Brit Olam
Temple Har Zion is a proud signatory to the Canadian Brit Olam. What is the Brit Olam? It is an intiative of the Union of Reform Judaism’s Religious Action Centre that was promoted at the December 2017 Biennial in Boston. This is the statement from the Religious Action Centre (RAC) website that outlines the idea behind it:
'Brit Olam' translates to ‘covenant with our world.’
The Brit Olam reminds us of the words from Pirkei Avot:
“Study alone is not enough, our tradition demands action.”
Across North America and around the world, vulnerable populations face profound challenges.
The Reform Jewish Movement is dedicated to meeting this urgency of now through moral leadership and congregational and community-based action. To this end, we have developed the Brit Olam, a moment of recovenant that articulates our long-term vision of a strong, networked Reform Movement acting powerfully and together to bring upon the world we want - a world filled with justice, compassion and wholeness.
Signing onto the Brit Olam allows your congregation to publicly reaffirm its commitment to meaningful social justice work, grounded in our sacred and enduring Jewish values. This commitment, and the network it creates between congregations working in concert to repair our world, will live beyond any individual event or campaign.”
The Canadian Brit Olam is part of the same initiative but was created by the Canadian Council for Reform Judaism and the National Social Action Committee to reflect terminology and projects that our Canadian Congregations are working on as well of those identified by the RAC. We are excited to join other Canadian congregations who have signed on to the Brit and look forward to working with them and other organizations in the community that are working on raising their voices to pursue Social Justice.
You can read the full text of the Canadian Brit Olam here
Please visit the RAC website to explore the full Brit Olam initiative here
Our synagogue has a very active social action committee which has a number of on-going programs reaching out and helping in our community.