Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater

Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater is the Executive Director of Friends in Deed, a local, religious-based non-profit addressing homelessness and poverty in the greater Pasadena area. After 5 years in congregations on the east coast, he served 12 years as senior rabbi of Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center, where he established himself as an activist and...
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Free Speech and The Right to Boycott

“If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence. Only an emergency can justify repression. Such must be the rule if authority is to be reconciled with freedom.” -Justice Louis Brandeis T’ruah...
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Appropriate Responses

The rape of Jacob’s daughter Dinah by Shechem and subsequent verses (Bereshit, chapter 34) is one of the most disheartening episodes in the entire Torah. Where is Dinah’s voice in this narrative? What did Dinah think and feel? Who comforted her after such a frightening episode? Sadly, shockingly, we never hear from Dinah. She speaks...
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Education: The Building Blocks of Justice and Understanding

“In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if [they are] denied the opportunity of an education,” U.S Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren declared in the famed case of Board v. Board of Education, almost 64 years ago. Decades later, in 2009, Former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan...
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Abraham and the Unexpected Needs of Refugees

As our ancestor Abraham experienced, our most liminal moments also often coincide with moments calling for meaning-making and the rituals that bring us spiritually home. Yet few who flee by forced circumstances arrive with the means that Abraham had to purchase the dignity of sacred space and time.
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Using the Right Tools

This is as relevant for us today as it was in the Ramban’s time: That which we consume has the power to consume us. There’s nothing today we consume more than media.
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A Q&A with Charlottesville’s Rabbi Tom Gutherz and Rabbi Rachel Schmelkin

On Aug. 12, 2017 Rabbi Tom Gutherz and Rabbi Rachel Schmelkin of Charlottesville’s Congregation Beth Israel — the city’s only synagogue — confronted a nightmare in their backyard: the horrifying Unite the Right Nazi rally. T’ruah was the only major national Jewish organization with a presence at the counter-protests that day. T’ruah honored both rabbis...
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Programs Assistant

T’ruah is seeking a full-time Programs Assistant to provide logistical support across the programming department and help advance our Jewish human rights work. The ideal candidate is a highly organized, self-motivated, detail-oriented communicator with a commitment both to racial equity and learning, and to data-driven advocacy. This is an exciting time to join T’ruah at...
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Julie Fishbach

Julie Fishbach (she/her) is a rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, expecting to graduate in 2026. She grew up in the Bay Area, where she was active in Temple Isaiah’s youth groups, and worked as a counselor and Program Director at Camp Tawonga. She studied Sociocultural Anthropology and Theater at...
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