Sherwin Wine, a rabbi who spent his life forsaking convention as the leader of a sect of Judaism that saw the religion as a culture instead of a faith, died Saturday in an accident in Morocco, according to an announcement by the Society for Humanistic Judaism. He was 79.

Wine, who founded the first congregation of Humanistic Judaism in suburban Detroit in 1963, died when another car hit the taxi he was taking back to the hotel while on vacation with his partner, Richard McMains. Mr. McMains remains hospitalized.

Wine, who lived in Birmingham, Mich., founded the Birmingham Temple in 1963 and helped establish the Society for Humanistic Judaism in 1969.

The movement gained attention in a 1965 Time magazine article, but it was denounced at the time by Jewish leaders as a fleeting craze of the 1960s. Wine also helped found a rabbinical seminary for which he had been serving as provost and dean in North America.

He built a movement that began with eight Detroit area families into a worldwide one with an estimated 40,000 members. The American Humanist Association selected him humanist of the year for 2003.

“Rabbi Wine was a visionary who created a Jewish home for so many of us who would have been lost to Judaism,” Rabbi Miriam S. Jerris, president of the Association of Humanistic Rabbis, said in a written statement. “He taught us that human dignity is the highest moral value. We will live our lives reflecting that value to honor his memory.”

Wine was born in Detroit on January 25, 1928 and raised by conservative Jewish parents.

Wine was the author of books including “Humanistic Judaism,” “Judaism Beyond God” and “Staying Sane in a Crazy World.” He was at work on a book about living a meaningful, moral life without depending on faith for guidance.