Year-in-Israel Program

***As of October 7, our in-person Israel programs are on hold. Rabbinical and cantorial students in Israel can check back here for updates.*** About the Year-in-Israel Program The T’ruah Year-in-Israel Program offers rabbinical and cantorial students spending the academic year in Israel the opportunity to develop their moral voice on human rights issues in Israel...
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Ending the Occupation

 “Cry with a full throat without restraint; Raise your voice like a shofar!” -Isaiah 58:1  Our approach to ending the occupation is grounded in human rights and a belief that all Israelis and Palestinians are created b’tzelem Elohim, in the image of the Divine, and should be treated with dignity and compassion.  As rabbis and...
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Holding the Administration Accountable

Jewish history has taught us that fascism arrives slowly, through the steady erosion of liberties. And we have learned that those who attack other minorities will eventually come to attack us. To our great dismay, we learned this truth again when, during the last election campaign, antisemitism rose to the fore, along with racism, Islamophobia,...
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Torah 20/20

This year’s Torah cycle, 5780, will accompany us through a high-stakes year in American life. Between October 2019 and October 2020, Torah 20/20 will bring Jewish wisdom to the most urgent questions of democracy in America. Fifty-two Jewish leaders and thinkers–including rabbis, writers, political leaders, and artists–will explore democracy and questions of how to build a just...
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Rabbi Jill Jacobs headshot

Rabbi Jill Jacobs

Rabbi Jill Jacobs (she/her) is the CEO of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, an organization that trains and mobilizes more than 2,300 rabbis and cantors and their communities to bring a moral voice to protecting and advancing human rights in North America, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories. She is the author of...
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Itamar Haritan

Itamar is the Program Manager for T’ruah’s Human Rights Program for Rabbinical/Cantorial Students in Israel. He is an Israeli-American translator and researcher. Itamar earned his BA in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley.  He is currently finishing his MA in Sociology and Anthropology at Tel Aviv University. In 2010-2011, he was a New Israel Fund Social...
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Rabbi Joyce Galaski

Rabbi Joyce Galaski has been the rabbi of Congregation Ahavas Achim in Westfield, Massachusetts since September 2000.  She also serves as the Jewish chaplain at the Ferst Interfaith Center at Westfield State University.  She is a 1998 graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.  Rabbi Galaski was the founding director of Jews Against Genocide in Bosnia from...
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Ariel Root Wolpe

Ariel Root Wolpe is a third year rabbinical student at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at American Jewish University in Los Angeles. She originally hails from Philadelphia, PA, and received her B.A. in religion and music at Emory University, where she was active on the Inter-Faith Council and religious life. Ariel has produced three...
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Nathan Roller

Nathan Roller is a third year rabbinical student at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at The American Jewish University in Los Angeles. He is originally from Marin County, CA. He recieved his B.A. in Religion from Whitman College where he also served as co-president of the campus Hillel. Before going to rabbinical school, he...
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