Justice for the Land and Its Inhabitants

Commentary on Parshat Behar (Leviticus 25:1 – 26:2) In Leviticus 25, the Torah famously explains the practice of the sabbatical year (shmitah) and the jubilee year (yovel), in which those who work the land refrain from farming in order to let the land rest. It’s not hard to see a connection between the ancient practice...
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The Audacious Yehudah

As a concerned young adult living in Bangkok, I tried to make sense of the brokenness around me by doing volunteer work with like-minded meditation practitioners. Following the social action trail, we found ourselves in one of the many refugee villages along the Laotian/Thai border that continued to exist in the decade after the fall...
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Privacy Policy

Privacy Notice This privacy notice discloses the privacy practices for T’ruah and our website, https://www.truah.org, and for our forms on clickandpledge.com and salslabs.org. This privacy notice applies solely to information collected by these websites. It will notify you of the following: What information we collect; With whom it is shared; How it can be corrected;...
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Communities of Practice

What is a community of practice? A T’ruah community of practice will bring together 10-15 chaverim in good standing for shared learning and support as they work to advance human rights in a particular field. Each person is working on the issue independently, in their own rabbinate/cantorate — the group leaning is meant to enhance...
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You Can’t Leave Anyone Behind

I love Israel. But I could never live in a place called “the Jewish homeland” when progressive Jews are treated as second-class citizens. In Israel, the Orthodox establishment controls matters of personal status – primarily conversions and marriages. Jews who wish to be married, religiously, by a Conservative, Reconstructionist, or Reform rabbi generally leave the...
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Private Prisons, God’s People

A number of years ago my husband’s nephew suggested that we invest some funds with him in high-risk high-yield bonds. We did. After earning a good return, I asked my husband what his nephew had done with our money. He answered that his nephew, among other ventures, had invested in for-profit prisons. I was horrified....
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