Guiding Jewish Concepts
B’tzelem Elokim / Divine Image
All people are created in the image of the Divine. We all carry a spark of divine goodness as well and creative potential.
Panim-el-Panim/ Face to Face
Seeking “face-to-face” interactions, despite difference, distance and bars; approaching one another as equals and striving to work in genuine relationship.
Teshuvah/ Return and Restoration
We believe in human resilience and transformation, in our ability to make amends after experiencing and/or perpetrating harm. We practice this relationally as conflict arises within our organizing, and also strive to create a world that uplifts restorative accountability processes rather than punishment.
Lemad Mikol Adam/ Learn from Every Person
Learning from every person requires honoring the contributions and voices of people who have been systemically silenced, including through incarceration. In our conversations, we strive to hold awareness around differences in identity and power dynamics.
Refuah Shleimah/ Complete Healing
We work towards collective healing and wholeness, striving to restore balanced relationships within the broader interconnected web of creation and to heal the traumatic effects of white supremacy, colonization, and other systems of oppression that affect our minds and bodies.
Kol Yisrael Aravim Zeh Bazeh/ Communal Responsibility
We have responsibility to community and collectivity.
Tzedek & Rachamim/ Justice and Compassion
We strive to live these values internally as an organization and grow them in the world.
Tikkun Olam/ Repairing the World
The work of carceral spiritual care is the work of healing a world, starting with the individuals affected by institutions of mass incarceration.
K’vod ha’Briot/ Honoring and Tending to All of Creation
We honor the life and dignity of all persons engaged and affected within this work.
Ve’ahavta Lareacha Kamocha/ Loving neighbors as oneself
In this work we make no exception to human dignity, we work to regard each person, despite their relationship to need or to this work, as we would ourselves.
Brit/ Covenant
We are committed to practicing these principles daily. We also strive to honor the covenants and treaties made and broken with Indigenous Peoples, and acknowledge the role of colonization in prison systems.
Talmud Torah/ Learning
We engage in lifelong learning from our traditions and our experiences.
Dan L’chaf Zechut/ Benefit of the Doubt
We work to view others first in a gracious light, and offer the assumption that all involved or in need of support are working in their best intentions.