Lexi Erdheim

Lexi Erdheim is a rabbinical student at HUC-JIR. She is originally from Livingston, NJ and attended Barnard College, where she majored in religion. She wrote her senior thesis on media representations of Mormons during the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics. Lexi is excited to be working with T’ruah again after serving as their Israel Advocacy Intern...
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Ronit Schlam

Prior to finding her path on the Jewish social justice circuit by joining the T’ruah team in 2011, Ronit (she/her) enjoyed a career in performing arts. She helped launch and run the Castleton Festival, an annual international opera festival under the artistic direction of Maestro Lorin Maazel, and has worked for and consulted with organizations...
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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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Immigration Justice

“Therefore, love the ger*: for you were gerim in the land of Egypt.” -Deuteronomy 10:19 Most immigrants to the U.S. come seeking safety, freedom, and a better life, just as many of our families did. Jewish texts, history, traditions, and values compel us to welcome them with dignity and compassion. But our country’s policies towards...
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Bring Human Rights Shabbat to Your Community

On Human Rights Shabbat, we celebrate the deep intersections between Judaism and human rights. Since 2008, nearly 500 communities have joined this celebration. Human Rights Shabbat is observed on the Shabbat closest to International Human Rights Day, December 10, which is the anniversary of the UN’s adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We...
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Modern Day Slavery and Human Trafficking

“This year we are slaves; next year, may we be free.” —Passover Haggadah “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all other forms.” —Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 4 T’ruah is leading the charge in the Jewish community against modern-day slavery and human trafficking,...
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Ben Goldberg

Ben Goldberg is a rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, where he is also earning an MA in Midrash, and will be ordained in 2018. During the 2016-7 school year, Ben was Rabbinic Intern at Rutgers University Hillel and also at Congregation Beth Israel in Scotch Plains, NJ. During previous rabbinical...
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Rabbi Kliel Rose

Rabbi Y. Kliel Rose is the spiritual leader of Beth Shalom located in Edmonton, Alberta. Kliel was born in Jerusalem to a rabbinical family and grew up in Winnipeg, Canada. Kliel earned a BA in Judaic studies from Gratz College, in Philadelphia, after which he studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS). As a student, Kliel...
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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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