A Jewish Home for Conscience, Peoplehood, and Belonging
The Assembly for Open Judaism — Ha-Asifah L’Yahadut HaPetuchah — is a spiritually open, and theologically non-coercive Jewish movement dedicated to the flourishing of Jewish life.
We believe Judaism is more than a set of beliefs. Judaism is the living civilization of the Jewish people: a people, a history, a culture, a memory, a tradition, a family of communities, a body of ritual practice, an ethical inheritance, and a shared destiny carried across generations.
Some Jews believe in God with deep conviction. Some do not believe in God. Some are uncertain. Some understand Jewish religious language symbolically, poetically, culturally, spiritually, historically, or philosophically. At The Assembly for Open Judaism, belief is not the gatekeeper of Jewish belonging.
We do not require theological conformity. We do not require disbelief. We welcome Jews, seekers, converts, interfaith families, cultural Jews, spiritual Jews, traditional Jews, secular Jews, agnostic Jews, and those who simply know that Jewish life still matters to them.
Our purpose is to create a serious, compassionate, learned, ethical, and open Jewish home rooted in peoplehood, freedom of conscience, ritual meaning, cultural continuity, and human dignity.
Who We Are
The Assembly for Open Judaism exists for those who no longer fit neatly within inherited denominational categories.
We are humanistic because we affirm the dignity, creativity, responsibility, and moral agency of human beings.
We are spiritually open because we recognize that Jewish life has always included wonder, reverence, grief, joy, sacred time, memory, ritual, mystery, and the search for meaning.
We are Jewish because we are rooted in the life, history, language, rituals, ethics, and destiny of the Jewish people.
We are open because we believe Jewish belonging should not depend on one required theology, one required style of observance, or one narrow definition of what it means to live Jewishly.
The Assembly is not anti-religious, anti-traditional, or anti-spiritual. We honor Torah, Jewish history, Hebrew, ritual, holidays, lifecycle practices, and the wisdom of Jewish tradition. At the same time, we affirm the right of every Jew to engage that inheritance honestly, thoughtfully, and with integrity.
Our Mission
The mission of The Assembly for Open Judaism is to cultivate Jewish life without theological coercion.
We do this through learning, ritual, ethics, community, Jewish adoption and conversion, clergy formation, lifecycle support, and the shared flourishing of the Jewish people.
We seek to build communities where people can participate in Jewish life with dignity, seriousness, and freedom of conscience. We believe Jewish practice should deepen identity, strengthen ethical responsibility, preserve memory, and create belonging.
Our Vision
We envision a Jewish future where every Jew may participate in Jewish life with integrity.
We envision communities where theistic Jews, non-theistic Jews, agnostic Jews, secular Jews, spiritual Jews, traditional Jews, converts, interfaith families, elders, children, seekers, and Jewish leaders can gather around a shared commitment to Jewish peoplehood, ethical responsibility, ritual meaning, and communal care.
We believe the Jewish future must be open enough to welcome honest diversity, serious enough to preserve meaningful standards, and compassionate enough to serve real human lives.
Our task is to create a Jewish home beyond the forced choice between belief and disbelief.
What Makes Us Different
The Assembly for Open Judaism was founded with gratitude for the many Jewish movements that already serve the Jewish people. We are not founded against Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, Renewal, Humanistic, Karaite, secular, cultural, traditional, or other Jewish communities. Each has contributed to the survival, renewal, interpretation, and beauty of Jewish life.
Yet many people still need another kind of Jewish home.
Some are humanistic but not strictly secular. Some are spiritual but not dogmatic. Some are theistic but reject theological coercion. Some love Jewish tradition but cannot accept inherited assumptions without question. Some are culturally Jewish but want something deeper than nostalgia. Some are drawn to Jewish adoption or conversion but cannot honestly make required theological claims. Some seek rabbinic formation but cannot take on the financial burden of conventional institutional programs.
The Assembly exists for this space.
We are God-optional rather than God-denying. We are spiritually open rather than doctrinally rigid. We are serious about Judaism without making belief the price of admission.
Jewish Adoption and Conversion
We understand conversion as adoption into the Jewish people, a beautiful framing that owes much to Rabbi Sherwin Wine and the Humanistic Jewish movement. To become Jewish is not merely to change religious opinions; it is to enter into the life, memory, history, responsibility, and shared destiny of the Jewish people. For this reason, we often use the phrase Jewish adoption as a more honest and meaningful description of the process.
Jewish adoption should be serious, sincere, and meaningful. It should include real learning, ethical reflection, ritual participation, and preparation for Jewish life. But it should not be unnecessarily burdensome, humiliating, endlessly prolonged, or financially exploitative.
The Assembly for Open Judaism never charges for Jewish adoption or conversion.
No rabbi, teacher, beit din member, clergy member, or representative of the Assembly may receive payment for accepting, sponsoring, supervising, approving, or completing a conversion. A person does not buy their way into the Jewish people.
Jewish adoption is a matter of sincerity, learning, commitment, community, and belonging — not money.
Rabbinic and Clergy Formation
Jewish leadership requires formation, not financial gatekeeping.
The Assembly believes rabbis, teachers, chaplains, officiants, and communal leaders must be formed through serious study, ethical maturity, pastoral skill, ritual competence, Jewish literacy, and service to the Jewish people.
At the same time, we believe sincere and capable students should have access to ordination without crushing financial burden.
Our rabbinic formation model is personal, relational, and mentor-based. Students work one-on-one with rabbis, teachers, and mentors who guide their studies, assess their growth, and help form them for Jewish service.
When mentors believe a student is ready, the candidate may be presented before a beit din for examination. The beit din evaluates the candidate’s knowledge, character, pastoral maturity, ritual competence, ethical stability, and commitment to Jewish service. If the candidate is found prepared, the Assembly may grant semikhah.
Ordination is not bought, rushed, or self-declared. It is earned through study, formation, demonstrated competence, ethical maturity, and communal recognition.
Ritual and Spiritual Life
Ritual is one of the ways human beings carry memory, meaning, grief, gratitude, identity, and hope.
At The Assembly for Open Judaism, ritual does not require one fixed theology to be meaningful. A blessing may be understood as praise of God, inherited language, poetry, communal memory, ethical intention, symbolic sanctification, or an act of connection with the Jewish people.
Our communities may use traditional Jewish liturgy, adapted liturgy, humanistic liturgy, Hebrew, vernacular language, song, silence, study, meditation, candles, wine, bread, ritual objects, storytelling, and creative forms of Jewish expression.
We encourage honesty, seriousness, and respect. Tradition should not be treated carelessly, but neither should it be frozen. Jewish ritual is a living inheritance, carried forward by each generation.
Ethics and Responsibility
Jewish life must be ethical life.
We believe human dignity is sacred in practice, whether one grounds that dignity in God, creation, conscience, reason, human solidarity, or the shared vulnerability of mortal life.
Ritual without ethics is hollow. Learning without compassion is incomplete. Community without accountability is unsafe.
The Assembly rejects abuse, exploitation, manipulation, financial coercion, spiritual coercion, and misuse of authority. Because we reject theological coercion, we must also reject other forms of coercive control.
Openness must be joined to standards. Compassion must be joined to accountability. Freedom of conscience must be joined to communal responsibility.
Our Relationship to the Wider Jewish People
The Assembly for Open Judaism understands itself as part of the broader Jewish people.
We do not claim to be the only authentic expression of Judaism. We honor the diversity of Jewish life across many communities, traditions, movements, histories, and cultures.
We also recognize that not every Jewish institution will recognize our clergy, conversions, or standards. We are honest about that reality.
Our task is not to seek universal approval. Our task is to act with integrity, seriousness, transparency, humility, and love for the Jewish people.
Our Invitation
The Assembly for Open Judaism is for those seeking a serious, compassionate, humanistic, spiritually open, and theologically non-coercive path into Jewish life.
It is for those who believe, those who doubt, those who do not believe, those who are still searching, and those who want to live Jewishly with integrity.
It is for Jews by birth, Jews by adoption, interfaith families, seekers, students, elders, teachers, leaders, and communities who believe Jewish life can flourish beyond the boundaries of belief and disbelief.
We believe tradition can be honored without being frozen.
We believe Jewish life can be adapted without being abandoned.
We believe no person should have to purchase admission into the Jewish people.
We believe no sincere leader should be excluded from formation by financial burden alone.
We believe Jewish community can be open, learned, compassionate, disciplined, ethical, and free.
Welcome to The Assembly for Open Judaism — Ha-Asifah L’Yahadut HaPetuchah.