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Adopted on October
30, 1993, at the CSJO Executive Board meeting in Detroit,
Michigan, USA
- We Secular Jews base our commitment
to social justice on our understanding of Jewish ethics,
of Jewish history, and of the traditions of our Movement.
- From an ethical standpoint, we are
inspired by the insistence of our people's Prophets that
the essence of morality is the establishment of justice.
- We see an historical imperative
in the fact that, through the ages, Jewish security and
participation in any society has been determined by the
degree of justice in that society and by its relative freedom
from violence.
- We honor and share in the century-long
tradition of secular Jewish movements in their struggle
for peace and the rights of the oppressed, the dispossessed
and the defenseless, and our Movement's affirmation of the
sanctity of life.
These considerations commit us to building
a society that affirms, protects and champions the rights
of all people, especially the oppressed, including the poor,
labor, political and ideological dissidents, children, women,
ethnic and racial minorities, the disabled, lesbians and gays.
They commit us to oppose the proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction and to work for a world society that rejects violence
as a means of resolving conflicts. As members of the human
race and of a worldwide Jewish people, we are committed, as
well, to the interdependence of all life on our planet and
to the defense of its ecology.
Our commitments are not merely altruistic.
They reflect our self-interested concern with the world of
the 21st century, the rapidly-changing, multi-cultural world
of depleted and limited resources in which our children and
grandchildren will live. The struggle for social justice,
in its broadest and deepest meanings, seems to us the surest
means to secure our future and theirs.
The history of Jewish participation
in modern societies demonstrates that the extension of full
rights to the formerly oppressed does not diminish but enhances
the progress and well-being of society as a whole. Secure
in that knowledge, we welcome and support all affirmative
actions designed to accelerate opportunities for education,
training and employment as a means of establishing and furthering
social justice for the members of all groups whose opportunities
have been oppressively limited or denied. |