Join Dr. Anne Klaeysen for “The Ethical Humanism of the Future,” November 17 at 10:30 a.m.

Anne found inspiration for this platform address from Ethical Culture founder Felix Adler’s first and last sermon at Temple Emanu-El in 1873 called “Judaism of the Future.” It was meant to be an audition for being appointed his father Samuel’s successor as rabbi.

Instead, it shocked the congregation by neglecting to mention a deity and offering a bold manifesto of Judaism as a secular religion of morality for all humanity, not just a privileged few. While conceding that his sermon was brilliant and that young Felix had a bright future ahead of him, the synagogue’s trustees made it clear to him that such a future would not be with them.

Six years later, he founded our non-theistic religion of ethics. Have we fulfilled the future he envisioned? What future do we envision now? Together, we will explore these questions.

Anne Klaeysen is Leader Emerita of the New York Society for Ethical Culture and the Ethical Humanist Society of Long Island. She is also the Humanist Religious Life Adviser at Columbia University and Humanist Chaplain at New York University (NYU). She holds a Doctor of Ministry degree in pastoral counseling from Hebrew Union College and Masters degrees in Business Administration from NYU and German from the State University of NY At Albany. Dr. Klaeysen also chairs the board of The Encampment for Citizenship founded by Ethical Culture Leader Algernon Black in 1946.