Join the Network of Rabbis and Cantors

Join more than 2,300 of your colleagues in bringing a Jewish moral voice to human rights in North America, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories. T’ruah chaverim are rabbis and cantors who stand up to be counted as human rights leaders, nationally and in their own communities. Being part of our chaverim network gives you...
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Sent Out of the Camp

This week’s parashah deals with a somewhat puzzling disease, called tzara’at, often translated as “leprosy.” As the Torah describes it, it’s an affliction that could appear on human skin, on clothes, or even infect houses. It’s not clear if the affliction is truly physical, as Leviticus seems to indicate, or if it’s a physical manifestation of...
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Holy Disruption

You could imagine the look on people’s faces when a group of rabbis, donned in kippot and talitot, walked into their Publix Supermarket in Florida this past December. On a delegation to support the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) in their fight for dignity and human rights for Florida tomato farmers, we went to the...
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Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend

“Diamonds are a girl’s best friend,” so the song says. And so might be rubies, sapphires, amethysts, and the whole gamut of precious and semi-precious stones that shine and shimmer when dangling from a bracelet or sitting pretty in a ring. And why not – they sparkle and shine, and the many variations and colors...
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Inescapable Face

“There is a commandment in the appearance of the face, as if a master spoke to me. However, at the same time, the face of the Other is destitute; it is the poor for whom I can do all, and to whom I owe all. “ —Emmanuel Levinas Rabbi Joshua, the son of Levi, said: at...
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Heart of a Stranger: The Jewish Historical Memory of Torture

You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of the stranger, having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt. -Ex. 23:9 You were strangers in the land of Egypt reminds us that we have experienced the great suffering that one in a foreign land feels. By remembering the pain which we...
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The Paradox of Havdalah

This is the law of the animal, the bird, every living soul that swarms in the water, and for every creature that creeps on the ground; to distinguish between the impure and the pure, and between creatures that may be eaten and the creatures that may not be eaten.  (Lev. 11:47; Artscroll translation) Parashat Shmini...
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The Voice Trembles

A few weeks ago I sat in a hearing room of the Washington State House Judiciary Committee. I was there to testify on behalf of a coalition of interfaith and Jewish groups for passage of a bill that would hopefully limit gun violence in my state. The bill would create an “extreme risk protection order,”...
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To Change Or Be Unchanged

When we tell others the stories of our lives, we often find ourselves spicing up the narrative a bit as we tell and retell the story. It’s only human to exaggerate a bit, especially if our audiences don’t seem to be giving the stories the attention we feel that they deserve. Our additions add an...
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