Core Values

Limmud Oz is part of the Limmud International network, which operates in 80+ communities around the world. The best way to describe what Limmud is about is to reference the Limmud Core Values – because they are absolutely central to what we do and stand for:

The Limmud promise is, wherever you find yourself, Limmud will take you one step further on your Jewish journey.

Limmud’s mission is informed by the following values:

Learning

• Everyone should be a student and anyone can be a teacher

• Learning embraces personal development, knowledge and skills

• Learning changes people, inspires action and opens new worlds

• We encourage the creation of a learning environment in which people are able to reflect and grow

• There are many inspirations that can offer opportunities for learning

Expanding Jewish Horizons

We strive to create individual, collective and communal experiences, through which we strengthen and develop our Jewish identity

Enabling Connections

• We aim to create opportunities for communities and individuals to connect

• We recognise the strength of providing a space where spiritual, emotional and intellectual connections are made

Participation

• Volunteerism is a key feature of almost everything we do

• We are all responsible for each other and for the communities we create – everyone has an important contribution to make

• We encourage participants to take an active part in all we do

Empowerment

• We inspire people to be ambitious about their contribution

• We challenge people, and trust them to rise to that challenge

• We see the potential of individuals and communities, and support their development

• We empower people to make choices and provide the information they need to inform those choices (including in the biographies which we ask presenters to provide)

Diversity

• We value the rich diversity among Jews, and so we seek to create cross-communal and inter-generational experiences

• We value accessibility, and aim to be accessible to all

• We value choice in form, content and style in our programmes

• We encourage people not to stereotype others

Community and Mutual Responsibility

• Limmud is a community of learning

• We can achieve more together than we can individually

• We gain from, and should give something back to, the Jewish and wider community

Respect

• No-one is more important than anyone else

• We expect all participants to be respectful of one another, and to recognise that all volunteers are also participants

• Personal attacks are not acceptable in any Limmud context, especially within sessions at events

Arguments for the Sake of Heaven

• We recognise and appreciate that ‘arguments for the sake of heaven’ can make a positive contribution to furthering our education and understanding

• We do not participate in legitimising or de-legitimising any religious or political position found in the worldwide Jewish community. Anyone coming to Limmud seeking opportunities for this will not find them. We have no part to play in the debates between/across denominations

• Sessions which encourage vigorous debate are entirely acceptable but we will seek to avoid religious or political conflict. Sessions should be educational, and not polemical

Religious Observance

• We seek to create an inclusive environment for all participants whatever their religious observance practices. We ask that all participants behave in a way which is respectful of the religious observance of others

• Shabbat and kashrut are observed in all public areas, so that Jews do not have to separate themselves one from another

• We recognise that in private areas, people will behave as they wish

Sustainability

Sustainability means applying Limmud values in a way which delivers the present and supports the delivery of the future. The sustainability and continuity of a Limmud community includes:

• Investing in the people who make up that community

• Ongoing financial stability

• Minimising our environmental impact