Spreading Tikkun Olam
What is Tikkun Olam?
Tikkun Olam (תיקון עולם) translates to “repairing” or “improving” the world. Traditionally, it represents working with God to prevent injustices, poverty, and protect the environment. Currently, Tikkun Olam serves as the foundation for many Jewish denominations. Jews use it as the principle for engaging in social change, environmentalism, and philanthropy.
What does it mean to us?
We started the Jewish Student Magazine as a way to connect teens within our community through art, writing, and creativity. While our initial principle was focused solely on the submissions of Jewish teens, we discovered people outside the Jewish community also wanted to contribute.
We founded the JSM with the intention of promoting connnection, community, and tolerance, so we wanted to expand our vision in a way that truly incorporated these values in our mission. From there, we decided to create an additional section of each edition titled “Spreading Tikkun Olam”. Through this section, we aim to highlight the work of people beyond our community, in an effort to show how different voices and perspectives can exist together.
We believe the first step toward a peaceful world is understanding those who are different than us— and what better way to do that than through creative expression.