The Human Right to Have a Child

Commentary on Rosh Hashanah Torah and Haftarah readings. Reproductive rights have been hijacked. When someone mentions the phrase “reproductive rights,” the first things that usually come to mind are either birth control or abortion. However, the ability to prevent pregnancy is only part of reproductive rights. What about the right to have a child? This...
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I believe in the worth of every human life

March 27, 2020 As the weeks go on, I’m hearing from more and more of you who are ill yourselves, worrying about friends or family who are ill, or mourning deaths. I’m sending much love and prayers for healing your way. This week has been dominated by conversations about how many deaths would be acceptable...
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purple and yellow graphic that says T'ruah at 20

Rabbi Gerry Serotta: T’ruah at 20

Throughout 2022, T’ruah will be sharing reflections from chaverim, staff, board members, students, alumni and more in celebration of our 20th anniversary. Rabbi Gerry Serotta was Organizer of the North American Rabbinic Cabinet in Support of Rabbis for Human Rights in 1999 and Chair of the Board of RHR-NA from 2002-2009.  R. Judah ben Tema associates reaching the...
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Open Letter to President Biden Urging U.S. to Protect Democracy and Human Rights for Israelis and Palestinians

If you are a rabbi, cantor, or rabbinical or cantorial student, please add your name here. President Joseph R. BidenThe White House1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NWWashington, D.C. 20500 Dear President Biden: We the undersigned are rabbis, cantors and rabbinical and cantorial students affiliated with T’ruah, a rabbinic human rights organization representing over 2,300 rabbis and cantors...
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Genesis and Gender

Chapter one of Breshit presents an account of creation that provides the ontological foundation for human rights. God creates human beings in the divine image. And having done so, God proclaims that the entire creation is “very good.” The great Hasidic teacher the Kedushat Levi, riffing on the line in the morning prayer “yotzer or...
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Our Impact

We organize, train, and support more than 2,300 rabbis and cantors across 47 states and 5 Canadian provinces who are chaverim (members) of T’ruah. Emor, the Institute for Bold Jewish Thought, delves deep into Jewish wisdom, and facilitates conversations among rabbis, scholars, practitioners, and lay leaders that tackle the most important moral and political questions...
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Refugees, Again: A Learning and Solidarity Visit to the Bedouin Village of Umm al-Hiran with Rabbis for Human Rights

Join the Truah Year-in-Israel Program in partnership with Rabbis for Human Rights’s Tu B’Shvat Tiyyul to Tel Aviv’s Givat Amal neighborhood on Friday, February 10, 2017. The tiyyul is entitled We Are Not Invaders: The Mizrahi Struggle Against Eviction in Tel Aviv's Givat Amal Neighborhood. Learn about this Mizrahi working-class neighborhood’s history since its establishment in the 1950s.
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Meet our 2024 Gala Honorees

Raphael Lemkin Human Rights Award From the arts, to the United Nations, to Human Rights Watch, Marina Kaufman has dedicated her life to human rights for all people. In 1978, she became involved with an organization called the University for Peace in Costa Rica, where she was one of the “producers” of a benefit concert...
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Who Feels the Pain? (Parshat VaEra)

Commentary on Parshat Vaera (Exodus 6:2 – 9:35) Who deserves human rights? Even the Torah has its blind spots. The Torah portion VaEra describes an escalating cycle. As YHWH predicts, Moses and Aaron confront Pharaoh and he refuses to free the Israelites. A plague strikes, and Pharaoh relents. The plague is removed by divine intervention,...
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