JEWS AMONG THE NATIONS.

Resolution of the 6th Congress of the International Federation of Humanist and Secular Jews — October 4, 5, 6, 1996, in Paris

PREAMBLE

Jews are an international people, and we are the heirs of an international civilization. For the greater part of our history, we have lived as a minority community among other nations.

When we were treated with tolerance by the majority of the population, our own culture flourished and we brought creative and significant contributions to the development of the society in which we lived. Yet, often, the expansion of antisemitism made our condition precarious and, in extreme cases, even catastrophic, taking the form of pogroms, massacres and mass extermination.

The Enlightenment and the Revolutions that followed allowed Jews to take part more freely in the public life of Western Europe and North America.

Jews were admitted both to citizenship and to a broader participation in the world of business and of the liberal professions. Bonds of friendship, work in association and political alliances were able to develop. Jews took part fully in the struggles of society as a whole for a freer and more just society. Even the horrors of the genocide could not reverse this process.

Half a century ago, in 1948, a radically new element entered into the status of Jews among the nations when the State of Israel came into being. Although the Jewish people remained largely dispersed among the nations, Jewish nationalism and Jewish identity took on a new significance with the emergence on the world stage of a Jewish State that took its place in the family of nations.

Over the course of the last few decades, the process of integration of Jews into the society in general in which they live has accelerated. Jews live in non-Jewish neighborhoods, belong to non-Jewish clubs and have very close non-Jewish friends.

The millions of Jews who retain their Jewish identification are members of no Jewish institution; the rate of mixed marriages has risen spectacularly; these developments, many fear, undermine the integrity of Jewish identity and threaten Jewish continuity.

The religious, and in particular the Orthodox, are troubled by the fact that secular and Christian values compromise the unique character of Jewish life and culture.

They believe that the Halakha as it is interpreted by Orthodox rabbinic Judaism must be the binding and sole competent framework if the Jewish people is to survive.

They reject the pluralist definition of Judaism and, with it, the concept of openness within an open society. Their influence has led, in certain communities, to the emergence of a new chauvinism that turns its attention solely to Jewish concerns and turns its back on the problems of the world in general.

DECLARATION

We, members of the International Federation of Humanist and Secular Jews, conscious of our roots in the universal value of the Haskala (the Enlightenment), affirm our attachment to the moral and humanist beliefs of an open society.

We believe that Jewish identity can be developed and strengthened by accepting the reality of the diversity of the Jewish people and by renewing our efforts to teach and to celebrate our rich history, our cultural heritage, our moral values and our conception of world civilization.

We affirm that Jewish culture and civilization can be enriched by their contacts with other cultures. History shows that Jewish life has been at its most dynamic in the eras when openness prevailed.

We acknowledge that justice, freedom and equality for all must be a Jewish imperative as well as a human one in general.

We affirm the right of all, Jews as well as non-Jews, to a style of life of their own choosing, free of authoritarian dictates.

We are convinced that a just and lasting peace between Jews and Arabs, Israelis and Palestinians, within a society that honors not only national rights but also personal freedom, is a moral objective of the highest importance.

We affirm the profound relationship that exists between the international historical character of the Jewish people and the universal values of an international society. A Jewish identity that brings into relief the highest values of its past and that looks toward the future with optimism can take shape only in a world where national and racial lines of demarcation do not impede solidarity among peoples.

We gather all our efforts together in order to realize this dream.