Delegates and community leaders representing Noahide communities across six continents gathered in Jerusalem on Monday for the opening of the First International Congress of Noahides.
Organized by the Jerusalem-based Noahide World Center (Brit Olam) under the leadership of President Rabbi Oury Cherki, the five-day gathering convenes at the Seven Arches Hotel on the Mount of Olives.
Noahides: Non-Jews who observe Jewish traditions
The event marks the first time scattered communities adhering to the Seven Laws of Noah, representing active groups spread across more than 70 countries globally, have come together to establish permanent organizational structures and global governing bodies.
Noahides are non-Jews who accept and observe what Jewish tradition calls the Seven Laws of Noah: universal moral imperatives derived from the Torah that prohibit idolatry, blasphemy, murder, theft, sexual immorality, and cruelty to animals, while mandating the establishment of a legal system of justice.
Unlike proselytizing traditions, Judaism does not seek to convert non-Jews to Judaism, maintaining a clear distinction between the two; instead, it establishes an autonomous spiritual path rooted in ancient biblical covenant.
While remaining entirely distinct from Judaism, Noahides turn to the Torah and traditional rabbinical authorities for spiritual guidance on living a righteous life under these covenantal laws, seeing the Hebrew Bible as their foundational text for ethical monotheism.
Structured as a founding assembly rather than a standard conference, participants, guided by Rabbi Cherki, senior lecturer at Machon Meir and leader of the Bayit Yehuda community in Jerusalem's Kiryat Moshe neighborhood, are taking part in working sessions dedicated to building shared institutional frameworks. These efforts include establishing the first international Beit Din, a rabbinical court of guidance with Rabbi Cherki serving as Chief Justice alongside senior and regional judges.
The schedule includes workshops focused on developing foundational texts, such as the Brit Shalom legal codex, authored by Rabbi Cherki to serve as a practical guide detailing how the Seven Laws of Noah apply to everyday life, and the Brit Olam siddur, a universal prayer book adapted for Noahides to address God directly.
Additional sessions include drafting a unified educational syllabus, organizing six continental regional councils, and establishing a three-arm financial funding model under a signed Founding Charter. Alongside working sessions, delegates are participating in guided heritage tours across ancient Jerusalem and Shilo, where the historical Mishkan (Tabernacle) once stood.
Rabbi Singer's counter-missionary record
Rabbi Tovia Singer, a prominent public speaker and the founder and director of Outreach Judaism, an international counter-missionary organization dedicated to responding to fundamentalist Christian groups and cults that target Jews for conversion, opened the congress.
Through his extensive public lectures and counter-missionary media production aimed at keeping Jews connected to traditional Judaism and away from Christian missionary groups, Singer inadvertently reached a broad non-Jewish audience over the years, leading many seekers to study his material and ultimately choose to become Noahides.
Reflecting on the historical significance of the gathering, Singer noted that the hotel they are staying in was built when Jewish access to East Jerusalem was restricted and that its return fulfills biblical prophecy. Singer told the delegates, "This hotel was completed in 1964... the people who built it never dreamed that the Jews would ever return here.
There were no Jews in Jerusalem for 19 years, from 1948 to 1967. The people who built this building thought that the Jewish people and the nations of the world who worship the God of Israel would never return. But I've got a Bible... that tells us days are coming, saith the Lord, that all the nations speak in a pure speech of one accord. Welcome to the first international congress."
Addressing the assembly, prominent Chabad Rabbi Manis Friedman also blessed the gathering, emphasizing that humanity is reaching a tipping point where individuals across all cultures and philosophies are recognizing the reality of God.
Friedman told the delegates that serving the Creator through everyday actions, whether making bread, producing goods, or fulfilling professional duties, makes every human being a universal partner in creation.
Detailing the broader vision ahead of the congress, Rabbi Yehuda HaKohen, head of Brit Olam's English-language division, emphasized that the congress goes beyond the seven Noahide laws to focus on a grander historical turning point.
"What this is really about is how a non-Jew partners with the nation of Israel in fixing the world and bringing history to its goal," HaKohen noted, framing the event as a monumental step forward where communities around the globe unite following the revival of Jewish sovereignty and self-determination in the modern era.
HaKohen told The Jerusalem Post, “Until now we’ve been focused on protecting ourselves from external threats, but we’ve reached a point in our development where we need to formulate a universalist orientation. At a time when liberal ideology is collapsing under the weight of its own contradictions and the US-led global order is crumbling, Israel has an opportunity to present a universal vision that can lead humanity into a better future.”
Critics to Noahide congress
While organizers and participants view the congress as a historic milestone, the event has drawn sharp criticism online, particularly among some conservative evangelical and independent Christian commentators.
Online platforms and prophecy programs, such as the Lion of Judah channel, have broadcast warnings about the Noahide movement and the congress, arguing that establishing international rabbinical courts and centralized global frameworks for non-Jews parallels apocalyptic prophecies concerning a single, enforced world religion and the suppression of traditional Christian faith.
Critics point specifically to traditional rabbinical rulings, such as those codified by Maimonides, which classify mainstream Trinitarian Christian worship as Avodah Zarah (idolatry) under the strict prohibitions of Noahide law.
The gathering is set to include two defining ceremonial milestones: the signing of the founding document and a formal reception scheduled for Thursday at Beit HaNasi, the official residence of the President of the State of Israel.
Rabbi Oury Cherki said, “On the day after the declaration is signed, a Noahide in Manila or in Texas will no longer stand alone before his questions. Communities will be recognized, leadership will be accountable, and a living connection to Jerusalem will be restored. We are moving from scattered individuals to a covenantal structure, and that is the difference between a sentiment and a civilization.”
“For two thousand years the nations were asked to watch Israel from the outside. This is the first time they are being received inside, not as guests, but as builders of the same structure. We are not adding a second floor to an old building. In Jerusalem, together, we are pouring a new foundation,” said Rabbi Chaim Goldberg, CEO of the Noahide World Center.
Rod Bryant, a Texas-based Noahide leader, told The Jerusalem Post, “This Congress has given new life to the international Noahide leaders who have been alone in the world. This week has exceeded all expectations. Bringing unity among our international Noahide partners and the nation of Israel.”
Follow us on GoogleSource: The Jerusalem Post · ALEX CARSON
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