Your Joy Is Your Sorrow Unmasked

A week ago Sunday, marked by the new moon of the Jewish month of Adar, I spent the day at the Mount Carmel Cemetery in Northeast Philadelphia, bearing witness to the desecration of 539 gravestones. Joining with Muslim, Quaker and Christian neighbors, people of faith and conscience, our hands in the earth restoring headstones, as...
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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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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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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...
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A Commitment to Justice Means Remembering Our Tribes

But whether or not the Sinai wilderness was ever ownerless as the midrash suggests, in North America, the so-called wildernesses never have been. Those places — and indeed every square mile of North America — have always been, and continue to be, the home of specific tribes of Indigenous peoples.
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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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Elul Community Canvass for the #NoNewWomensPrison Campaign - Monday, 8/21 6:00 - 8:00 P.M. Davis Square - Ten Figures Statues Park Join T'ruah MA, Temple B'nai Brith, Boston Workers Circle, and Kavod as we chat with our neighbors about the MA campaign to stop construction of a $50 million new women's prison and to instead invest in reimagining communities. We will be rallying support for two of Families for Justice as Healing's policy priorities: the Prison Moratorium and Elder Parole. Image description: a group of people hold a sign and smile at the camera. The sign says "Reimagining Communities"

Elul Community Canvass for the #NoNewWomensPrison Campaign

Join T’ruah clergy, Temple B'nai Brith, Boston Workers’ Circle, Kavod, and members of the Greater Boston Jewish community in talking with neighbors about two of Families for Justice as Healing and The National Council’s policy priorities: the prison moratorium and elder parole!
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