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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A Q&A with Charlottesville’s Rabbi Tom Gutherz and Rabbi Rachel Schmelkin

On Aug. 12, 2017 Rabbi Tom Gutherz and Rabbi Rachel Schmelkin of Charlottesville’s Congregation Beth Israel — the city’s only synagogue — confronted a nightmare in their backyard: the horrifying Unite the Right Nazi rally. T’ruah was the only major national Jewish organization with a presence at the counter-protests that day. T’ruah honored both rabbis...
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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...
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This Yom HaAtzma’ut, let’s look forward, not backward

(Pictured: Rabbinical and cantorial students attend an educational trip in the West Bank with T’ruah.) Yom HaAtzma’ut, Israeli Independence Day, begins tonight. It is a day of pride for many Jews around the world, as we celebrate the creation of the State of Israel 74 years ago. Yet there is no question that it is...
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The promise of liberation is not for us alone

April 7, 2020 My Seder table, perhaps like yours, will be notably emptier this year — just my husband, our daughters, and me — instead of the usual assortment of family, friends, and people we’ve collected along the way. For many of us, this is the most difficult Pesach we’ve experienced, as we’re separated — at least...
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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...
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Stop Torture Now: A Complete Rabbinic Sourcebook

This is T’ruah’s primary resource booklet on government-sponsored torture, originally published in 2005. It includes the shorter versions of Rabbi Melissa Weintraub’s articles on torture and Jewish law, insertions for High Holidays services, materials for study and discussion, and the original public letter to the Bush Administration, signed by over 800 rabbis and cantors. The full-length versions...
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