![](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Julie-Danan-portrait.jpg)
Opening the Door at Passover
At the first Passover, we marked our doorposts with the blood of a sacrificial lamb to protect us from the Angel of Death (Exodus 12:23). Although that was a one-time ritual, doors continue to be a central symbol of the holiday. It is a symbol that seems more relevant than ever in an age when nativism...
read more
![](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/IMG_1476-1-1024x862.jpg)
Our Positions & Policies
Two Sovereign States for Israelis and Palestinians The world is sustained by justice, truth and peace: דין אמת ושלום. As rabbis, cantors, and Jewish community members who love and care deeply about Israel, we believe that a just and secure future for Israelis and Palestinians will best be achieved by a negotiated resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict...
read more
![Cantor Sheri Allen](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Cantor-Sheri-Allen-Portrait.png)
Shemot: The Burning Bush in my Backyard
Despite his reservations, [Moses] is able to see that God’s presence illuminates even the most unassuming, seemingly dark and thorny places. May we, with all our insecurities, do the same.
read more
![](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Elli-Sarah-Tikvah-683x1024.jpg)
Parashat Bamidbar: The Imperative to Provide Refuge
My father’s family were refugees from Vienna, who fled just before World War II broke out, but not before my grandfather had been deported to Dachau. He remained incarcerated there from November 13, 1938, until January 19, 1939. He knew he had to leave Austria with his family. But leaving wasn’t easy. First, it meant...
read more
![](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/lezak-e1482380276406.jpg)
Peering Outside the Camp
“Joseph’s master had him put in prison…but even while he was there in prison, God was with Joseph.” -Genesis 39:20-21 Bulletproof glass separates me and my congregant. David [not his real name] and I sit opposite one another, in identical, soundproof, cinder-block visiting cubicles at a prison an hour’s drive from my home. He’s wearing...
read more
![](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/TfT-logo-600x600-e1525114857372.png)
Every Person Counts? (Parshat Bamidbar)
Commentary on Parshat Bamidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20) Our Torah portion opens with the taking of another census of B’nai Yisrael – the Children of Israel – this time “listed by their clans, ages 20 years and up, all those in Israel who are able to bear arms…” (Num. 1:2) This is census number three since the...
read more
![](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/TfT-logo-600x600-e1525114857372.png)
Those who served their time deserve a second chance (Shabbat Nachamu)
A d’var Torah on Shabbat Nachamu Clarence Office, Jr., of Miami, FL, served in the U.S. Army for three years in the 1970s and was honorably discharged. Like many veterans, Clarence tragically fell into drug use and was arrested for drug offenses. He served a prison term and paid his debt to society. Clarence now...
read more