Featured Resources

Photo of the author, Rabbi Jenna Shaw

Chukat: Moses, the Rock, and Me

This, to me, is the Torah: It is liberation. It is the release that comes from being seen, truly seen, in our whole, struggling, imperfect selves.

WATCH: When Israel Breaks Your Heart

A briefing with Breaking the Silence about the current reality in Israel, the plan for Gaza, and the mass devastation in Gaza from a lens of understanding of the military and the work needed to build a just future.

Criticism of Israel and Antisemitism: How to Tell Where One Ends and the Other Begins

In this time of inflamed passions, it’s crucial both to ensure that criticism of Israel does not cross the line into antisemitism, and to protect the free speech of those protesting Israel’s actions.

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Amplifying My ‘Still, Small Voice’ to Testify against Human Trafficking

by Seth Goldstein
Living and serving the Jewish community in a state capital has its advantages, the primary one of which is the proximity to government. As the rabbi at Temple Beth Hatfiloh in Olympia, Washington, I am keenly aware of what happens in the state legislature. In my case I have literal proximity, my synagogue is literally...
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Fighting For Fair Food At the Trader Joe’s Headquarters

by Suzanne Singer
Note from T'ruah: Thanks to the pressure from CIW, T'ruah, and tens of thousands of allies, Trader Joe's joined the Fair Food Program in February, 2012. We include this d'var torah on our website as a reminder of how taking action on a campaign for justice can bring about lasting change.
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Inspiration in Immokalee

by Toba Spitzer
I didn’t know what to expect when I went to visit the Coalition of Immokalee Workers this past February, with a delegation of rabbis organized by Rabbis for Human Rights. Since Dorshei Tzedek became involved with CIW’s Fair Food Campaign two years ago, I’ve learned that this farmworker organization has had remarkable success in getting...
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Slavery, Then and Now

by Gordon Tucker
In this moving sermon, Rabbi Gordon Tucker discusses the problem of modern slavery and describes his experience visiting sites from the African slave trade. SLAVERY THEN AND NOW Rabbi Gordon Tucker   The Torah, in Leviticus 25:55, has God saying “The children of Israel are My servants”, and the rabbinic tradition afterwards added the following...
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Tomato on the Seder Plate

by Rabbi Lev Meirowitz Nelson
This ritual, developed by T’ruah and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, places a tomato on the seder plate in recognition of the farmworker who picked the tomato and their struggles for justice.
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Universal Declaration of Human Rights

by Rabbi Barbara Penzner, Dr. Susannah Sirkin, Diane Paulus, Cantor Nancy Abramson, Rabbi Gilah Langner
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted by the UN on December 10, 1948, is one of the foundational documents of the human rights movement. At T’ruah, we think of it as a modern prophetic text, a vision of the redeemed world where all people’s rights will be protected. Communities who celebrate Human Rights...
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Resources from our allies: Just Vision

An introduction to the work of Just Vision and the film The Wanted 18.
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Misheberach for Hunger Strikers

by Lev Meirowitz Nelson
May the One who blessed our ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah— Who was with our brother Joseph in the pit and in prison, and with Miriam when she was isolated from the camp for seven days— bless and heal all those who are engaged in hunger strikes against torture and...
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Beyond Guantanamo

by Tom Wilner, Gita Gutierrez
Transcript of presentation by lawyers Tom Wilner and Gita Gutierrez from Rabbis for Human Rights-North America’s 2008 conference. They discuss their work on behalf of detainees currently held in Guantanamo. They offer solutions for how to better bring some of these men to justice, and meditate on the values that inform their work.
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Heart of a Stranger: The Jewish Historical Memory of Torture

by Melissa Weintraub
You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of the stranger, having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt. -Ex. 23:9 You were strangers in the land of Egypt reminds us that we have experienced the great suffering that one in a foreign land feels. By remembering the pain which we...
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