:: ZIONISM ::
"Zionism is Judaism", so much so that one cannot exist without the other. They are like body and soul, with the soul finding its loftiest expression through the embodied human experience. As the Lubavitcher Rebbe taught, our goal is not merely to aspire to heaven, but to bring heaven down to earth.
:: PEACE / سلام / שלום ::
The Jewish value of peace is so central to our entire way of life that it is reflected in one of the names we use for God and in the name of our historical capital, Jerusalem, often interpreted as the "City of Peace." Shalom is the word we use to say both hello and goodbye, and the pursuit of peace has been central to our daily prayers since their formal development more than two thousand years ago.
:: TORAH ::
The Torah teaches that all people possess inherent dignity and deserve fundamental human rights, beginning with the right to life. All people are entitled to live without constant fear and to coexist peacefully, regardless of race, sex, social status, or creed. All people should be treated equally and fairly. Education, family, and social responsibility should be paramount, allowing every individual to grow and live with dignity.
— Adapted from the teachings of Jewish historian Ken Spiro
:: REDEMPTION ::
Thousands of years ago the Torah foretold of the future return of the Jewish people from exile and their restoration to the land of their ancestors:
“God will bring back your exiles and have compassion upon you. He will gather you once again from among all the nations where you have been dispersed, even from the ends of the heavens, and bring you into the land that your forefathers inherited.”
— Deuteronomy 30:3–5
The prophet Isaiah also envisioned a utopia for all of humanity:
“And it shall be at the end of the days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be firmly established at the top of the mountains, and it shall be raised above the hills, and all the nations shall stream to it. And many peoples shall go, and they shall say, 'Come, let us go up to the Lord's mount, to the house of the God of Jacob, and let Him teach us of His ways, and we will go in His paths,' for out of Zion shall the Torah come forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”
— Isaiah 2:2–3
The prophecy culminates in a vision of universal peace for every nation in the world:
“They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift the sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”
— Isaiah 2:4