Tzedek's Jewish Values
Tzedek is driven by the Jewish values of:
- Tzedakah (justice, charity) sharing our wealth to make a more just world.
- Tikkun Olam (healing, repairing the world) addressing ourselves towards overcoming injustices and inequalities in the world.
- B’tzelem Elokhim (in the image of God) recognising that all human beings are created equal and deserving of equal respect.
- Shutafut (partnership) recognising the expertise that those in the majority world have and can share with us.
- Darchei Shalom (the ways of peace) fostering peace and pleasant relationships between Jews and non-Jews.
- Kiddush Hashem (sanctification of God’s name) acting in a way that brings credit to God and the Jewish tradition.
All Jews, by virtue of the concept of Tzedakah, have a basic responsibility to be fair and act in a just way. Tzedakah, often clumsily translated as 'charity' is so much more beautifully revealed when we recognise that it's connected to the word Tzedek, meaning 'justice'.
“Justice Justice, you shall pursue” (Parashat Shoftim)"
As a Jewish charity we attempt to operate by the highest ideals of Jewish ethics, recognising not only the humanity in all human beings - and therefore their right to equality with us - but also their right to the dignity that we would like ourselves. The concept of B’tzelem Elokhim (in the image of God) means that Tzedek recognises that all human beings are created equal and deserving of equal respect.
With our overseas projects we simply try to listen to our partners and so help them to help themselves. That, after all, is what Maimonides defined many hundreds of years ago as the ideal form of Jewish charity:
"The highest form of charity is to take a poor person into partnership"
Jewish traditions teach us to see the world globally in ever-widening ripples of responsibility. Our family lies closest to us, our community next, and so on. Tzedek believes that the ripples don’t stop rippling at a certain point beyond which we have no responsibility. Our belief in Tikkun Olam, repairing of the world, stretches beyond racial or religious boundaries.
