“Great is work, as it gives honor
to the one who does it.”
—Nedarim 49b
Our tradition tells us that it is a Jewish moral imperative to treat workers fairly. But we know that in this country and around the world, the workplace is often ground zero for forced labor, exploitation, wage theft, and violence – especially for members of Black, brown, and undocumented communities, as well as those with temporary work visas. From the tomato fields of Immokalee, FL, to construction sites in Brooklyn, to undocumented workers excluded from COVID benefits, T’ruah rabbis and cantors across the country are in solidarity with workers standing up for dignity, equity, and safety in their workplaces.
Our work includes:
- Solidarity with farmworkers: Since 2011, T’ruah has brought more than 100 rabbis, cantors, and lay leaders to visit the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a farmworker-led organization that is transforming the Florida tomato fields from places of modern day slavery to some of the best workplaces in U.S. agriculture. The #tomatorabbis, as members of the rabbinic delegations call themselves, have gone home to involve members of their own communities in asking major corporations to join the coalition’s Fair Food Program, which raises the wages of tomato workers and ensures fair, regulated working conditions in the fields to end the conditions that have led to widespread labor trafficking and slavery. T’ruah has worked with the coalition to bring Trader Joe’s, Ahold (Stop & Shop/Giant), and Chipotle into the Fair Food Program. T’ruah has also organized Jewish communities to ask Wendy’s to join 14 major corporations in doing the same, and have partnered with the coalition to expand the Fair Food Program into additional states and crops.
- Past campaign – Selling fairly traded chocolate for Jewish holiday celebrations: T’ruah partnered with Equal Exchange and Divine Chocolate in the past to encourage Jewish communities to purchase kosher fairly traded Chanukah gelt, kosher-for-Passover chocolate, coffee, and other products.
Partners:
Read more about our approach to working in coalition here.
Internally, T’ruah strives to live our values around worker justice. Whenever possible, our products, including paper materials and t-shirts, are union printed, and we use a union cleaning company for our office. We aspire to equity, transparency, and dignity in all aspects of our hiring process and in how we treat our employees.
Featured image credit: Kevin Gay
Resources
Behar – Bechukotai: Abolish the Minimum Wage
We live in a privileged society. The Torah teaches that God judges us on how we meet our societal responsibility to provide for the most vulnerable people within our society. While we enjoy the blessings [of our privilege], we fail to meet the responsibility.
Tomato on the Seder Plate
This ritual, developed by T’ruah and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, places a tomato on the seder plate in recognition of the farmworker who picked the tomato and their struggles for justice.
Pesach: A Labor-Intensive Passover
Labor is an intersectional value. Our identity as workers must be as indispensable to us as that of once having been slaves in Egypt.