Interest Free

It was not what one might call a typical Jewish family. She was a single mother with three children. One was a teenager and two were under five years old. Each child had a different father and the woman was living on SSI. The teenager had gone through our religious school and was now attending...
read more
Photo of the author, Rabbi Toba Spitzer

Pesach: No One Is Free Until All Are Free

How can we take on our own “marking of the doorposts” for this moment? What am I prepared to do, or say, to help bring this cursed war to an end? How might I “mark” myself as someone committed to the collective liberation of Palestinians and Israelis?
read more

The Scars of Getting Free

Many years ago I was a guest at a seder in Jerusalem. Around the table, in classic Yerushalmi (Jerusalemite) style, was a sampling of all the typical residents and tourists. Some were American, some native Israelis, some Yemenite immigrants, some religious, some heretics, some crazy. Old, young, and in between. It was a lively scene,...
read more

The Exodus from Egypt Was Only the Beginning

As Emma Lazarus taught us, “until we are all free, we are none of us free.” Even once the Israelites left that narrow place, Egypt, they were still pursued by Pharaoh and his army. They eventually came to stand at the shore of the sea, at the crossroads of history; that is where we stand today. 
read more

Previous Honorees

2023 Honorees Former Congressman Andy Levin A former member of Congress, union organizer, human rights activist, workforce policy expert and green energy entrepreneur, Andy Levin brought his unique expertise to the halls of Congress as the proud representative for Michigan’s 9th District from 2018 to 2022. While in Washington, Andy authored, cosponsored, and helped pass...
read more

Free Speech: The Gray Area

On Thursday, January 11 at 4pm ET, T’ruah invites you to begin to disentangle your thoughts on "Free Speech: The Gray Area" with T'ruah's Rabbi Jill Jacobs and Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America.
read more

“Now We Are Free”: But Who Pays the Price?

A d’var Torah for Chol HaMoed Pesach. “Let My people go,” God famously said to Moses. We usually don’t finish the quote, which ends “…so that they may serve Me.” Freedom, the rabbis say quite plainly, is another kind of servitude. The cheirut, freedom, that the Jews achieved on Passover (z’man cheiruteinu, the time of...
read more

Sign up for updates and action alerts

CLOSE
CLOSE