The Hebrew phrase tikkun olam—“fixing the world”—has come to be one of the most well-known concepts in American Judaism, cited even by the President. In the Talmud, the term refers to adjustments in Jewish law made to benefit the workings of society. Medieval and Renaissance kabbalists then reinvented the term to refer to a mystical correction of the cosmos. In the 20th century, the term took on a whole new life, becoming a catchall for social and political activism usually of a leftwing variety. Jonathan Krasner surveys the history and examines what it says about the evolution of Judaism in America:
Even in its recent incarnation, tikkun olam is a highly flexible concept. In the 1930s and 1940s, it was invoked in order to show the harmony between Americanism and Judaism and to demonstrate the patriotism of an insecure immigrant community. In the late 20th century, it . . . could be invoked with equal vigor and to great effect by Jewish environmentalists and feminists, community organizers and peace activists. . . . It was social justice—Jewish-style—akin to wrapping the winter solstice in Hanukkah gift paper. . . .
The secret of the rise of tikkun olam was its power to give meaning to Jewish identity by reinforcing liberal political and social values that were already deeply ingrained in the vast majority of American Jews. Most Jews had a vague sense of correlation between their Judaism and their liberalism. Tikkun olam legitimized it and gave it a name. Tikkun olam promises much and demands comparatively little in the way of sacrifice. This is its greatest strength and, perhaps, its major weakness.
Read more on Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs: http://jcpa.org/article/place-tikkun-olam-american-jewish-life1