It defines Judaism as the cultural and historical experience of the Jewish people rather than a religion, and encourages Jews who are humanistic and secular to celebrate their identity by participating in relevant holidays and rites of passage (such as weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs) with inspirational ceremonies that go beyond traditional literature while still drawing upon it.
[1][2] In its current form, Humanistic Judaism was founded in either 1963[1] or 1965[2] (sources differ) by American Rabbi Sherwin Wine.
[1][3][4] As a rabbi trained in Reform Judaism with a small, secular, non-theistic congregation, he developed a Jewish liturgy that reflected his and his congregation's philosophical viewpoints by combining Jewish culture, history, and identity with humanistic outlooks while excluding all prayers and references to a god of any kind.
[5] As of 2020, the Pew Research Center estimated that Humanistic Judaism, along with Reconstructionism and other smaller denominations, constituted 4% of the United States's 7.5 million Jews.
[10] Humanistic Judaism was developed as a possible answer to the problem of retaining Jewish identity and continuity among non-religious Jews.