Tricycle | Awake in the World

The Organizational Principles of Shomer Shalom Network for Jewish Nonviolence

1. Healthy and safe communities emerge from a network of loving relationships based on mutual respect and openness.

2. The fullness of each person’s complex history, identity and religious affiliation is a welcome part of our collective story.

3. Compassionate listening and speaking from the heart opens us to new perspectives for realizing our collective goals.

4. Learning diversity involves awareness of histories that carry tragedy as well as beauty. We are committed to the human dream of dismantling legacies of economic and social oppression as the path to a shared future of well being for all members of our human society.

5. Ceremony and traditional peacemaking wisdom can play a healing  role in moving individuals and communities toward reconciliation and social transformation. As shomrei shalom, we are committed to lifting up the traditions of Jewish nonviolence as well as a truthful examination of attitudes, beliefs and behaviors in our own tradition that may contribute to sustaining structural violence. In addition, we honor the dignity and right of all religious traditions including indigenous peoples to choose when to share and when not to share certain aspects of their  tradition and to hold them sacred unto their own communities.

6. Artistic expression in the context of culture and individual creativity are highly valued as sources of joy, excellence and hope.

7. Youthful voices are necessary for the creation of a viable future.

8. A shomeret shalom adheres to conscientious objection to war.

Learn more about Shomer Shalom: http://shomershalom.org/.