Machar (Washington, D.C.)
Humanistic Jewish congregation in the Washington, D.C. metro area
Machar (Hebrew: מחר, lit. 'Tomorrow'), officially Machar, The Washington Congregation For Secular Humanistic Judaism, is a Humanistic Jewish congregation located in the metro area of Washington, D.C., in the United States. Affiliated with the Society for Humanistic Judaism, the non-theistic congregation was founded in 1977, and celebrates Jewish culture, education and celebrations. The congregation has a Jewish cultural school, social action committee, and regular newsletter, and welcomes interfaith couples.
Depending on the type of service, the congregation worships at either one of two locations in Maryland:
100 Welsh Park Drive, in Rockville; or
1 Veterans Place, Silver Spring.
Belief and structure
Machar is an inclusive community of people of all backgrounds, ages, and gender orientation, including intercultural and interfaith couples. The Association of Humanistic Rabbis supports an individual's right to marry someone based on love and the quality of their relationship, and the rights of rabbis to officiate and co-officiate at wedding ceremonies of people from different backgrounds.
Machar is a member of Jewish Outreach Institute's Big Tent Judaism Coalition. Machar supports the 2005 statement on Conversion (Adoption) of the Association of Humanistic Rabbis that says in part, “We, the members of the Association of Humanistic Rabbis, welcome all individuals into the Jewish people who desire to link their lives with the experience of the Jewish nation/family to identify with its historic memories and to participate in its culture and future.”
The congregation has several committees and groups, including: ranging from Social Action to Community Service to Jewish Religious Text Study.
Religious observance
The congregation observes Jewish holidays including Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Simhat Torah, Hanukkah, Tu B'Shevat, Purim, and Passover. In addition, Machar has programming around Yom HaShoah and Darwin Day, and periodic Shabbat services.
The public source identifies “Machar (Washington, D.C.)” as humanistic Jewish congregation in the Washington, D.C. metro area. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Machar, Washington and Humanistic.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18207312. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1977 and 2005.
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This entry incorporates text from “Machar (Washington, D.C.)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.