About

Chesed Havurah Values

The Chesed Havurah is a community for progressive, leftist, and radical self-identified Jews and their loved ones that offers spiritual, cultural, activist, religious and mutual aid opportunities and experiences. Chesed was formed out of a desire to create local Jewish community centering the belief that all of our liberations are bound up together. Drawing on Psalm 89:3, we believe: נהֶ֑בָּ ִי סדֶ חֶ֣ לםָ וֹע֖, olam chesed yibaneh, the world is built with loving kindness.

While we came together in support of Palestinian and Jewish liberation, we are driven by a shared desire for collective liberation and a commitment to pursuing a more just, safe, and equitable world for all oppressed people. Many of us are parents, and we wish to build an intergenerational Jewish community in which we can raise our children and learn from our elders through the Jewish values of tzedek (justice), b’tselem elohim (all beings are made in the image of the divine), tikkun olam (repairing the world), and summud (the Palestinian value of steadfastness).

Chesed’s core values and principles, intentionally listed in unintentional order. 

● Centering marginalized Jews: Many groups of Jewish people have been marginalized in institutional Jewish spaces. These people are central to our community. We are committed to creating a space that is not just inclusive but celebratory of their lives and values. In our community now, this includes queer and trans Jews, Jews of Color, anti-Zionist Jews, Jews with non-Jewish partners and/or families, child-free Jews, unpartnered Jews, polyamarous Jews, Jews with disabilities, Jewish women, low-income Jews, Jews by choice, and patrilineal Jews. 

● Diversity: We deeply value intergenerational participation, knowledge and relationships. We are inspired by the long history of a multilingual, multiracial, and multicultural Jewish Diaspora, sustained through adaptation of rituals and practices, generation after generation. 

● Jewish Religious Pluralism: We strive to create Jewish experiences that are inclusive of Jews with a wide range of religious practice and observance levels. 

● Our activism comes from our Judaism: We are committed to activism and advocacy as an expression of our Jewish values: as the Talmud reminds us, the study of Torah is the greatest mitzvah because studying leads to action. That action may include but is by no means limited to: protests, petitions for political changes, teach-ins, Shabbatot for solidarity, lifting voices from silenced or oppressed groups, and studying the past to build a better future. 

● We care about Jewish safety; and we do not believe in the exceptionalism of Jewish victimhood: Jewish people and communities deserve to live in safety - domestically and internationally - without fearing persecution. However, we know that this does not require the oppression of people from other religions, national identities, or worldviews. As a historically persecuted people, we take seriously our responsibility to stand up for other vulnerable and minoritized groups wherever and whenever we find our homes in this world. We believe that the fusing of Jewishness and political nationalism should not be the route we seek to achieve Jewish safety.

● What we think about Israel/Palestine: We have all borne witness to the creation of the modern Jewish nation-state and how the practice of political Zionism has led to displacement, ethnic cleansing, and genocide of the Palestinian people, communities and culture. Since we believe that Palestinian and Jewish liberation are bound together, we reject any ideology that insists upon privileged Jewish entitlement to the land. By recognizing that the land has historically been home to and considered sacred by many peoples and cultures, we believe that we must find a way forward together where all displaced people have the right to return home and build collective safety. 

● What we believe/do locally: We are invested in building a Jewish life in Southeast Michigan that is intentional, meaningful, joyful and driven by our commitment to building an equitable and just world. We will fight for the safety and protection of all marginalized people in our community, working in solidarity with others against all forms of hatred, including but by no means limited to: racism, antisemitism, homophobia, Islamophobia, and xenophobia.