![](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/US-Census-2020Logo.png)
Counting everyone, including the stranger, for the 2020 Census
A d’var Torah for Parshat Naso. “The Eternal one spoke to Moses: Take a census.” This week’s Torah portion, Naso, focuses on one of the multiple censuses that was carried out, the census of the Levites in the desert. This year in the U.S. is our year to carry out the census — to be...
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Report from El Paso, November 2019
A firsthand account from Rabbi Jill Jacobs, T'ruah Executive Director, of the joint T'ruah-HIAS border delegation, November 2019.
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![Photo of the author, Rabbi Toba Spitzer](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rabbi-Toba-Spitzer-Portrait-Sizer.jpg)
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?
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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...
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![](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Kalisch.jpg)
Paying Priests, Paying Parents
This past weekend, many of us celebrated Father’s Day to honor the important work our dads do. A month ago, we did the same thing to honor our mothers: BBQs and brunches, phone calls and cards in the mail, “Number 1 Mom” mugs and “World’s Best Dad” baseball caps. As a congregational rabbi, I spend...
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![Rabbi Lisa D. Grant, Ph.D.](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Rabbi-Lisa-D.-Grant.png)
Sukkot: The Tikkun of Climate Action
Let Sukkot be our call to action this year. May it give us the spiritual resolve to live in the midst of great uncertainty and challenge, and to take action to pursue climate justice in this vast interconnected world of ours.
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Yitro: This and That, One Year Post-Inauguration
One year later, we acknowledge that the day-to-day work of governing is unceremonious. Righting past wrongs is not a singular event but a process that requires constant attention, and the significance of this first year is unclear in the moment. Like the rabbinic connection of Shavuot to Matan Torah, it will be left to future generations to discern if this one-year mark warrants a celebration.
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