Joseph Chuman
From Philosopedia
Chuman, Joseph (20th Century)
Chuman, a classics graduate of City College of New York who received his doctorate in religion at Columbia University, started Ethical Culture leadership training in 1967. He led briefly in Essex County, New Jersey, then settled as Leader in Bergen County, where in 2007 he has been for thirty-three years.
Chuman signed Humanist Manifesto II and has been on the editorial board of the International Humanist. He is on the Board of Governors of The Humanist Institute and is one of the members of the IHEU’s Committee on Religious Extremism and Rational Inquiry. He has written widely, for example in articles in The Humanist, Humanistic Judaism]], The Record of Bergen County, and The New York Times.
He founded and directed the first chapter of Amnesty International in Teaneck, New Jersey.
In 1998 at the International Humanist and Ethical Union’s congress in Mumbai, Chuman spoke about the resurgence of religion in North America, lamenting the fact that fundamentalists have become a powerful political force.
Chuman, who speaks widely against the death penalty, has initiated a sanctuary program for asylum seekers who are detained at the Elizabeth Detention Center in Elizabeth, New Jersey. "Anyone can feel what they want, but I won't hide my feelings about this," Chuman has told his Introduction to Human Rights class at Columbia University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. "I've been an abolitionist since I was twelve. The death penalty doesn't decrease crime; it doesn't create a more civil society. You can't have a civil society that has the death penalty."
(See entry for Ethical Culture.)
