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Welcome to the Soetendorp Institute
The Jacob Soetendorp Institute for Human Values has been founded by Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp. Honoring the name of his late father, the Institute is building bridges between the religions, cultures and generations. It is guided by the imperative of tikkun olam, repairing a world that is broken for those in need, for ourselves and our future.
The basic motivation for the projects of the Soetendorp Institute was derived in Rabbi Soetendorp's moving life story, his "memory beyond memories": Having survived World War II as a hidden childed, rescued by a righteous couple who risked their lives for him, Rabbi Soetendorp has come to the conviction: When the gaze of a baby can still reach the heart, even in the deepest depravity, nothing is lost.
The Institute therefore promotes an "education of the heart" that generates hope, inspiration and empathy with other cultures, religions, and forms of life. We believe that these skills are essential for eradicating xenophobia and creating just, peaceful and sustainable communities.
Latest news
Unpublished Protect and Restore the Environment
- Details
- Published: 07 January 2009
Earth Charter Commissioner
The Earth Charter is a declaration of fundamental principles for building a just, sustainable and peaceful global society in the 21st century. It was drafted in an unprecedented international consultation process involving thousands of experts and citizens from all walks of life. Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp was part of the Earth Charter Commission of highly respected leaders that was formed in 1997 to oversee the drafting process. In the year 2000, the final version of the Earth Charter was launched at the Peace Palace in The Hague. Since then, the Charter and its integrated ethical framework for sustainable development has been endorsed by around 5.000 NGOs, educational institutions, religious communities, businesses and governments including UNESCO and the World Conservation Union IUCN.
Read more about the Global Earth Charter Initiative and its programs: www.earthcharter.org
1 – 2 December, 2008: The Earth Charter Network Meeting was held in Amsterdam, chaired by Ruud Lubbers. Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp welcomes the participants on behalf of Green Cross Netherlands. Read more about the meeting...
Green Cross Netherlands
Green Cross Nederland aims to raise awareness about the overlap between sustainable development and security in the Netherlands and worldwide. Using the holistic message of the Earth Charter as its starting point, Green Cross Nederland aims to provide tools for the betterment of the living environment, to combat poverty and to improve the standards of safety and peace worldwide, recognised as the challenges of humankind in the 21st century.
Initially Green Cross Nederland will focus on energy, water, climate and the legacy/effects of armaments on human life and the environment.
Read more...
Interfaith Climate Summit
“The purposes of the summit were;
• to communicate an urgent, hopeful, ethical-religious message to the global community about the need – especially for the developed countries – to slow down global warming, and to prevent and alleviate the effects of droughts, flooding, storms and other serious effects of climate change;
• to pledge commitment to the necessary, radical and far-reaching climate policy goals and measures in the “Post-Kyoto Process” , that the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) determine, should be realised after 2012;
• to affirm this commitment in the Uppsala Manifesto 2008, and deliver the Manifesto to; the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), as well as to the Swedish government – prior to its Presidency of the European Union in 2009 – and to the world’s governments, and to different church networks and other religions.”
Read the Uppsala Interfaith Climate Manifesto 2008: Faith traditions addressing Global Warming