Private Prisons, God’s People

A number of years ago my husband’s nephew suggested that we invest some funds with him in high-risk high-yield bonds. We did. After earning a good return, I asked my husband what his nephew had done with our money. He answered that his nephew, among other ventures, had invested in for-profit prisons. I was horrified....
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All God’s Creatures Great and Small (Parshat Noach)

The dominion over animals given to humans in Genesis 1:27, compared with the rabbis’ notion that humans were created equal to the rest of creation, is an example of God’s and our own ambivalence about being the stewards of every other plant and animal species. Noah’s care of the animals, taken in light of permission to eat them, seems to suggest that he owns them and can do what he wants with them. We, like God and our Sages, seem also to be ambivalent about our role as stewards of the rest of creation.
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To Transform Our Economic System, We Need to Challenge Inheritance

Mahlah, Noa, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah, the daughters of Zelophehad, recognize and name another crisis, which is that the inheritance laws are set so that families with only daughters are unable to inherit land and instead their families lose their access to land. The five women respond powerfully to the crisis of their father’s death, and a structural shortcoming, with an eye towards intergenerational shifts rather than short-term reform.
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Rabbi Karen Bender and HUC student Samantha Thal

Sukkot: Sukkot and the Human Right of Dwelling Safely

Perhaps Sukkot is the festival of understanding our journey, for journeys have no concrete and steel foundations, only earth and sandy feet. And the yearning that should come out of this collective memory must be a passionate commitment to end homelessness everywhere, physical, spiritual, or national.
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Photo of the author, Rabbi Alanna Sklover

Tzav: We Are the Stranger

We know the heart of the stranger and we cannot allow ourselves to lose sight of these people, or allow statistics to blur them and their lives into a faceless “issue.”
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Judiciary Committee Hearing - State House Tuesday July 25 at 1 pm. Join us tinyurl.com/FreeHerHearing. #NoNewWomensPrison

MASSACHUSETTS: Second Hearing for the Prison Moratorium

For the last two years, T’ruah clergy and their communities have been organizing in support of the #NoNewWomensPrison campaign — an effort to stop a $50 million women’s prison project and instead invest in Massachusetts communities most affected by incarceration. The legislative centerpiece of the campaign is the Prison and Jail Construction Moratorium, which, on Tuesday, July 25th,...
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Preaching for the High Holidays: A Webinar for Student Clergy

Preaching on the High Holidays: A Webinar for Student Clergy

On Tuesday, August 22 at 3:00 p.m. ET, join T’ruah staff for an hour at the start of Elul to generate ideas and learn skills that will help us be more effective in our moral leadership from the bimah and for advice on how to avoid common pitfalls and make the most of your time on the bimah.
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