NEW YORK — As the verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial was announced, T’ruah, a rabbinic human rights organization representing over 2,000 rabbis and cantors and their communities in North America, released the following statement applauding the guilty conviction, while also recommitting to transforming the systems that lead to racist violence too often perpetuated by police officers, who are charged with protecting all of us – not only some of us.
Rabbi Jill Jacobs, executive director of T’ruah, released the following statement:
“‘Judgment shall again accord with justice and all the upright shall rally to it.’ (Psalm 94:15)
“We applaud the decision of a jury to hold former officer Derek Chauvin guilty on all three counts after he choked the life out of George Floyd for nine minutes and 29 seconds.
“Although one police officer has been held accountable today, the conviction addresses merely a single instance of state violence. George Floyd should still be alive today. Daunte Wright should still be alive today. Adam Toledo should still be alive today. Breonna Taylor should be alive today. And so should so many more people, mostly Black Americans and other people of color, whose names are less well known. These murders, as well as everyday harassment by police, are a sign of a criminal justice system rooted in racism and oppression. We will not fix these systems officer by officer or trial by trial.
“As moral leaders, we strive to replace these systems of injustice with systems of righteousness. We fight for an end to state violence that primarily endangers Black Americans and other communities of color, and for the establishment of systems grounded in human rights that enable all of us to live in safety, rather than using police to protect some members of society at the expense of others.
“We say once again: Black Lives Matter. And we recommit to creating a country, as well as a Jewish community, that lives by this statement. Until all of us are safe, none of us are safe.”
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights mobilizes a network of more than 2,000 rabbis and cantors from all streams of Judaism that, together with the Jewish community, act on the Jewish imperative to respect and advance the human rights of all people. Grounded in Torah and our Jewish historical experience and guided by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we call upon Jews to assert Jewish values by raising our voices and taking concrete steps to protect and expand human rights in North America, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories.