About Us

Our Beginnings

The Jewish Secular Community of Asheville started with a few like-minded people coming together to celebrate Jewish holidays, share Shabbat dinners in their homes and plan enjoyable, meaningful activities. Soon, through people reaching out to people, new transplants began to express interest in sharing in these experiences. The original members clarified their goals and developed a more formal organizational structure. A new Asheville Jewish community was born as an all-volunteer, non-profit organization.

What We Believe As Secular Humanistic Jews

• Human beings possess the power and responsibility to shape their own lives independent of supernatural authority.
• A Jew is a person who identifies with the history, culture, and future of the Jewish people.
• Jewish identity is best preserved in a free, pluralistic environment.
• The freedom and dignity of the Jewish people must go hand in hand with the freedom and dignity of every human being.

What do Secular Humanistic Jews Do?  

Build Community by addressing the need for cultural, social and emotional support  

• providing members with social and educational experiences to share together
• ensuring that our families-in-need receive meaningful assistance 

Celebrate Holidays and Shabbat by bringing together our Jewish extended family and friends whose shared history and memories make these events more meaningful.

Commit Themselves to Social Justice with work toward “repairing the world” by

• providing hands on experiences, sometimes jointly with other organizations, with projects promoting peace, justice, environmental preservation, and ending poverty and homelessness
  
• demonstrating respect for freedom and the dignity of all human beings.