![](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...
read more
![](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/TfT-logo-600x600-e1525114857372.png)
Each Person, A Letter of Torah
Rabbi Kimberly Herzog Cohen writes on Bamidbar and making every person count.
read more
![](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Board-Headshots-4.png)
Juneteenth: Freedom as an Ongoing Struggle
Rabbinical Student and T'ruah board member Kelly Whitehead on Juneteenth and collective memory.
read more
![](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/2016/09/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/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...
read more
![Rabbi Adir Yolkut](https://truah.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Rabbi-Adir-Yolkut.png)
Yitro: The Jewish Case for Protecting Voting Rights in 2024
As inheritors of a multi-vocal Jewish tradition that welcomes dissent and minority opinions, allowing people the chance to freely, legally, and openly participate in the democratic process strikes me as very Jewish. So to look at some of these harsh policies that stifle the voices of the downtrodden contradicts so much of what we hold dear in Judaism.
read more