Where it comes from
The idea begins on the first page of the Bible. Genesis 1:27 says that God created humankind in the divine image, male and female. The verse speaks of every human being, not of one people or one faith.
The Mishnah (Sanhedrin 4:5) draws out the lesson. Humanity began with a single person, it teaches, so that no one could ever say to another, “my ancestor was greater than yours.” It adds a striking image: a king stamps many coins from one mould and they all look alike, but every human being is stamped from the mould of the first person, and no two are the same.
What it means
If every person bears the divine image, then no one may be treated as worthless, and no one’s dignity depends on their wealth, origin, faith or usefulness. The second-century sage Ben Azzai went so far as to call the verse about the shared descent of all humanity an even greater principle of the Torah than “love your neighbour as yourself.”
In every faith, and for none
Christianity inherited the same verse from Genesis. Many other traditions, and modern ideas of human rights, express a similar conviction: that human dignity is not earned and cannot be taken away. You do not need to share any theology to recognise the idea in the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
Lives that embody it
Many of the people on Jews Impact lived this value, in laboratories, courtrooms, classrooms and rescue work.
Raphael LemkinPolish-Jewish jurist who coined the word “genocide” in 1944 and campaigned almost single-handedly until the United Nations outlawed the crime in 1948.
HLHersch LauterpachtGalician-born Cambridge jurist who put the individual at the heart of international law, helped bring “crimes against humanity” to Nuremberg, and sat on the World Court.
Ruth Bader GinsburgU.S. Supreme Court Justice; pioneer of gender equality jurisprudence; co-founded the ACLU Women's Rights Project.
René CassinFrench-Jewish jurist, war-wounded veteran and Free French lawyer who was a principal drafter of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Nobel Peace Prize 1968.
Janusz KorczakWarsaw paediatrician, author and orphanage director who championed children’s rights, then refused rescue and went with his orphans to Treblinka in August 1942.
Elie WieselHolocaust survivor; author of "Night"; Nobel Peace Prize laureate, 1986.
Stories to read
Living it today
- Treat the person no one notices with the same respect as the person everyone notices.
- Learn the name of someone who serves you every day.
- Speak up when anyone is mocked or diminished for who they are.
This value is one thread of tikkun olam, the repair of the world, and it belongs to anyone who wants to take part.