Being Human - Annual Topic 2025
Introduction by Monika Pessler
“Be human!” or “Sey a mentsh, un hob rachmuness!” (“Be a mensch and have compassion!”) as they say in Yiddish—an accepted adage that life should be lived according to humanitarian principles, whether from a secular or a religious perspective. This axiom has always felt like good advice, whether for individuals or groups: from antiquity to the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and Kant’s concept of human dignity, to the present, it has repeatedly been invoked as the foundation for social and legal orders of various stripes.
