A personal note in the midst of COVID-19

March 13, 2020 I’m writing first to send love and good wishes to everyone in the T’ruah community. I know that all of us are feeling a heightened sense of anxiety as we hunker down at home, quarantine ourselves, cope with our own illnesses or those of friends and family, and mourn the chance to...
read more

California Organizer

T’ruah is seeking a California Organizer to build relationships with T’ruah clergy in our two California clusters in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, developing pathways for engagement and leadership. This person will add value by strategizing with the organizing team on how to fully leverage T’ruah’s power to advance campaigns for justice that make...
read more

Guest Editor

T’ruah is seeking a temporary Guest Editor for Emor’s upcoming seasonal publication, Fragments, with a focus on the issue of democracy. The ideal candidate is an experienced writer and editor who is skilled at working with writers across lines of difference (particularly when holding intersectional identities), and who is familiar with the evolving social, political,...
read more

Movement Chaplaincy Course 2022

Are you a rabbi, cantor or rabbinical/cantorial student interested in providing spiritual, emotional, and relational support to those on the front lines of today’s movements for justice? Are you looking for ways to make your own justice work more committed, resilient, sustainable, and spiritually rooted? Join T’ruah’s Movement Chaplaincy community of practice as we move...
read more

Cleaning up the mess together

One of my favorite programs at my synagogue is our B’nei Mitzvah family retreat. At the beginning of the summer, we take our incoming seventh grade families to camp for the weekend. It’s remarkable: relationships between kids change, parents get to know each other, and, after the Bar or Bat Mitzvah, we keep most of...
read more

The Holiness of Dwelling

“I am a nester,” my friend said just weeks before Pesach, as we pondered the ramifications of her house having been dismantled for mold remediation. Her home is sacred space for her, a place set apart to replenish herself. Normally, she would have been cooking up a storm in her house. Instead, we baked a...
read more

Holding Onto the Image in Every Human Being, Even One’s Adversary

In the militia headquarters in Odessa decades ago, I was surrounded by harsh interrogators who castigated my friend and me for visiting Russian Jews, who were aliens in their eyes. I felt anger and even hatred at these leaders and their many followers who had made Jewish life impossible for a large segment of our...
read more

Parashat Bamidbar: The Imperative to Provide Refuge

My father’s family were refugees from Vienna, who fled just before World War II broke out, but not before my grandfather had been deported to Dachau. He remained incarcerated there from November 13, 1938, until January 19, 1939. He knew he had to leave Austria with his family. But leaving wasn’t easy. First, it meant...
read more

Not By Might: My Israel/Palestine

I am starting to write this from a cramped seat on an El Al flight to join the Center for Jewish NonViolence action from May 14-23 in the West Bank. I’ve been asked to drash Beha’alotecha in light of this trip, but, full disclosure, I have to write now because there won’t be enough time after...
read more

Sign up for updates and action alerts