Imagine yourself having witnessed the founding fathers of our nation signing the Declaration of Independence. Imagine having been aboard the USS Missouri during the Japanese surrender in World War II or standing beside David Ben-Gurion as he proclaimed the establishment of Israel as a sovereign state.

I attended such a momentous event last month as seven Israelis were ordained as secular humanistic rabbis. They had completed three years of graduate study at Tmura Israel, the Jerusalem seminary of the U.S.-based International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism. The Dec. 21 event at the Israel Museum may not have captured the world’s attention, but its impact within Israel was tumultuous. Legions of media descended, interviews were sought with any participant, and the nation was transfixed as the ordination was approaching.

The reason? Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi, Yona Metzger, attempted to ban the event through government channels on the grounds that the ordained rabbis were imposters. His cause will be lost. Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist rabbis are also defined as secular and illegitimate by the Orthodox rabbinate, and yet those movements continue to put down roots in Israel.

If an ordination might advance a theme, it could be that Israel has reached a pluralistic milestone of sorts. The country’s population is 81 percent Jewish, 12 percent Muslim, 3.5 percent Christian, and 1.5 percent Druse. Of the Jewish citizenry, 8 percent are Orthodox, 9 percent consider themselves religious, 39 percent are “traditional,” and 44 percent are secular. In recent years those non-Orthodox Israelis have been increasingly seeking to express their Jewish philosophy independent of the official Orthodoxy.

I was inspired by the charged atmosphere at the ordination, its appropriate sense of urgency in view of Rabbi Metzger’s anticipated actions, and by the sincere reflection, eloquence, and pride of both the future rabbis and orators. Each of the speakers offered poignant and thought-stimulating moments. They included the founders and directors of Tmura, Rabbi Sivan Maas, and the philosopher Yaakov Malkin.

Also on hand were Rabbi Adam Chalom of the Kol Hadash Humanistic Congregation in Chicago; Adolfo Roitman and James Snyder, curator and director, respectively, of the Israel Museum; musicologist and writer Michal Zmora Cohen; famed Holocaust scholar Yehuda Bauer; and Knesset members Yossi Beilin and Yisrael Hasson.

Rabbi Sherwin Wine, co-dean of Tmura and president of the International Federation of Secular Humanistic Jews, revealingly told of the movement’s origins and gracefully explained its philosophy. As the institute’s press release heralding the event explained, “Humanistic Judaism embraces a human-centered philosophy that affirms the power and responsibility of individuals to shape their own lives independent of supernatural authority. It maintains that ethics and morality should serve human needs, chiefly the preservation of human dignity and integrity. Humanistic Jews endorse ideals derived from the Jewish experience — democracy, justice, tolerance, pluralism, and equal treatment for all individuals.”

Professor Ruth Kartun Blum led recitations by poets and authors Amir Or, Tsipi Levin-Byron, Nurit Zarchi, and Dina Zion Katan.

Renowned Israeli author A.B. Yehoshua gave a prodigious homily on secular Jewish culture in Israel and the Zionist revolution.

Those newly ordained rabbis are Avi Pascal, Guy Oren, Nardy Grun, Reut Hammer, Koby Wiener, Oren Yehishalom, and Tsipi Levin-Byron. The communities they will serve span the width and length of the small nation. All spoke to their philosophies and goals.

But a simple analogy brought tears to the eyes of many and will be remembered by me forever. Rabbi Wiener had recently lost his son and movingly portrayed his emotional state as “swimming in the desert.”

Judaism’s attrition rate, as demonstrated in studies conducted by the United Jewish Communities and others, is frightening. Declining commitment to Judaism has catalyzed philanthropic efforts to mitigating that loss. It is said that the majority of the world’s estimated 13 million Jews consider themselves secular with little or no Jewish identity. Having experienced intermarriage in my own family, I was delighted when my grandson became a bar mitzva. Intermarriage need not end the continuity and growth of Judaism’s heritage.

Judaism’s ethics and mores, its culture, need to be cultivated into the framework of every Jewish child’s education. Humanistic Judaism provides that opportunity. In a world currently in the throes of theological turmoil, it represents a possible solution to survival of the civilization of our forebears.