In October 1958, then-Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion sent a letter to 50 preeminent Torah authorities in Israel and the Diaspora, asking for their learned opinion on an issue that concerned the young country – the definition of a Jew.
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Ben-Gurion believed that Judaism did not end at the border of the Jewish state, but was nurtured from a variety of sources that had grown up within different cultural fabrics and turned into separate Jewish heritages, each in its own way. The initiative of Our Common Destiny Declaration is based on a similar view, according to which Judaism must include all the different faces that make up our people.
During the years of our exile, and even now, in Israel and the Diaspora, the Jewish people shapes its image in accordance with our ancestors' legacy and through contact with the cultures around us. We have always been able to maintain the delicate balance between the aspiration to cling to what makes us unique and to our ancient roots and the desire to keep Judaism up to date, relevant, and in touch with changing times.
Our culture of religious study, as well as our character as a "stiff-necked people," a name given to us by Moses, lead us to emphasize our differences. Indeed, our Judaism today includes endless shades and interpretations that are to a large extent its very essence. Still, there is something that connects us. There is a common denominator, something that makes us a single camp – from east to west, from Zion to the rest of the world, from Right to Left.
Today, now that we have established a national home in which we are sovereign in our land and anchored our status as equal members in the family of nations and citizens of equal rights in the nation states in which we are scattered, we have the power to redefine our shared destiny, together.
A global crisis that affects health and the economy, society and the individual, and humanity as a whole, demands introspection. These are days we will not survive as individuals, days that require togetherness. The time has come for us to ask ourselves what Jewish "togetherness" means. What is the basis for the deep feeling we have when we hear about Jewish victims of the pandemic in distant communities? Where does it come from, and where does it go?
Now, at a time when the world is cloaked in darkness, we will seek to light a torch that will light the Jewish people's way forward, that will formulate the values that characterize us as a people and light our way forward. Values of mutual responsibility, preserving the intellectual and values heritage of Jewish literature, of humanity, of innovation, and tikkun olam – making the world a better place.
Our Common Destiny does not seek to put an end to our disagreements. It seeks to stabilize the ground on which Jewish debate will persist and be renewed, out of a commitment to each other and a promise to stick together, take our fate in our hands, and look forward, toward our shared future.
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