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About Us

What is the Secular Jewish Circle?

The SJC has been Seattle’s home for secular Jews since 1995. We are a vibrant community that celebrates our Jewish traditions, history and culture in a non-theistic context. The SJC is a proud chapter of the Society for Humanistic Judaism, and aligns itself with the global Secular Humanistic Judaism movement, which focuses on the values of reason, justice, and personal responsibility over the belief in, or dependency on, any divine being.

Our welcoming community includes and supports multiracial people and families, differently-abled people and families, intergenerational families, mixed-faith families, and the LGBTQ+ community. We welcome everyone who wants to include Jewish values and secular humanism as part of their contemporary Jewish identity!

Learn about our Sunday School, B Mitzvah program, holiday celebrations, and more by contacting us today to see what you have been missing. We would love to meet you at our next event!

SJC is a 100% volunteer-run, 100% donation-funded 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation and charity.

Why a Circle?

Our name, Secular Jewish Circle, calls back to the roots of Secular Judaism in the Yiddishist movement of the late 19th century. Eastern European Jews were accustomed to self-run mutual aid and other civic/social groups as a sort of nation within a nation. They brought these types of organizations with them when they immigrated in large numbers to the USA. Most of these organizations were socialist, such as the Workers Circle, which was founded in 1900 and still operates a school and summer camp in New York to this day.

SJC uses the circle imagery as a nod to the Workers Circle, with whom we share many values as fellow humanists.

Land Acknowledgement

The Secular Jewish Circle of Puget Sound recognizes that the region in which we operate, the Puget Sound, sits on land illegally and violently stolen from the dxʷdəwʔabš (Duwamish), dxʷsəq̓ʷəbš (Suquamish), Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla, and bəqəlšuɬ (Muckleshoot) peoples in violation of the Treaty of Point Elliott.

Sat, 30 August 2025