Blessings can express our intentions and motivations, our feeling and passion, our "spirit." We may speak poetically of a "spirit" of freedom  of equality, co-operation, or love. Human beings are animals natural, moving beings in a natural world. Thus, we may speak of the "spirit" that moves us, animates us, and inspires us. We intend our ceremonies to move us and inspire us to feel, think, and act in ways that help us actualize our best intentions and highest values.