Each year, T’ruah honors a group of extraordinary clergy who demonstrate an unwavering commitment to living and working in accordance with a Torah of justice and human rights. And each year we turn to our supporters to help us find these remarkable leaders by nominating their clergy colleagues and friends. Nominations for our 2022 Rabbinic Human Rights Heroes will be reviewed by a Gala Honoree Committee made up of distinguished rabbis, T’ruah board members, and previous T’ruah honorees. Learn more about the 2022 Gala Honoree Committee members below.
Rabbi Ken Chasen is Senior Rabbi of Leo Baeck Temple in Los Angeles and a T’ruah board member. An outspoken advocate for social justice, Rabbi Chasen’s writings have appeared in numerous books and publications, including the Los Angeles Times, The Forward, Variety, Thrive Global, and The Jewish Journal, among many others. In addition, he is a member of the adjunct faculty of the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, is an appointee to Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Interfaith Leadership Collective, and is a prominent Jewish composer whose works are regularly heard in synagogues and schools around the world. He is married to Allison Lee, the Chief Development Officer of TIME’S UP, and they are the parents of three children.
Rachel Faulkner is a community organizer, coach, social justice advocate, anti-racist educator, and T’ruah board member. She has done this work through roles at City Year, Match Education, the Community Builders, and Citizens of The World Elementary School, and currently serves as the Director of Community Investments at the Safety Respect Equity Network. Additionally, Rachel served as the National Organizer for #JWOCMarching, is an alum of Bend the Arc’s Selah program, the Schusterman Foundation’s REALITY trip, and is an organizer with Black Lives Matter DC’s Cop Watch. Ultimately, Rachel is passionate about ensuring that the voices of Jewish Women of Color are centered in Judaism and in the greater world. But when she’s not busy doing that, she spends time with her daughter Ori Justice taking long walks around the nation’s capital.
Rabbi Oren J. Hayon was a recipient of the 2021 Rabbinic Human Rights Hero Award. He received his rabbinical ordination from HUC-JIR in Cincinnati in 2004. Since that time, he has held several leadership roles in the Jewish community, having served as a Vice President of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, a member of the Editorial Board of the Reform Jewish Quarterly, and as an editor, translator, and contributor of Hebrew texts and poetry for a number of books and journals.
Currently, he and his family make their home in Houston, where he serves as Senior Rabbi of Congregation Emanu El. In addition to his congregational work, he is involved in the leadership of numerous interfaith, academic, and social service organizations, and currently serves as chair of Refugee Services for Interfaith Ministries of Greater Houston, which operates one of the largest and most robust programs for resettling political refugees to the United States.
Rabbi Esther L. Lederman is the Director of Congregational Innovation at the Union for Reform Judaism and a T’ruah board member. Previously she was an associate rabbi at Temple Micah. Before moving to Washington, DC, she served as the Marshall T. Meyer Fellow at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun of Manhattan, a prestigious and competitive position in one of the most dynamic synagogues. She was ordained in May 2008 from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City.
