About
Limmud is a global organisation with bases throughout the world. Limmud events have taken place in the streets of Tel Aviv, throughout the former Soviet Union and even in the shadows of the Great Wall of China. Wherever a Limmud journey begins its mandate is simple — empowering participants to engage, connect and share as they take one step forward on their own unique Jewish journey. To find out more about Limmud from a global perspective go to www.limmud.org.
OUR MISSION & PROMISE
Wherever you find yourself, Limmud will take you one step further on your Jewish journey.
Limmud is the Hebrew word for learning. Limmud SA is a community of learning where South African Jews can learn and share ideas, regardless of their affiliations or levels of Jewish knowledge. It is exciting, dynamic and diverse. Limmud makes accessible some of the world’s most dynamic Jewish educators, performers and teachers at annual conferences around the country.
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
- Shabbat and kashrut are observed in all public areas
- We recognise that in private areas, people will behave as they wish
- Should participants wish to hold a prayer group, they may do so providing they supply all resources and are responsible for the session or prayer group in its entirety
Volunteering
Limmud is firmly rooted in the values of diversity, choice and volunteerism. Every aspect of our conference from the organisation of catering, accommodation, marketing, programming, registration, Young Limmud and so much more is executed solely by our dedicated team of volunteers. A fact that stands as a tribute to the remarkable ethos of Limmud, one which continues to inspire people of all ages and backgrounds to give back to the Jewish community in remarkable ways.
Inside Limmud
