Since Oct. 7, 2023, American Jews have been grappling not only with grief and fear but also with questions about the values that have anchored certain segments of the Jewish community for decades.

In recent months, I’ve read two essays reflecting on whether tikkun olam (repairing the world) still belongs at the center of Jewish life. As the communications manager of OLAM, a network of Jewish and Israeli organizations that work to support largely non-Jewish populations in developing countries, the questions they raised struck a chord with me. I found myself both challenged and compelled by their arguments, and convinced that this is an issue that demands a deeper conversation.

In an opinion piece in The Forward published in May, Aviya Kushner describes Diaspora Jews as “very interested in, and perhaps obsessed with, the concept of tikkun olam” and points to a shift in American Jewish discourse questioning whether tikkun olam has been emphasized above Jewish peoplehood and support for Israel. A few months later, Robert Lichtman notes in eJewishPhilanthropy that while tikkun olam is in fact a component of the pillars that uphold the world, if Jews pursue social justice without anchoring it in Torah study, prayer and acts of chesed (loving-kindness), the entire framework risks becoming unsustainable.

Both Kushner and Lichtman are correct in their diagnosis. Tikkun olam has, at times, been treated as an alternative to peoplehood, Jewish learning and ritual practice. Instead, we should lean into it in a different way, one that fully embraces our commitments to Israel, Jewish tradition and the Jewish People alongside our responsibility to the wider world.

No, It's Not Time to "Retire" Tikkun Olam... Continue reading

Naomi Lipstein is the Communications Manager of OLAM. This opinion piece was originally published in eJewishPhilanthropy, on January 9, 2026.