Array
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[0] => WP_Term Object
(
[term_id] => 266
[name] => Democracy and Voting Rights
[slug] => democracy-and-voting-rights
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 266
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => “A ruler is not to be appointed unless the community is first consulted.”
-Babylonian Talmud Berachot 55a
Since right-wing politicians in many states are working to undermine the basic process of voting and the people’s trust in our election institutions, the work we do is crucial to securing our rights to vote and participate in the democratic process. We work to support rabbis, cantors, and the wider Jewish community in learning and taking action to protect voting rights and the integrity of the democratic process.
We also work hard to protect the values of freedom of speech. This includes the right to boycott. Regardless of whether we support the choice of whom is being boycotted, the power to speak, not just with words, but with money, is an essential right under the First Amendment.
Our work includes:
Recruiting poll chaplains to support election sites through de-escalation.
Collaborating with A More Perfect Union to support rabbis and cantors in building relationships with their local election officials, and build trust in election processes.
Creating Jewish teachings and thought leadership on democracy through Emor.
Joining interfaith partners to advocate and build support for legislation that would support, protect, and expand the right to vote.
Partners:
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights is a 501(c)(3) and does not conduct partisan political activities in support or in opposition to any political candidate.
Learn about our related work on Free Speech and the Right to Boycott.
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[1] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 217
[name] => Ending the Occupation
[slug] => ending-the-occupation
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 217
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => "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 cantors, we care deeply about Israel’s future as a Jewish, democratic state, and as a safe haven for the Jewish people, who have suffered generations of persecution with no country of our own.
At the same time, we recognize the impact and consequences of Israel’s creation for the Palestinian people, and the many decades of suffering incurred by leaders prioritizing power over people. Since 1967, Israel has maintained a violent military occupation of Palestinian land, violating the human rights of millions each day. To ensure the long-term security, dignity, and prosperity of both Israelis and Palestinians, the occupation must end.
With T’ruah’s support, courageous Jewish clergy draw attention to the injustices done in our name.
Our work includes:
Training and educating current and future American rabbis and cantors to be the moral leaders we need. Over 80% of rabbinical and cantorial students spending their required year in Israel participate in our Year-in-Israel Program, which takes students to see human rights issues with their own eyes and meet the activists working to address them
Running trips to the West Bank for ordained Jewish clergy
Providing educational programming on specific issues and bringing the voices of Israeli and Palestinian activists and human rights experts to our community
Organizing rabbis, cantors, and their communities to take action to protect democracy in Israel and to support the human rights of both Israelis and Palestinians
Partners:
[parent] => 212
[count] => 192
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[term_order] => 7
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[2] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 253
[name] => Fighting Antisemitism
[slug] => fighting-antisemitism
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 253
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => "Love your neighbor as yourself."
-Leviticus 19:18
T'ruah is committed to standing against antisemitism in all its manifestations. As antisemitic incidents increase at an alarming rate, rabbis and cantors are often on the front lines, facing antisemitic flyering, graffiti, and vandalism; harassment and threats; and in some cases, violence. Those who wear identifiably Jewish clothing have become targets for antisemitic attacks, and the result is that Jews are increasingly concerned for their safety on the street and in the synagogue.
Education
Our approach to combatting antisemitism begins with education. It is increasingly clear that there are widespread misperceptions about antisemitism, and even about Jews and Judaism. Even among Jews, not everyone agrees on what constitutes antisemitism. Our educational resources and trainings aim to fill that gap, so that both Jews and non-Jews feel confident they can identify, name, and effectively respond to antisemitic incidents.
Fighting antisemitism in public and private
There is no one-size-fits-all response to antisemitism. While public officials must be called out for antisemitic speech, T'ruah also works privately within our coalitions and partnerships to address antisemitism — and other forms of bigotry — through conversation and education.
Valid criticism of Israel or antisemitism?
Our expertise includes defining the sometimes muddy boundary between criticism of Israel and antisemitism, which we explore in depth in our A Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism. While it is certainly true that not all criticism of Israel is antisemitic — we criticize Israel's policies every day — it is also true that criticism of Israel can sometimes devolve into antisemitism.
That said, we refuse to allow fear of antisemitism to lead us to become xenophobic or closed-off. Our approach to addressing antisemitism is deeper and broader relationships with other groups that have been marginalized, striving together towards collective liberation.
Our work includes:
- Creating educational resources for rabbis and cantors and for the public, such as our A Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism, so that Jews and non-Jews have the tools they need to better understand and recognize antisemitism when it happens.
- Delivering staff-led trainings in antisemitism for Jewish and non-Jewish organizations, as well as to elected officials.
- Developing a training in "Bystander Intervention to Stop Antisemitism" with Right To Be, so that ordinary people know how to intervene if they witness antisemitic harassment or violence. More than 700 people have completed this training.
- Advocating for sound policies that combat antisemitism and against policies that equate fighting antisemitism with suppressing criticism of Israel — policies that only make it harder to identify and stop actual antisemitism. For more on this topic, read about our campaign for Free Speech and the Right to Boycott.
- Supporting our rabbis and cantors as they encounter antisemitism in the course of their work, including through Communities of Practice, one-on-one coaching, and by creating opportunities to gain support from others in our network who have experienced similar incidents.
[parent] => 213
[count] => 35
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[term_id] => 274
[name] => Free Speech and The Right to Boycott
[slug] => free-speech-boycott-rights
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 274
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"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 is committed to fighting against concerted efforts to suppress free speech in the United States, including the right to boycott.
Currently,
about 35 states have passed or enacted laws or executive orders targeting boycotts of Israel and/or West Bank settlements. T’ruah does not endorse or participate in the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement; at the same time, we maintain committed to our country’s bedrock principle of free speech, including the right to economic boycott.
These anti-boycott laws are often passed under the guise of fighting antisemitism, but criticism of Israel — including in the form of a targeted boycott — is not inherently antisemitic. [For more on this, read our
Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism.]
Anti-BDS laws set a dangerous precedent. Lawmakers in several states have already begun proposing and passing copycat laws restricting the state from doing business with companies that ‘discriminate’ against firearms or ammunition manufacturers or fossil fuel companies.
The threat of these laws is only growing, and we are sounding the alarm.
Our work includes:
- T’ruah opposes legislation that seeks to prohibit the boycott of Israel and/or settlements. T’ruah – together with J Street and other partners in the Progressive Israel Network – has filed amicus briefs in cases in Texas, Georgia, and Arkansas, in which we affirm that boycotts must remain a protected form of free speech for all of us, and not be restricted by political whims, even when we personally or collectively disagree with the motivations behind those boycotts.
- In 2023, T’ruah will release a new resource for the general public laying out the harms of anti-BDS legislation. This brief guide will provide clarity around a contentious and confusing issue. We hope it will help Jewish clergy, elected officials, students, and everyone else in our community engage in critical conversations about our constitutional freedoms and efforts to limit free speech in the United States.
- We educate and empower rabbis and cantors to oppose legislation that seeks to codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism into domestic law or policy. The core IHRA definition itself is not problematic. However, the full definition includes a series of contemporary examples of antisemitism that wrongly equate what may be legitimate expressions of free speech with antisemitism — with real consequences for Palestinian rights activists, educators, human rights organizations, and others — while making it harder to fight actual antisemitism.As an organization committed to holding Israel accountable for its human rights abuses as well as to stopping antisemitism wherever it occurs, the codification of IHRA and the spread of anti-BDS laws directly endanger our work and that of our partners.
Partners
[parent] => 266
[count] => 14
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[4] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 273
[name] => Funding Transparency
[slug] => funding-transparency
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 273
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"These are the records of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle of the Pact, which were drawn up at Moses’ bidding..."
-Exodus 38:21
According to Midrash, after the Mishkan (Tabernacle) was completed, some Israelites accused Moses of misusing their donations. Moses’ response was a full accounting of every piece of jewelry, gold, and precious stone that the people had offered.
We should ask no less of our communal leaders today.
T’ruah seeks transparency and accountability in how U.S. donor funds are spent in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. A "follow the money" approach not only brings transparency to the foreign actors shaping realities on the ground, but has the potential to reduce the funding these groups receive and meaningfully reduce their ability to do harm.
Our work includes:
Ending tax benefits for terrorists.
T'ruah shines light on far-right American Jewish charities that fund Israeli terrorist groups — in direct violation of U.S. law, which forbids tax-exempt dollars from going to terrorist organizations.
Since 2016, T'ruah has filed a series of complaints with the IRS about the Central Fund of Israel (CFI), the Charity of Light Fund, and others.
T’ruah achieved a major victory in 2016, after exposing that Honenu — a group that was giving cash payments to Israelis convicted of terrorism and to their families — was receiving tax exempt donations through the Central Fund of Israel, a U.S. foundation. The IRS investigated, and Central Fund of Israel cut off funding to Honenu until the latter ended this practice.
In 2022, we organized a letter from 19 prominent New York City rabbis to the donor-advised Jewish Communal Fund, warning them that some of their donors' money is making its way to Lehava via CFI. In the past 20 years, JCF has sent over $23 million to the Central Fund of Israel, which in turn funds groups that funnel money to Lehava, a militant offshoot of Kahane Chai, led by Kahanist Rabbi Bentzi Gopstein. As of today, the Jewish Communal Fund has not taken action to ensure their donors' money does not fund terrorism.
Bringing attention to the far-right donors in the U.S. eroding democracy in Israel
From the American billionaires behind the Kohelet Policy Forum — originator of some of Israel's most undemocratic legislation — to the powerful Miami-based Falic family, which funnels cash to Lehava, funds from individual American donors have helped to drive the current attack on Israeli democracy, including the ongoing occupation and the chipping away of basic civil rights. Read our CEO Rabbi Jill Jacobs's op-ed in The Forward:
"How did Israeli democracy come under threat? Follow the money."
Monitoring and exposing how American Jewish charities spend U.S. donor funds to promote settlement expansion and occupation.
The American arm of the Jewish National Fund, JNF-USA, is well known for planting trees in Israel. In 2015 and 2016, as part of T'ruah's successful “Transparency in Funding” (also known as “Eifo George,” after the campaign video) campaign, we produced two videos calling on the JNF-USA to be transparent about the fact that a portion of the money it raised went over the Green Line to Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
As a result of our campaign, which was covered in the
Forward,
Haaretz and elsewhere, JNF-USA began listing its funding in Israel and the West Bank in greater (although not complete) detail on
its 990 tax forms.
[parent] => 212
[count] => 21
[filter] => raw
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[5] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 267
[name] => Immigration Justice
[slug] => immigration-justice
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 267
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"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 immigrants remain far from our shared vision. While the Trump Administration’s dangerous policies were blatantly rooted in racism, xenophobia, and white supremacy, President Biden has not made the improvements our communities have demanded.
The United States must follow international human rights law when it comes to asylum seekers, refugees, and immigrants. Our government must also recognize and redress the systemic racism that permeates our immigration system, discriminating against immigrants of color.
In the fight for true immigrant justice and relief, we need all hands on deck.
Our work includes:
- Organizing clergy through our BIMA Campaign (Building Immigration Momentum & Action), encouraging rabbis and cantors to recognize how they can use their platform to change the narrative around immigration for the better
- Human rights delegations to the southern border for clergy, with our partners at HIAS
- Coalition work through the Interfaith Immigration Coalition
- Working with the All In For Registry campaign to update our immigration laws to allow millions of longtime undocumented US residents a path to permanent legal status
- Advocating to Congress and the federal government for a more humane immigration system that welcomes asylum seekers and refugees with dignity, provides legitimate pathways to citizenship for more of our neighbors, and reduces reliance on detention and deportation.
*In the Torah, the word "ger" refers to a person who came from elsewhere, but is now a long-term or permanent resident of their new community.
Partners:
[parent] => 213
[count] => 72
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[6] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 212
[name] => Israel Campaigns
[slug] => israel-campaigns
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 212
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
[parent] => 0
[count] => 353
[filter] => raw
[term_order] => 1
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[7] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 9
[name] => Mass Incarceration
[slug] => mass-incarceration
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 9
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"Exalted and High, Mighty and Awesome, You bring low the proud and lift up the fallen; You free the imprisoned, redeem the humble, and help the poor."
-Blessing after the Shema, Morning service
Mass incarceration is a racial justice issue.
We cannot achieve real change unless we recognize and name that racism is at the root of this disaster. As Bryan Stevenson puts it: "Slavery didn't end in 1865, it just evolved." Though just 5% of the world's population lives in the United States, our country imprisons 25% of the world's incarcerated people, and people of color are disproportionately targeted.
T’ruah’s campaign to end mass incarceration engages rabbis, cantors, and their communities in making concrete change locally and nationally to our broken criminal justice system. We believe that the goal of our criminal justice system should be
teshuvah, not simply punishment. We draw inspiration from Jewish legal writings that aim to create a criminal justice system rooted in dignity and justice for both perpetrator and victim.
Our work includes:
- Organizing to end prolonged solitary confinement, which international law experts have classified as torture.
- Advocating for an end to police practices that result in disproportionate stops, arrests, and deaths of people of color.
- Organizing rabbis and their communities to protest police violence and to demand full investigations in cases of killings by police officers.
- Advocating for more just sentencing policies.
- Helping Jewish communities to volunteer with incarcerated individuals and their families, employ the formerly incarcerated, and engage in local campaigns to change state criminal justice laws.
- Educating the Jewish community about why our current system of mass incarceration benefits none of us.
- Educating our communities about the intersection between the U.S.’s prison industrial complex and the detention of immigrants. See our immigration campaign for more.
Local organizing:
- In New York City, chaverim are engaged in ending all solitary confinement in city jails, and working toward the closure of Rikers Island. In Westchester, we are part of the #CommunitiesNotCages coalition to overhaul New York State’s racist and draconian sentencing laws.
- The Massachusetts T’ruah cluster is working in coalition with formerly incarcerated women and their families, who are leading the fight to pass a moratorium on new prison and jail construction in the state — stopping a $50 million proposed women’s prison and re-allocating taxpayer money to communities most affected by mass incarceration.
Partners:
[parent] => 213
[count] => 94
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[term_order] => 11
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[8] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 214
[name] => Mikdash: The Jewish Sanctuary Movement
[slug] => mikdash-the-jewish-sanctuary-movement
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 214
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
T’ruah’s sanctuary network, Mikdash, is made up of over 70 member communities. We work as part of an interfaith network to mobilize synagogues and other Jewish communities to protect those facing deportation or other immigration challenges. By becoming part of the Mikdash network, communities pledge to take concrete actions, which may include legal support, housing, financial help, and other assistance for our friends and neighbors.
The New Sanctuary Movement — a coalition of hundreds of immigrant and faith-based organizations — works to protect and defend immigrants in the United States, especially those at risk for arrest and deportation. At T'ruah, we believe we have a moral obligation to join in their struggle, honoring the biblical injunction to "welcome the stranger" as well as the memory of Jewish refugees around the world.
With our help, Jewish communities across the United States are joining with others to take action to support and protect the vulnerable.
If your congregation is interested in learning more about becoming a sanctuary community, please contact us at office@truah.org.
[parent] => 213
[count] => 179
[filter] => raw
[term_order] => 9
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[9] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 10
[name] => Modern Day Slavery and Human Trafficking
[slug] => slavery-and-trafficking
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 10
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"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, focusing on the issue of slavery in supply chains. Our work includes
- Partnering with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to expand the Fair Food Program, the most effective slavery prevention program in U.S. agriculture.
- We are the only Jewish organization that is a member of ATEST, the Alliance to End Slavery &Trafficking, the premier U.S. coalition dedicated to supporting those vulnerable to trafficking.
- Supporting federal legislation to help survivors of trafficking.
- Training more than 70 rabbis in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC to engage their communities in addressing slavery and trafficking locally.
- Co-leading the Jewish Coalition Against Trafficking, together with the National Council of Jewish Women.
- Partnering with Equal Exchange and Divine Chocolate, to encourage Jewish communities to purchase kosher Fair Trade Chanukah gelt, kosher-for-Passover chocolate, coffee, and other products.
Three thousand years after the Jewish people are said to have been liberated from slavery, and 150 years after the Civil War,
more people are enslaved today than at any other point in history.
According to the most conservative estimates of the International Labor Organization, nearly 21 million people are held in situations of forced labor today: three out of every 1,000 people in the world.
Human trafficking does not occur in a vacuum but represents the extreme end of a continuum of worker exploitation and vulnerability. We therefore support worker-led campaigns to raise wages, combat abuses, and create meaningful enforcement mechanisms to implement hard-won rights.
[parent] => 213
[count] => 32
[filter] => raw
[term_order] => 13
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[10] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 213
[name] => North American Campaigns
[slug] => north-american-campaigns
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 213
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
[parent] => 0
[count] => 384
[filter] => raw
[term_order] => 8
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[11] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 237
[name] => Plant Justice Not Settlements
[slug] => plant-justice-not-settlements
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 237
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => In 2016, T’ruah
won an important victory for transparency when we persuaded the Jewish National Fund-USA to publish a list of its projects on its publicly-available tax forms for the first time.
That’s the good news. But the bad news is that we now know that JNF-USA doesn’t just plant trees in Israel, but also invests in settlements s over the Green Line, beyond Israel’s internationally recognized borders.
JNF-USA once had a
policy of not funding over the Green Line.
Please join us in demanding it return to this policy.
By supporting settlements, JNF-USA contributes to the violation of the human rights of Palestinians, and to blocking a long-term agreement that will be the only way to protect the human rights and security of both Israelis and Palestinians. Settlements limit Palestinians’ freedom of movement, take their land and destroy all hopes for a viable, sovereign and territorially contiguous Palestinian state.
The JNF-USA needs to hear from you.
Please ask JNF-USA CEO Russell Robinson today to pledge not to spend one more dollar over the Green Line.
By treating illegal settlements as if they were merely another part of Israel, JNF-USA is committing the sin of
genevat da’at, misleading people. And it is contributing to the human rights abuses and land theft the settlements cause.
As the Torah proclaims, “Damned be he who moves back the territory-marker of his neighbor!” (Deut. 37:17)
Write to JNF-USA CEO Russell Robinson
Learn more
Watch our video
Look at our map of JNF-USA projects over the Green Line
[parent] => 212
[count] => 41
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[12] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 263
[name] => Racial Justice
[slug] => racial-justice
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 263
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"When the community is immersed in suffering, a person may not say: I will go to my home and I will eat and drink, and be at peace with myself."
-Taanit 11a
Racial justice is a Jewish value, and Black lives matter. Period.
Unlike the other issues T'ruah works on, the pursuit of racial justice is not a single isolated campaign, but rather a value that permeates every single one of our campaigns.
Our statement of
Commitment to Racial Justice is a manifesto intended to hold us accountable in all aspects of our work.
Some campaigns in which our commitment to racial justice is most visible are our campaigns to
end mass incarceration and
solitary confinement, which disproportionately target Black Americans and other people of color.
As we advocate for
immigrants' rights and
workers' rights, we call out the racism that brings more media attention to one group of refugees over another and which allows Americans to ignore the dangerous and degrading conditions in which workers grow the food we eat.
In our work on
antisemitism, we seek to elevate the experiences of Jews of Color, who are exposed not only to the threat of antisemitism but simultaneously face racism and other forms of bigotry.
Finally, we practice what we preach. T'ruah seeks to redress racial injustice
internally, through our ongoing Diversity Equity Inclusion and Justice initiative. In our hiring practices, compensation philosophy, harassment policy, and other workplace policies, we aspire to equity and just treatment of our employees.
Our work includes:
- Resources: We offer a variety of resources for the Jewish community – particularly white Jews – about how to most effectively be in solidarity with our Black and brown friends, family, and neighbors.
- Human rights delegations: We have brought two delegations of rabbis, cantors, and other Jewish communal leaders to the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. Through sophisticated training and experiential learning with T’ruah, Jewish clergy have learned about how the legacy of slavery and racialized violence continues to reverberate through every part of our society, and have gone home dedicated to taking action against racism.
- Educational programs: From 2021-23 we guided two cohorts through Synagogue Teams for Equity and Partnerships (STEP), a program that brought together New York-area synagogues with non-Jewish communities of color to build new relationships or deepen existing ones. Additionally, we have hosted Antiracism Communities of Practice for chaverim, and have offered multipart courses on the intersections of Antisemitism and Race for national groups.
[parent] => 213
[count] => 21
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[13] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 193
[name] => Worker Justice
[slug] => worker-justice
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 193
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"Great is work, as it gives honor
to the one who does it."
—Nedarim 49b
Our tradition tells us that it is a Jewish moral imperative to treat workers fairly. But we know that in this country and around the world, the workplace is often ground zero for forced labor, exploitation, wage theft, and violence – especially for members of Black, brown, and undocumented communities, as well as those with temporary work visas. From the tomato fields of Immokalee, FL, to construction sites in Brooklyn, to undocumented workers excluded from COVID benefits, T’ruah rabbis and cantors across the country are in solidarity with workers standing up for dignity, equity, and safety in their workplaces.
Our work includes:
- Solidarity with farmworkers: Since 2011, T’ruah has brought more than 100 rabbis, cantors, and lay leaders to visit the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a farmworker-led organization that is transforming the Florida tomato fields from places of modern day slavery to some of the best workplaces in U.S. agriculture. The #tomatorabbis, as members of the rabbinic delegations call themselves, have gone home to involve members of their own communities in asking major corporations to join the coalition’s Fair Food Program, which raises the wages of tomato workers and ensures fair, regulated working conditions in the fields to end the conditions that have led to widespread labor trafficking and slavery.T’ruah has worked with the coalition to bring Trader Joe’s, Ahold (Stop & Shop/Giant), and Chipotle into the Fair Food Program. We are currently organizing Jewish communities to ask Wendy’s to join 14 major corporations in doing the same, and are partnering with the coalition to expand the Fair Food Program into additional states and crops.
- Building the faith-rooted movement for worker justice: Along with organizations and networks like the Interreligious Network for Worker Solidarity, T'ruah works to bolster national advocacy and organizing that builds up the worker justice movement and aims to stop the attacks on workers coming from both legislatures and individual companies.
- Selling fairly traded chocolate for Jewish holiday celebrations: T’ruah partners with Equal Exchange and Divine Chocolate, to encourage Jewish communities to purchase kosher fairly traded Chanukah gelt, kosher-for-Passover chocolate, coffee, and other products.
Local campaigns:
T'ruah's New York City cluster is partnering with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) and the Laundry Workers Center on their Cabricanecos campaign, standing in solidarity with migrant and indigenous workers who are seeking access to safer and more equitable working conditions at job sites across Brooklyn.
Partners:
Internally, T'ruah strives to live our values around worker justice. Whenever possible, our products, including paper materials and t-shirts, are union printed, and we use a union cleaning company for our office. We aspire to equity, transparency, and dignity in all aspects of our hiring process and in how we treat our employees.
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1
Democracy and Voting Rights
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[0] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 266
[name] => Democracy and Voting Rights
[slug] => democracy-and-voting-rights
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 266
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => “A ruler is not to be appointed unless the community is first consulted.”
-Babylonian Talmud Berachot 55a
Since right-wing politicians in many states are working to undermine the basic process of voting and the people’s trust in our election institutions, the work we do is crucial to securing our rights to vote and participate in the democratic process. We work to support rabbis, cantors, and the wider Jewish community in learning and taking action to protect voting rights and the integrity of the democratic process.
We also work hard to protect the values of freedom of speech. This includes the right to boycott. Regardless of whether we support the choice of whom is being boycotted, the power to speak, not just with words, but with money, is an essential right under the First Amendment.
Our work includes:
Recruiting poll chaplains to support election sites through de-escalation.
Collaborating with A More Perfect Union to support rabbis and cantors in building relationships with their local election officials, and build trust in election processes.
Creating Jewish teachings and thought leadership on democracy through Emor.
Joining interfaith partners to advocate and build support for legislation that would support, protect, and expand the right to vote.
Partners:
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights is a 501(c)(3) and does not conduct partisan political activities in support or in opposition to any political candidate.
Learn about our related work on Free Speech and the Right to Boycott.
[parent] => 213
[count] => 24
[filter] => raw
[term_order] => 0
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[1] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 217
[name] => Ending the Occupation
[slug] => ending-the-occupation
[term_group] => 0
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[description] => "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 cantors, we care deeply about Israel’s future as a Jewish, democratic state, and as a safe haven for the Jewish people, who have suffered generations of persecution with no country of our own.
At the same time, we recognize the impact and consequences of Israel’s creation for the Palestinian people, and the many decades of suffering incurred by leaders prioritizing power over people. Since 1967, Israel has maintained a violent military occupation of Palestinian land, violating the human rights of millions each day. To ensure the long-term security, dignity, and prosperity of both Israelis and Palestinians, the occupation must end.
With T’ruah’s support, courageous Jewish clergy draw attention to the injustices done in our name.
Our work includes:
Training and educating current and future American rabbis and cantors to be the moral leaders we need. Over 80% of rabbinical and cantorial students spending their required year in Israel participate in our Year-in-Israel Program, which takes students to see human rights issues with their own eyes and meet the activists working to address them
Running trips to the West Bank for ordained Jewish clergy
Providing educational programming on specific issues and bringing the voices of Israeli and Palestinian activists and human rights experts to our community
Organizing rabbis, cantors, and their communities to take action to protect democracy in Israel and to support the human rights of both Israelis and Palestinians
Partners:
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[count] => 192
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[term_id] => 253
[name] => Fighting Antisemitism
[slug] => fighting-antisemitism
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 253
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => "Love your neighbor as yourself."
-Leviticus 19:18
T'ruah is committed to standing against antisemitism in all its manifestations. As antisemitic incidents increase at an alarming rate, rabbis and cantors are often on the front lines, facing antisemitic flyering, graffiti, and vandalism; harassment and threats; and in some cases, violence. Those who wear identifiably Jewish clothing have become targets for antisemitic attacks, and the result is that Jews are increasingly concerned for their safety on the street and in the synagogue.
Education
Our approach to combatting antisemitism begins with education. It is increasingly clear that there are widespread misperceptions about antisemitism, and even about Jews and Judaism. Even among Jews, not everyone agrees on what constitutes antisemitism. Our educational resources and trainings aim to fill that gap, so that both Jews and non-Jews feel confident they can identify, name, and effectively respond to antisemitic incidents.
Fighting antisemitism in public and private
There is no one-size-fits-all response to antisemitism. While public officials must be called out for antisemitic speech, T'ruah also works privately within our coalitions and partnerships to address antisemitism — and other forms of bigotry — through conversation and education.
Valid criticism of Israel or antisemitism?
Our expertise includes defining the sometimes muddy boundary between criticism of Israel and antisemitism, which we explore in depth in our A Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism. While it is certainly true that not all criticism of Israel is antisemitic — we criticize Israel's policies every day — it is also true that criticism of Israel can sometimes devolve into antisemitism.
That said, we refuse to allow fear of antisemitism to lead us to become xenophobic or closed-off. Our approach to addressing antisemitism is deeper and broader relationships with other groups that have been marginalized, striving together towards collective liberation.
Our work includes:
- Creating educational resources for rabbis and cantors and for the public, such as our A Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism, so that Jews and non-Jews have the tools they need to better understand and recognize antisemitism when it happens.
- Delivering staff-led trainings in antisemitism for Jewish and non-Jewish organizations, as well as to elected officials.
- Developing a training in "Bystander Intervention to Stop Antisemitism" with Right To Be, so that ordinary people know how to intervene if they witness antisemitic harassment or violence. More than 700 people have completed this training.
- Advocating for sound policies that combat antisemitism and against policies that equate fighting antisemitism with suppressing criticism of Israel — policies that only make it harder to identify and stop actual antisemitism. For more on this topic, read about our campaign for Free Speech and the Right to Boycott.
- Supporting our rabbis and cantors as they encounter antisemitism in the course of their work, including through Communities of Practice, one-on-one coaching, and by creating opportunities to gain support from others in our network who have experienced similar incidents.
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[name] => Free Speech and The Right to Boycott
[slug] => free-speech-boycott-rights
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[description] =>
"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 is committed to fighting against concerted efforts to suppress free speech in the United States, including the right to boycott.
Currently,
about 35 states have passed or enacted laws or executive orders targeting boycotts of Israel and/or West Bank settlements. T’ruah does not endorse or participate in the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement; at the same time, we maintain committed to our country’s bedrock principle of free speech, including the right to economic boycott.
These anti-boycott laws are often passed under the guise of fighting antisemitism, but criticism of Israel — including in the form of a targeted boycott — is not inherently antisemitic. [For more on this, read our
Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism.]
Anti-BDS laws set a dangerous precedent. Lawmakers in several states have already begun proposing and passing copycat laws restricting the state from doing business with companies that ‘discriminate’ against firearms or ammunition manufacturers or fossil fuel companies.
The threat of these laws is only growing, and we are sounding the alarm.
Our work includes:
- T’ruah opposes legislation that seeks to prohibit the boycott of Israel and/or settlements. T’ruah – together with J Street and other partners in the Progressive Israel Network – has filed amicus briefs in cases in Texas, Georgia, and Arkansas, in which we affirm that boycotts must remain a protected form of free speech for all of us, and not be restricted by political whims, even when we personally or collectively disagree with the motivations behind those boycotts.
- In 2023, T’ruah will release a new resource for the general public laying out the harms of anti-BDS legislation. This brief guide will provide clarity around a contentious and confusing issue. We hope it will help Jewish clergy, elected officials, students, and everyone else in our community engage in critical conversations about our constitutional freedoms and efforts to limit free speech in the United States.
- We educate and empower rabbis and cantors to oppose legislation that seeks to codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism into domestic law or policy. The core IHRA definition itself is not problematic. However, the full definition includes a series of contemporary examples of antisemitism that wrongly equate what may be legitimate expressions of free speech with antisemitism — with real consequences for Palestinian rights activists, educators, human rights organizations, and others — while making it harder to fight actual antisemitism.As an organization committed to holding Israel accountable for its human rights abuses as well as to stopping antisemitism wherever it occurs, the codification of IHRA and the spread of anti-BDS laws directly endanger our work and that of our partners.
Partners
[parent] => 266
[count] => 14
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[4] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 273
[name] => Funding Transparency
[slug] => funding-transparency
[term_group] => 0
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[description] =>
"These are the records of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle of the Pact, which were drawn up at Moses’ bidding..."
-Exodus 38:21
According to Midrash, after the Mishkan (Tabernacle) was completed, some Israelites accused Moses of misusing their donations. Moses’ response was a full accounting of every piece of jewelry, gold, and precious stone that the people had offered.
We should ask no less of our communal leaders today.
T’ruah seeks transparency and accountability in how U.S. donor funds are spent in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. A "follow the money" approach not only brings transparency to the foreign actors shaping realities on the ground, but has the potential to reduce the funding these groups receive and meaningfully reduce their ability to do harm.
Our work includes:
Ending tax benefits for terrorists.
T'ruah shines light on far-right American Jewish charities that fund Israeli terrorist groups — in direct violation of U.S. law, which forbids tax-exempt dollars from going to terrorist organizations.
Since 2016, T'ruah has filed a series of complaints with the IRS about the Central Fund of Israel (CFI), the Charity of Light Fund, and others.
T’ruah achieved a major victory in 2016, after exposing that Honenu — a group that was giving cash payments to Israelis convicted of terrorism and to their families — was receiving tax exempt donations through the Central Fund of Israel, a U.S. foundation. The IRS investigated, and Central Fund of Israel cut off funding to Honenu until the latter ended this practice.
In 2022, we organized a letter from 19 prominent New York City rabbis to the donor-advised Jewish Communal Fund, warning them that some of their donors' money is making its way to Lehava via CFI. In the past 20 years, JCF has sent over $23 million to the Central Fund of Israel, which in turn funds groups that funnel money to Lehava, a militant offshoot of Kahane Chai, led by Kahanist Rabbi Bentzi Gopstein. As of today, the Jewish Communal Fund has not taken action to ensure their donors' money does not fund terrorism.
Bringing attention to the far-right donors in the U.S. eroding democracy in Israel
From the American billionaires behind the Kohelet Policy Forum — originator of some of Israel's most undemocratic legislation — to the powerful Miami-based Falic family, which funnels cash to Lehava, funds from individual American donors have helped to drive the current attack on Israeli democracy, including the ongoing occupation and the chipping away of basic civil rights. Read our CEO Rabbi Jill Jacobs's op-ed in The Forward:
"How did Israeli democracy come under threat? Follow the money."
Monitoring and exposing how American Jewish charities spend U.S. donor funds to promote settlement expansion and occupation.
The American arm of the Jewish National Fund, JNF-USA, is well known for planting trees in Israel. In 2015 and 2016, as part of T'ruah's successful “Transparency in Funding” (also known as “Eifo George,” after the campaign video) campaign, we produced two videos calling on the JNF-USA to be transparent about the fact that a portion of the money it raised went over the Green Line to Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
As a result of our campaign, which was covered in the
Forward,
Haaretz and elsewhere, JNF-USA began listing its funding in Israel and the West Bank in greater (although not complete) detail on
its 990 tax forms.
[parent] => 212
[count] => 21
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[5] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 267
[name] => Immigration Justice
[slug] => immigration-justice
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 267
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"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 immigrants remain far from our shared vision. While the Trump Administration’s dangerous policies were blatantly rooted in racism, xenophobia, and white supremacy, President Biden has not made the improvements our communities have demanded.
The United States must follow international human rights law when it comes to asylum seekers, refugees, and immigrants. Our government must also recognize and redress the systemic racism that permeates our immigration system, discriminating against immigrants of color.
In the fight for true immigrant justice and relief, we need all hands on deck.
Our work includes:
- Organizing clergy through our BIMA Campaign (Building Immigration Momentum & Action), encouraging rabbis and cantors to recognize how they can use their platform to change the narrative around immigration for the better
- Human rights delegations to the southern border for clergy, with our partners at HIAS
- Coalition work through the Interfaith Immigration Coalition
- Working with the All In For Registry campaign to update our immigration laws to allow millions of longtime undocumented US residents a path to permanent legal status
- Advocating to Congress and the federal government for a more humane immigration system that welcomes asylum seekers and refugees with dignity, provides legitimate pathways to citizenship for more of our neighbors, and reduces reliance on detention and deportation.
*In the Torah, the word "ger" refers to a person who came from elsewhere, but is now a long-term or permanent resident of their new community.
Partners:
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[name] => Israel Campaigns
[slug] => israel-campaigns
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[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
[parent] => 0
[count] => 353
[filter] => raw
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[7] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 9
[name] => Mass Incarceration
[slug] => mass-incarceration
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 9
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[description] =>
"Exalted and High, Mighty and Awesome, You bring low the proud and lift up the fallen; You free the imprisoned, redeem the humble, and help the poor."
-Blessing after the Shema, Morning service
Mass incarceration is a racial justice issue.
We cannot achieve real change unless we recognize and name that racism is at the root of this disaster. As Bryan Stevenson puts it: "Slavery didn't end in 1865, it just evolved." Though just 5% of the world's population lives in the United States, our country imprisons 25% of the world's incarcerated people, and people of color are disproportionately targeted.
T’ruah’s campaign to end mass incarceration engages rabbis, cantors, and their communities in making concrete change locally and nationally to our broken criminal justice system. We believe that the goal of our criminal justice system should be
teshuvah, not simply punishment. We draw inspiration from Jewish legal writings that aim to create a criminal justice system rooted in dignity and justice for both perpetrator and victim.
Our work includes:
- Organizing to end prolonged solitary confinement, which international law experts have classified as torture.
- Advocating for an end to police practices that result in disproportionate stops, arrests, and deaths of people of color.
- Organizing rabbis and their communities to protest police violence and to demand full investigations in cases of killings by police officers.
- Advocating for more just sentencing policies.
- Helping Jewish communities to volunteer with incarcerated individuals and their families, employ the formerly incarcerated, and engage in local campaigns to change state criminal justice laws.
- Educating the Jewish community about why our current system of mass incarceration benefits none of us.
- Educating our communities about the intersection between the U.S.’s prison industrial complex and the detention of immigrants. See our immigration campaign for more.
Local organizing:
- In New York City, chaverim are engaged in ending all solitary confinement in city jails, and working toward the closure of Rikers Island. In Westchester, we are part of the #CommunitiesNotCages coalition to overhaul New York State’s racist and draconian sentencing laws.
- The Massachusetts T’ruah cluster is working in coalition with formerly incarcerated women and their families, who are leading the fight to pass a moratorium on new prison and jail construction in the state — stopping a $50 million proposed women’s prison and re-allocating taxpayer money to communities most affected by mass incarceration.
Partners:
[parent] => 213
[count] => 94
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[term_id] => 214
[name] => Mikdash: The Jewish Sanctuary Movement
[slug] => mikdash-the-jewish-sanctuary-movement
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[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
T’ruah’s sanctuary network, Mikdash, is made up of over 70 member communities. We work as part of an interfaith network to mobilize synagogues and other Jewish communities to protect those facing deportation or other immigration challenges. By becoming part of the Mikdash network, communities pledge to take concrete actions, which may include legal support, housing, financial help, and other assistance for our friends and neighbors.
The New Sanctuary Movement — a coalition of hundreds of immigrant and faith-based organizations — works to protect and defend immigrants in the United States, especially those at risk for arrest and deportation. At T'ruah, we believe we have a moral obligation to join in their struggle, honoring the biblical injunction to "welcome the stranger" as well as the memory of Jewish refugees around the world.
With our help, Jewish communities across the United States are joining with others to take action to support and protect the vulnerable.
If your congregation is interested in learning more about becoming a sanctuary community, please contact us at office@truah.org.
[parent] => 213
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[term_id] => 10
[name] => Modern Day Slavery and Human Trafficking
[slug] => slavery-and-trafficking
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[description] =>
"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, focusing on the issue of slavery in supply chains. Our work includes
- Partnering with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to expand the Fair Food Program, the most effective slavery prevention program in U.S. agriculture.
- We are the only Jewish organization that is a member of ATEST, the Alliance to End Slavery &Trafficking, the premier U.S. coalition dedicated to supporting those vulnerable to trafficking.
- Supporting federal legislation to help survivors of trafficking.
- Training more than 70 rabbis in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC to engage their communities in addressing slavery and trafficking locally.
- Co-leading the Jewish Coalition Against Trafficking, together with the National Council of Jewish Women.
- Partnering with Equal Exchange and Divine Chocolate, to encourage Jewish communities to purchase kosher Fair Trade Chanukah gelt, kosher-for-Passover chocolate, coffee, and other products.
Three thousand years after the Jewish people are said to have been liberated from slavery, and 150 years after the Civil War,
more people are enslaved today than at any other point in history.
According to the most conservative estimates of the International Labor Organization, nearly 21 million people are held in situations of forced labor today: three out of every 1,000 people in the world.
Human trafficking does not occur in a vacuum but represents the extreme end of a continuum of worker exploitation and vulnerability. We therefore support worker-led campaigns to raise wages, combat abuses, and create meaningful enforcement mechanisms to implement hard-won rights.
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[10] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 213
[name] => North American Campaigns
[slug] => north-american-campaigns
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 213
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
[parent] => 0
[count] => 384
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[11] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 237
[name] => Plant Justice Not Settlements
[slug] => plant-justice-not-settlements
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 237
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => In 2016, T’ruah
won an important victory for transparency when we persuaded the Jewish National Fund-USA to publish a list of its projects on its publicly-available tax forms for the first time.
That’s the good news. But the bad news is that we now know that JNF-USA doesn’t just plant trees in Israel, but also invests in settlements s over the Green Line, beyond Israel’s internationally recognized borders.
JNF-USA once had a
policy of not funding over the Green Line.
Please join us in demanding it return to this policy.
By supporting settlements, JNF-USA contributes to the violation of the human rights of Palestinians, and to blocking a long-term agreement that will be the only way to protect the human rights and security of both Israelis and Palestinians. Settlements limit Palestinians’ freedom of movement, take their land and destroy all hopes for a viable, sovereign and territorially contiguous Palestinian state.
The JNF-USA needs to hear from you.
Please ask JNF-USA CEO Russell Robinson today to pledge not to spend one more dollar over the Green Line.
By treating illegal settlements as if they were merely another part of Israel, JNF-USA is committing the sin of
genevat da’at, misleading people. And it is contributing to the human rights abuses and land theft the settlements cause.
As the Torah proclaims, “Damned be he who moves back the territory-marker of his neighbor!” (Deut. 37:17)
Write to JNF-USA CEO Russell Robinson
Learn more
Watch our video
Look at our map of JNF-USA projects over the Green Line
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[name] => Racial Justice
[slug] => racial-justice
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[description] =>
"When the community is immersed in suffering, a person may not say: I will go to my home and I will eat and drink, and be at peace with myself."
-Taanit 11a
Racial justice is a Jewish value, and Black lives matter. Period.
Unlike the other issues T'ruah works on, the pursuit of racial justice is not a single isolated campaign, but rather a value that permeates every single one of our campaigns.
Our statement of
Commitment to Racial Justice is a manifesto intended to hold us accountable in all aspects of our work.
Some campaigns in which our commitment to racial justice is most visible are our campaigns to
end mass incarceration and
solitary confinement, which disproportionately target Black Americans and other people of color.
As we advocate for
immigrants' rights and
workers' rights, we call out the racism that brings more media attention to one group of refugees over another and which allows Americans to ignore the dangerous and degrading conditions in which workers grow the food we eat.
In our work on
antisemitism, we seek to elevate the experiences of Jews of Color, who are exposed not only to the threat of antisemitism but simultaneously face racism and other forms of bigotry.
Finally, we practice what we preach. T'ruah seeks to redress racial injustice
internally, through our ongoing Diversity Equity Inclusion and Justice initiative. In our hiring practices, compensation philosophy, harassment policy, and other workplace policies, we aspire to equity and just treatment of our employees.
Our work includes:
- Resources: We offer a variety of resources for the Jewish community – particularly white Jews – about how to most effectively be in solidarity with our Black and brown friends, family, and neighbors.
- Human rights delegations: We have brought two delegations of rabbis, cantors, and other Jewish communal leaders to the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. Through sophisticated training and experiential learning with T’ruah, Jewish clergy have learned about how the legacy of slavery and racialized violence continues to reverberate through every part of our society, and have gone home dedicated to taking action against racism.
- Educational programs: From 2021-23 we guided two cohorts through Synagogue Teams for Equity and Partnerships (STEP), a program that brought together New York-area synagogues with non-Jewish communities of color to build new relationships or deepen existing ones. Additionally, we have hosted Antiracism Communities of Practice for chaverim, and have offered multipart courses on the intersections of Antisemitism and Race for national groups.
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[term_id] => 193
[name] => Worker Justice
[slug] => worker-justice
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 193
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"Great is work, as it gives honor
to the one who does it."
—Nedarim 49b
Our tradition tells us that it is a Jewish moral imperative to treat workers fairly. But we know that in this country and around the world, the workplace is often ground zero for forced labor, exploitation, wage theft, and violence – especially for members of Black, brown, and undocumented communities, as well as those with temporary work visas. From the tomato fields of Immokalee, FL, to construction sites in Brooklyn, to undocumented workers excluded from COVID benefits, T’ruah rabbis and cantors across the country are in solidarity with workers standing up for dignity, equity, and safety in their workplaces.
Our work includes:
- Solidarity with farmworkers: Since 2011, T’ruah has brought more than 100 rabbis, cantors, and lay leaders to visit the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a farmworker-led organization that is transforming the Florida tomato fields from places of modern day slavery to some of the best workplaces in U.S. agriculture. The #tomatorabbis, as members of the rabbinic delegations call themselves, have gone home to involve members of their own communities in asking major corporations to join the coalition’s Fair Food Program, which raises the wages of tomato workers and ensures fair, regulated working conditions in the fields to end the conditions that have led to widespread labor trafficking and slavery.T’ruah has worked with the coalition to bring Trader Joe’s, Ahold (Stop & Shop/Giant), and Chipotle into the Fair Food Program. We are currently organizing Jewish communities to ask Wendy’s to join 14 major corporations in doing the same, and are partnering with the coalition to expand the Fair Food Program into additional states and crops.
- Building the faith-rooted movement for worker justice: Along with organizations and networks like the Interreligious Network for Worker Solidarity, T'ruah works to bolster national advocacy and organizing that builds up the worker justice movement and aims to stop the attacks on workers coming from both legislatures and individual companies.
- Selling fairly traded chocolate for Jewish holiday celebrations: T’ruah partners with Equal Exchange and Divine Chocolate, to encourage Jewish communities to purchase kosher fairly traded Chanukah gelt, kosher-for-Passover chocolate, coffee, and other products.
Local campaigns:
T'ruah's New York City cluster is partnering with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) and the Laundry Workers Center on their Cabricanecos campaign, standing in solidarity with migrant and indigenous workers who are seeking access to safer and more equitable working conditions at job sites across Brooklyn.
Partners:
Internally, T'ruah strives to live our values around worker justice. Whenever possible, our products, including paper materials and t-shirts, are union printed, and we use a union cleaning company for our office. We aspire to equity, transparency, and dignity in all aspects of our hiring process and in how we treat our employees.
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Ending the Occupation
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[term_id] => 266
[name] => Democracy and Voting Rights
[slug] => democracy-and-voting-rights
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[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => “A ruler is not to be appointed unless the community is first consulted.”
-Babylonian Talmud Berachot 55a
Since right-wing politicians in many states are working to undermine the basic process of voting and the people’s trust in our election institutions, the work we do is crucial to securing our rights to vote and participate in the democratic process. We work to support rabbis, cantors, and the wider Jewish community in learning and taking action to protect voting rights and the integrity of the democratic process.
We also work hard to protect the values of freedom of speech. This includes the right to boycott. Regardless of whether we support the choice of whom is being boycotted, the power to speak, not just with words, but with money, is an essential right under the First Amendment.
Our work includes:
Recruiting poll chaplains to support election sites through de-escalation.
Collaborating with A More Perfect Union to support rabbis and cantors in building relationships with their local election officials, and build trust in election processes.
Creating Jewish teachings and thought leadership on democracy through Emor.
Joining interfaith partners to advocate and build support for legislation that would support, protect, and expand the right to vote.
Partners:
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights is a 501(c)(3) and does not conduct partisan political activities in support or in opposition to any political candidate.
Learn about our related work on Free Speech and the Right to Boycott.
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[name] => Ending the Occupation
[slug] => ending-the-occupation
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[description] => "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 cantors, we care deeply about Israel’s future as a Jewish, democratic state, and as a safe haven for the Jewish people, who have suffered generations of persecution with no country of our own.
At the same time, we recognize the impact and consequences of Israel’s creation for the Palestinian people, and the many decades of suffering incurred by leaders prioritizing power over people. Since 1967, Israel has maintained a violent military occupation of Palestinian land, violating the human rights of millions each day. To ensure the long-term security, dignity, and prosperity of both Israelis and Palestinians, the occupation must end.
With T’ruah’s support, courageous Jewish clergy draw attention to the injustices done in our name.
Our work includes:
Training and educating current and future American rabbis and cantors to be the moral leaders we need. Over 80% of rabbinical and cantorial students spending their required year in Israel participate in our Year-in-Israel Program, which takes students to see human rights issues with their own eyes and meet the activists working to address them
Running trips to the West Bank for ordained Jewish clergy
Providing educational programming on specific issues and bringing the voices of Israeli and Palestinian activists and human rights experts to our community
Organizing rabbis, cantors, and their communities to take action to protect democracy in Israel and to support the human rights of both Israelis and Palestinians
Partners:
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(
[term_id] => 253
[name] => Fighting Antisemitism
[slug] => fighting-antisemitism
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 253
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => "Love your neighbor as yourself."
-Leviticus 19:18
T'ruah is committed to standing against antisemitism in all its manifestations. As antisemitic incidents increase at an alarming rate, rabbis and cantors are often on the front lines, facing antisemitic flyering, graffiti, and vandalism; harassment and threats; and in some cases, violence. Those who wear identifiably Jewish clothing have become targets for antisemitic attacks, and the result is that Jews are increasingly concerned for their safety on the street and in the synagogue.
Education
Our approach to combatting antisemitism begins with education. It is increasingly clear that there are widespread misperceptions about antisemitism, and even about Jews and Judaism. Even among Jews, not everyone agrees on what constitutes antisemitism. Our educational resources and trainings aim to fill that gap, so that both Jews and non-Jews feel confident they can identify, name, and effectively respond to antisemitic incidents.
Fighting antisemitism in public and private
There is no one-size-fits-all response to antisemitism. While public officials must be called out for antisemitic speech, T'ruah also works privately within our coalitions and partnerships to address antisemitism — and other forms of bigotry — through conversation and education.
Valid criticism of Israel or antisemitism?
Our expertise includes defining the sometimes muddy boundary between criticism of Israel and antisemitism, which we explore in depth in our A Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism. While it is certainly true that not all criticism of Israel is antisemitic — we criticize Israel's policies every day — it is also true that criticism of Israel can sometimes devolve into antisemitism.
That said, we refuse to allow fear of antisemitism to lead us to become xenophobic or closed-off. Our approach to addressing antisemitism is deeper and broader relationships with other groups that have been marginalized, striving together towards collective liberation.
Our work includes:
- Creating educational resources for rabbis and cantors and for the public, such as our A Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism, so that Jews and non-Jews have the tools they need to better understand and recognize antisemitism when it happens.
- Delivering staff-led trainings in antisemitism for Jewish and non-Jewish organizations, as well as to elected officials.
- Developing a training in "Bystander Intervention to Stop Antisemitism" with Right To Be, so that ordinary people know how to intervene if they witness antisemitic harassment or violence. More than 700 people have completed this training.
- Advocating for sound policies that combat antisemitism and against policies that equate fighting antisemitism with suppressing criticism of Israel — policies that only make it harder to identify and stop actual antisemitism. For more on this topic, read about our campaign for Free Speech and the Right to Boycott.
- Supporting our rabbis and cantors as they encounter antisemitism in the course of their work, including through Communities of Practice, one-on-one coaching, and by creating opportunities to gain support from others in our network who have experienced similar incidents.
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[term_id] => 274
[name] => Free Speech and The Right to Boycott
[slug] => free-speech-boycott-rights
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[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"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 is committed to fighting against concerted efforts to suppress free speech in the United States, including the right to boycott.
Currently,
about 35 states have passed or enacted laws or executive orders targeting boycotts of Israel and/or West Bank settlements. T’ruah does not endorse or participate in the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement; at the same time, we maintain committed to our country’s bedrock principle of free speech, including the right to economic boycott.
These anti-boycott laws are often passed under the guise of fighting antisemitism, but criticism of Israel — including in the form of a targeted boycott — is not inherently antisemitic. [For more on this, read our
Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism.]
Anti-BDS laws set a dangerous precedent. Lawmakers in several states have already begun proposing and passing copycat laws restricting the state from doing business with companies that ‘discriminate’ against firearms or ammunition manufacturers or fossil fuel companies.
The threat of these laws is only growing, and we are sounding the alarm.
Our work includes:
- T’ruah opposes legislation that seeks to prohibit the boycott of Israel and/or settlements. T’ruah – together with J Street and other partners in the Progressive Israel Network – has filed amicus briefs in cases in Texas, Georgia, and Arkansas, in which we affirm that boycotts must remain a protected form of free speech for all of us, and not be restricted by political whims, even when we personally or collectively disagree with the motivations behind those boycotts.
- In 2023, T’ruah will release a new resource for the general public laying out the harms of anti-BDS legislation. This brief guide will provide clarity around a contentious and confusing issue. We hope it will help Jewish clergy, elected officials, students, and everyone else in our community engage in critical conversations about our constitutional freedoms and efforts to limit free speech in the United States.
- We educate and empower rabbis and cantors to oppose legislation that seeks to codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism into domestic law or policy. The core IHRA definition itself is not problematic. However, the full definition includes a series of contemporary examples of antisemitism that wrongly equate what may be legitimate expressions of free speech with antisemitism — with real consequences for Palestinian rights activists, educators, human rights organizations, and others — while making it harder to fight actual antisemitism.As an organization committed to holding Israel accountable for its human rights abuses as well as to stopping antisemitism wherever it occurs, the codification of IHRA and the spread of anti-BDS laws directly endanger our work and that of our partners.
Partners
[parent] => 266
[count] => 14
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[4] => WP_Term Object
(
[term_id] => 273
[name] => Funding Transparency
[slug] => funding-transparency
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 273
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"These are the records of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle of the Pact, which were drawn up at Moses’ bidding..."
-Exodus 38:21
According to Midrash, after the Mishkan (Tabernacle) was completed, some Israelites accused Moses of misusing their donations. Moses’ response was a full accounting of every piece of jewelry, gold, and precious stone that the people had offered.
We should ask no less of our communal leaders today.
T’ruah seeks transparency and accountability in how U.S. donor funds are spent in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. A "follow the money" approach not only brings transparency to the foreign actors shaping realities on the ground, but has the potential to reduce the funding these groups receive and meaningfully reduce their ability to do harm.
Our work includes:
Ending tax benefits for terrorists.
T'ruah shines light on far-right American Jewish charities that fund Israeli terrorist groups — in direct violation of U.S. law, which forbids tax-exempt dollars from going to terrorist organizations.
Since 2016, T'ruah has filed a series of complaints with the IRS about the Central Fund of Israel (CFI), the Charity of Light Fund, and others.
T’ruah achieved a major victory in 2016, after exposing that Honenu — a group that was giving cash payments to Israelis convicted of terrorism and to their families — was receiving tax exempt donations through the Central Fund of Israel, a U.S. foundation. The IRS investigated, and Central Fund of Israel cut off funding to Honenu until the latter ended this practice.
In 2022, we organized a letter from 19 prominent New York City rabbis to the donor-advised Jewish Communal Fund, warning them that some of their donors' money is making its way to Lehava via CFI. In the past 20 years, JCF has sent over $23 million to the Central Fund of Israel, which in turn funds groups that funnel money to Lehava, a militant offshoot of Kahane Chai, led by Kahanist Rabbi Bentzi Gopstein. As of today, the Jewish Communal Fund has not taken action to ensure their donors' money does not fund terrorism.
Bringing attention to the far-right donors in the U.S. eroding democracy in Israel
From the American billionaires behind the Kohelet Policy Forum — originator of some of Israel's most undemocratic legislation — to the powerful Miami-based Falic family, which funnels cash to Lehava, funds from individual American donors have helped to drive the current attack on Israeli democracy, including the ongoing occupation and the chipping away of basic civil rights. Read our CEO Rabbi Jill Jacobs's op-ed in The Forward:
"How did Israeli democracy come under threat? Follow the money."
Monitoring and exposing how American Jewish charities spend U.S. donor funds to promote settlement expansion and occupation.
The American arm of the Jewish National Fund, JNF-USA, is well known for planting trees in Israel. In 2015 and 2016, as part of T'ruah's successful “Transparency in Funding” (also known as “Eifo George,” after the campaign video) campaign, we produced two videos calling on the JNF-USA to be transparent about the fact that a portion of the money it raised went over the Green Line to Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
As a result of our campaign, which was covered in the
Forward,
Haaretz and elsewhere, JNF-USA began listing its funding in Israel and the West Bank in greater (although not complete) detail on
its 990 tax forms.
[parent] => 212
[count] => 21
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[5] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 267
[name] => Immigration Justice
[slug] => immigration-justice
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 267
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"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 immigrants remain far from our shared vision. While the Trump Administration’s dangerous policies were blatantly rooted in racism, xenophobia, and white supremacy, President Biden has not made the improvements our communities have demanded.
The United States must follow international human rights law when it comes to asylum seekers, refugees, and immigrants. Our government must also recognize and redress the systemic racism that permeates our immigration system, discriminating against immigrants of color.
In the fight for true immigrant justice and relief, we need all hands on deck.
Our work includes:
- Organizing clergy through our BIMA Campaign (Building Immigration Momentum & Action), encouraging rabbis and cantors to recognize how they can use their platform to change the narrative around immigration for the better
- Human rights delegations to the southern border for clergy, with our partners at HIAS
- Coalition work through the Interfaith Immigration Coalition
- Working with the All In For Registry campaign to update our immigration laws to allow millions of longtime undocumented US residents a path to permanent legal status
- Advocating to Congress and the federal government for a more humane immigration system that welcomes asylum seekers and refugees with dignity, provides legitimate pathways to citizenship for more of our neighbors, and reduces reliance on detention and deportation.
*In the Torah, the word "ger" refers to a person who came from elsewhere, but is now a long-term or permanent resident of their new community.
Partners:
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[count] => 72
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[term_id] => 212
[name] => Israel Campaigns
[slug] => israel-campaigns
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 212
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
[parent] => 0
[count] => 353
[filter] => raw
[term_order] => 1
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[7] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 9
[name] => Mass Incarceration
[slug] => mass-incarceration
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 9
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"Exalted and High, Mighty and Awesome, You bring low the proud and lift up the fallen; You free the imprisoned, redeem the humble, and help the poor."
-Blessing after the Shema, Morning service
Mass incarceration is a racial justice issue.
We cannot achieve real change unless we recognize and name that racism is at the root of this disaster. As Bryan Stevenson puts it: "Slavery didn't end in 1865, it just evolved." Though just 5% of the world's population lives in the United States, our country imprisons 25% of the world's incarcerated people, and people of color are disproportionately targeted.
T’ruah’s campaign to end mass incarceration engages rabbis, cantors, and their communities in making concrete change locally and nationally to our broken criminal justice system. We believe that the goal of our criminal justice system should be
teshuvah, not simply punishment. We draw inspiration from Jewish legal writings that aim to create a criminal justice system rooted in dignity and justice for both perpetrator and victim.
Our work includes:
- Organizing to end prolonged solitary confinement, which international law experts have classified as torture.
- Advocating for an end to police practices that result in disproportionate stops, arrests, and deaths of people of color.
- Organizing rabbis and their communities to protest police violence and to demand full investigations in cases of killings by police officers.
- Advocating for more just sentencing policies.
- Helping Jewish communities to volunteer with incarcerated individuals and their families, employ the formerly incarcerated, and engage in local campaigns to change state criminal justice laws.
- Educating the Jewish community about why our current system of mass incarceration benefits none of us.
- Educating our communities about the intersection between the U.S.’s prison industrial complex and the detention of immigrants. See our immigration campaign for more.
Local organizing:
- In New York City, chaverim are engaged in ending all solitary confinement in city jails, and working toward the closure of Rikers Island. In Westchester, we are part of the #CommunitiesNotCages coalition to overhaul New York State’s racist and draconian sentencing laws.
- The Massachusetts T’ruah cluster is working in coalition with formerly incarcerated women and their families, who are leading the fight to pass a moratorium on new prison and jail construction in the state — stopping a $50 million proposed women’s prison and re-allocating taxpayer money to communities most affected by mass incarceration.
Partners:
[parent] => 213
[count] => 94
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[term_id] => 214
[name] => Mikdash: The Jewish Sanctuary Movement
[slug] => mikdash-the-jewish-sanctuary-movement
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 214
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
T’ruah’s sanctuary network, Mikdash, is made up of over 70 member communities. We work as part of an interfaith network to mobilize synagogues and other Jewish communities to protect those facing deportation or other immigration challenges. By becoming part of the Mikdash network, communities pledge to take concrete actions, which may include legal support, housing, financial help, and other assistance for our friends and neighbors.
The New Sanctuary Movement — a coalition of hundreds of immigrant and faith-based organizations — works to protect and defend immigrants in the United States, especially those at risk for arrest and deportation. At T'ruah, we believe we have a moral obligation to join in their struggle, honoring the biblical injunction to "welcome the stranger" as well as the memory of Jewish refugees around the world.
With our help, Jewish communities across the United States are joining with others to take action to support and protect the vulnerable.
If your congregation is interested in learning more about becoming a sanctuary community, please contact us at office@truah.org.
[parent] => 213
[count] => 179
[filter] => raw
[term_order] => 9
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[9] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 10
[name] => Modern Day Slavery and Human Trafficking
[slug] => slavery-and-trafficking
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 10
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"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, focusing on the issue of slavery in supply chains. Our work includes
- Partnering with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to expand the Fair Food Program, the most effective slavery prevention program in U.S. agriculture.
- We are the only Jewish organization that is a member of ATEST, the Alliance to End Slavery &Trafficking, the premier U.S. coalition dedicated to supporting those vulnerable to trafficking.
- Supporting federal legislation to help survivors of trafficking.
- Training more than 70 rabbis in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC to engage their communities in addressing slavery and trafficking locally.
- Co-leading the Jewish Coalition Against Trafficking, together with the National Council of Jewish Women.
- Partnering with Equal Exchange and Divine Chocolate, to encourage Jewish communities to purchase kosher Fair Trade Chanukah gelt, kosher-for-Passover chocolate, coffee, and other products.
Three thousand years after the Jewish people are said to have been liberated from slavery, and 150 years after the Civil War,
more people are enslaved today than at any other point in history.
According to the most conservative estimates of the International Labor Organization, nearly 21 million people are held in situations of forced labor today: three out of every 1,000 people in the world.
Human trafficking does not occur in a vacuum but represents the extreme end of a continuum of worker exploitation and vulnerability. We therefore support worker-led campaigns to raise wages, combat abuses, and create meaningful enforcement mechanisms to implement hard-won rights.
[parent] => 213
[count] => 32
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[10] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 213
[name] => North American Campaigns
[slug] => north-american-campaigns
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 213
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
[parent] => 0
[count] => 384
[filter] => raw
[term_order] => 8
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[11] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 237
[name] => Plant Justice Not Settlements
[slug] => plant-justice-not-settlements
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 237
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => In 2016, T’ruah
won an important victory for transparency when we persuaded the Jewish National Fund-USA to publish a list of its projects on its publicly-available tax forms for the first time.
That’s the good news. But the bad news is that we now know that JNF-USA doesn’t just plant trees in Israel, but also invests in settlements s over the Green Line, beyond Israel’s internationally recognized borders.
JNF-USA once had a
policy of not funding over the Green Line.
Please join us in demanding it return to this policy.
By supporting settlements, JNF-USA contributes to the violation of the human rights of Palestinians, and to blocking a long-term agreement that will be the only way to protect the human rights and security of both Israelis and Palestinians. Settlements limit Palestinians’ freedom of movement, take their land and destroy all hopes for a viable, sovereign and territorially contiguous Palestinian state.
The JNF-USA needs to hear from you.
Please ask JNF-USA CEO Russell Robinson today to pledge not to spend one more dollar over the Green Line.
By treating illegal settlements as if they were merely another part of Israel, JNF-USA is committing the sin of
genevat da’at, misleading people. And it is contributing to the human rights abuses and land theft the settlements cause.
As the Torah proclaims, “Damned be he who moves back the territory-marker of his neighbor!” (Deut. 37:17)
Write to JNF-USA CEO Russell Robinson
Learn more
Watch our video
Look at our map of JNF-USA projects over the Green Line
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[count] => 41
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[12] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 263
[name] => Racial Justice
[slug] => racial-justice
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 263
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"When the community is immersed in suffering, a person may not say: I will go to my home and I will eat and drink, and be at peace with myself."
-Taanit 11a
Racial justice is a Jewish value, and Black lives matter. Period.
Unlike the other issues T'ruah works on, the pursuit of racial justice is not a single isolated campaign, but rather a value that permeates every single one of our campaigns.
Our statement of
Commitment to Racial Justice is a manifesto intended to hold us accountable in all aspects of our work.
Some campaigns in which our commitment to racial justice is most visible are our campaigns to
end mass incarceration and
solitary confinement, which disproportionately target Black Americans and other people of color.
As we advocate for
immigrants' rights and
workers' rights, we call out the racism that brings more media attention to one group of refugees over another and which allows Americans to ignore the dangerous and degrading conditions in which workers grow the food we eat.
In our work on
antisemitism, we seek to elevate the experiences of Jews of Color, who are exposed not only to the threat of antisemitism but simultaneously face racism and other forms of bigotry.
Finally, we practice what we preach. T'ruah seeks to redress racial injustice
internally, through our ongoing Diversity Equity Inclusion and Justice initiative. In our hiring practices, compensation philosophy, harassment policy, and other workplace policies, we aspire to equity and just treatment of our employees.
Our work includes:
- Resources: We offer a variety of resources for the Jewish community – particularly white Jews – about how to most effectively be in solidarity with our Black and brown friends, family, and neighbors.
- Human rights delegations: We have brought two delegations of rabbis, cantors, and other Jewish communal leaders to the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. Through sophisticated training and experiential learning with T’ruah, Jewish clergy have learned about how the legacy of slavery and racialized violence continues to reverberate through every part of our society, and have gone home dedicated to taking action against racism.
- Educational programs: From 2021-23 we guided two cohorts through Synagogue Teams for Equity and Partnerships (STEP), a program that brought together New York-area synagogues with non-Jewish communities of color to build new relationships or deepen existing ones. Additionally, we have hosted Antiracism Communities of Practice for chaverim, and have offered multipart courses on the intersections of Antisemitism and Race for national groups.
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[count] => 21
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[13] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 193
[name] => Worker Justice
[slug] => worker-justice
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 193
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"Great is work, as it gives honor
to the one who does it."
—Nedarim 49b
Our tradition tells us that it is a Jewish moral imperative to treat workers fairly. But we know that in this country and around the world, the workplace is often ground zero for forced labor, exploitation, wage theft, and violence – especially for members of Black, brown, and undocumented communities, as well as those with temporary work visas. From the tomato fields of Immokalee, FL, to construction sites in Brooklyn, to undocumented workers excluded from COVID benefits, T’ruah rabbis and cantors across the country are in solidarity with workers standing up for dignity, equity, and safety in their workplaces.
Our work includes:
- Solidarity with farmworkers: Since 2011, T’ruah has brought more than 100 rabbis, cantors, and lay leaders to visit the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a farmworker-led organization that is transforming the Florida tomato fields from places of modern day slavery to some of the best workplaces in U.S. agriculture. The #tomatorabbis, as members of the rabbinic delegations call themselves, have gone home to involve members of their own communities in asking major corporations to join the coalition’s Fair Food Program, which raises the wages of tomato workers and ensures fair, regulated working conditions in the fields to end the conditions that have led to widespread labor trafficking and slavery.T’ruah has worked with the coalition to bring Trader Joe’s, Ahold (Stop & Shop/Giant), and Chipotle into the Fair Food Program. We are currently organizing Jewish communities to ask Wendy’s to join 14 major corporations in doing the same, and are partnering with the coalition to expand the Fair Food Program into additional states and crops.
- Building the faith-rooted movement for worker justice: Along with organizations and networks like the Interreligious Network for Worker Solidarity, T'ruah works to bolster national advocacy and organizing that builds up the worker justice movement and aims to stop the attacks on workers coming from both legislatures and individual companies.
- Selling fairly traded chocolate for Jewish holiday celebrations: T’ruah partners with Equal Exchange and Divine Chocolate, to encourage Jewish communities to purchase kosher fairly traded Chanukah gelt, kosher-for-Passover chocolate, coffee, and other products.
Local campaigns:
T'ruah's New York City cluster is partnering with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) and the Laundry Workers Center on their Cabricanecos campaign, standing in solidarity with migrant and indigenous workers who are seeking access to safer and more equitable working conditions at job sites across Brooklyn.
Partners:
Internally, T'ruah strives to live our values around worker justice. Whenever possible, our products, including paper materials and t-shirts, are union printed, and we use a union cleaning company for our office. We aspire to equity, transparency, and dignity in all aspects of our hiring process and in how we treat our employees.
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1
Fighting Antisemitism
Array
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[0] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 266
[name] => Democracy and Voting Rights
[slug] => democracy-and-voting-rights
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 266
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => “A ruler is not to be appointed unless the community is first consulted.”
-Babylonian Talmud Berachot 55a
Since right-wing politicians in many states are working to undermine the basic process of voting and the people’s trust in our election institutions, the work we do is crucial to securing our rights to vote and participate in the democratic process. We work to support rabbis, cantors, and the wider Jewish community in learning and taking action to protect voting rights and the integrity of the democratic process.
We also work hard to protect the values of freedom of speech. This includes the right to boycott. Regardless of whether we support the choice of whom is being boycotted, the power to speak, not just with words, but with money, is an essential right under the First Amendment.
Our work includes:
Recruiting poll chaplains to support election sites through de-escalation.
Collaborating with A More Perfect Union to support rabbis and cantors in building relationships with their local election officials, and build trust in election processes.
Creating Jewish teachings and thought leadership on democracy through Emor.
Joining interfaith partners to advocate and build support for legislation that would support, protect, and expand the right to vote.
Partners:
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights is a 501(c)(3) and does not conduct partisan political activities in support or in opposition to any political candidate.
Learn about our related work on Free Speech and the Right to Boycott.
[parent] => 213
[count] => 24
[filter] => raw
[term_order] => 0
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[1] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 217
[name] => Ending the Occupation
[slug] => ending-the-occupation
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 217
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => "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 cantors, we care deeply about Israel’s future as a Jewish, democratic state, and as a safe haven for the Jewish people, who have suffered generations of persecution with no country of our own.
At the same time, we recognize the impact and consequences of Israel’s creation for the Palestinian people, and the many decades of suffering incurred by leaders prioritizing power over people. Since 1967, Israel has maintained a violent military occupation of Palestinian land, violating the human rights of millions each day. To ensure the long-term security, dignity, and prosperity of both Israelis and Palestinians, the occupation must end.
With T’ruah’s support, courageous Jewish clergy draw attention to the injustices done in our name.
Our work includes:
Training and educating current and future American rabbis and cantors to be the moral leaders we need. Over 80% of rabbinical and cantorial students spending their required year in Israel participate in our Year-in-Israel Program, which takes students to see human rights issues with their own eyes and meet the activists working to address them
Running trips to the West Bank for ordained Jewish clergy
Providing educational programming on specific issues and bringing the voices of Israeli and Palestinian activists and human rights experts to our community
Organizing rabbis, cantors, and their communities to take action to protect democracy in Israel and to support the human rights of both Israelis and Palestinians
Partners:
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[count] => 192
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[2] => WP_Term Object
(
[term_id] => 253
[name] => Fighting Antisemitism
[slug] => fighting-antisemitism
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 253
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => "Love your neighbor as yourself."
-Leviticus 19:18
T'ruah is committed to standing against antisemitism in all its manifestations. As antisemitic incidents increase at an alarming rate, rabbis and cantors are often on the front lines, facing antisemitic flyering, graffiti, and vandalism; harassment and threats; and in some cases, violence. Those who wear identifiably Jewish clothing have become targets for antisemitic attacks, and the result is that Jews are increasingly concerned for their safety on the street and in the synagogue.
Education
Our approach to combatting antisemitism begins with education. It is increasingly clear that there are widespread misperceptions about antisemitism, and even about Jews and Judaism. Even among Jews, not everyone agrees on what constitutes antisemitism. Our educational resources and trainings aim to fill that gap, so that both Jews and non-Jews feel confident they can identify, name, and effectively respond to antisemitic incidents.
Fighting antisemitism in public and private
There is no one-size-fits-all response to antisemitism. While public officials must be called out for antisemitic speech, T'ruah also works privately within our coalitions and partnerships to address antisemitism — and other forms of bigotry — through conversation and education.
Valid criticism of Israel or antisemitism?
Our expertise includes defining the sometimes muddy boundary between criticism of Israel and antisemitism, which we explore in depth in our A Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism. While it is certainly true that not all criticism of Israel is antisemitic — we criticize Israel's policies every day — it is also true that criticism of Israel can sometimes devolve into antisemitism.
That said, we refuse to allow fear of antisemitism to lead us to become xenophobic or closed-off. Our approach to addressing antisemitism is deeper and broader relationships with other groups that have been marginalized, striving together towards collective liberation.
Our work includes:
- Creating educational resources for rabbis and cantors and for the public, such as our A Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism, so that Jews and non-Jews have the tools they need to better understand and recognize antisemitism when it happens.
- Delivering staff-led trainings in antisemitism for Jewish and non-Jewish organizations, as well as to elected officials.
- Developing a training in "Bystander Intervention to Stop Antisemitism" with Right To Be, so that ordinary people know how to intervene if they witness antisemitic harassment or violence. More than 700 people have completed this training.
- Advocating for sound policies that combat antisemitism and against policies that equate fighting antisemitism with suppressing criticism of Israel — policies that only make it harder to identify and stop actual antisemitism. For more on this topic, read about our campaign for Free Speech and the Right to Boycott.
- Supporting our rabbis and cantors as they encounter antisemitism in the course of their work, including through Communities of Practice, one-on-one coaching, and by creating opportunities to gain support from others in our network who have experienced similar incidents.
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"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 is committed to fighting against concerted efforts to suppress free speech in the United States, including the right to boycott.
Currently,
about 35 states have passed or enacted laws or executive orders targeting boycotts of Israel and/or West Bank settlements. T’ruah does not endorse or participate in the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement; at the same time, we maintain committed to our country’s bedrock principle of free speech, including the right to economic boycott.
These anti-boycott laws are often passed under the guise of fighting antisemitism, but criticism of Israel — including in the form of a targeted boycott — is not inherently antisemitic. [For more on this, read our
Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism.]
Anti-BDS laws set a dangerous precedent. Lawmakers in several states have already begun proposing and passing copycat laws restricting the state from doing business with companies that ‘discriminate’ against firearms or ammunition manufacturers or fossil fuel companies.
The threat of these laws is only growing, and we are sounding the alarm.
Our work includes:
- T’ruah opposes legislation that seeks to prohibit the boycott of Israel and/or settlements. T’ruah – together with J Street and other partners in the Progressive Israel Network – has filed amicus briefs in cases in Texas, Georgia, and Arkansas, in which we affirm that boycotts must remain a protected form of free speech for all of us, and not be restricted by political whims, even when we personally or collectively disagree with the motivations behind those boycotts.
- In 2023, T’ruah will release a new resource for the general public laying out the harms of anti-BDS legislation. This brief guide will provide clarity around a contentious and confusing issue. We hope it will help Jewish clergy, elected officials, students, and everyone else in our community engage in critical conversations about our constitutional freedoms and efforts to limit free speech in the United States.
- We educate and empower rabbis and cantors to oppose legislation that seeks to codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism into domestic law or policy. The core IHRA definition itself is not problematic. However, the full definition includes a series of contemporary examples of antisemitism that wrongly equate what may be legitimate expressions of free speech with antisemitism — with real consequences for Palestinian rights activists, educators, human rights organizations, and others — while making it harder to fight actual antisemitism.As an organization committed to holding Israel accountable for its human rights abuses as well as to stopping antisemitism wherever it occurs, the codification of IHRA and the spread of anti-BDS laws directly endanger our work and that of our partners.
Partners
[parent] => 266
[count] => 14
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[4] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 273
[name] => Funding Transparency
[slug] => funding-transparency
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[description] =>
"These are the records of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle of the Pact, which were drawn up at Moses’ bidding..."
-Exodus 38:21
According to Midrash, after the Mishkan (Tabernacle) was completed, some Israelites accused Moses of misusing their donations. Moses’ response was a full accounting of every piece of jewelry, gold, and precious stone that the people had offered.
We should ask no less of our communal leaders today.
T’ruah seeks transparency and accountability in how U.S. donor funds are spent in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. A "follow the money" approach not only brings transparency to the foreign actors shaping realities on the ground, but has the potential to reduce the funding these groups receive and meaningfully reduce their ability to do harm.
Our work includes:
Ending tax benefits for terrorists.
T'ruah shines light on far-right American Jewish charities that fund Israeli terrorist groups — in direct violation of U.S. law, which forbids tax-exempt dollars from going to terrorist organizations.
Since 2016, T'ruah has filed a series of complaints with the IRS about the Central Fund of Israel (CFI), the Charity of Light Fund, and others.
T’ruah achieved a major victory in 2016, after exposing that Honenu — a group that was giving cash payments to Israelis convicted of terrorism and to their families — was receiving tax exempt donations through the Central Fund of Israel, a U.S. foundation. The IRS investigated, and Central Fund of Israel cut off funding to Honenu until the latter ended this practice.
In 2022, we organized a letter from 19 prominent New York City rabbis to the donor-advised Jewish Communal Fund, warning them that some of their donors' money is making its way to Lehava via CFI. In the past 20 years, JCF has sent over $23 million to the Central Fund of Israel, which in turn funds groups that funnel money to Lehava, a militant offshoot of Kahane Chai, led by Kahanist Rabbi Bentzi Gopstein. As of today, the Jewish Communal Fund has not taken action to ensure their donors' money does not fund terrorism.
Bringing attention to the far-right donors in the U.S. eroding democracy in Israel
From the American billionaires behind the Kohelet Policy Forum — originator of some of Israel's most undemocratic legislation — to the powerful Miami-based Falic family, which funnels cash to Lehava, funds from individual American donors have helped to drive the current attack on Israeli democracy, including the ongoing occupation and the chipping away of basic civil rights. Read our CEO Rabbi Jill Jacobs's op-ed in The Forward:
"How did Israeli democracy come under threat? Follow the money."
Monitoring and exposing how American Jewish charities spend U.S. donor funds to promote settlement expansion and occupation.
The American arm of the Jewish National Fund, JNF-USA, is well known for planting trees in Israel. In 2015 and 2016, as part of T'ruah's successful “Transparency in Funding” (also known as “Eifo George,” after the campaign video) campaign, we produced two videos calling on the JNF-USA to be transparent about the fact that a portion of the money it raised went over the Green Line to Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
As a result of our campaign, which was covered in the
Forward,
Haaretz and elsewhere, JNF-USA began listing its funding in Israel and the West Bank in greater (although not complete) detail on
its 990 tax forms.
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[count] => 21
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[name] => Immigration Justice
[slug] => immigration-justice
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[description] =>
"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 immigrants remain far from our shared vision. While the Trump Administration’s dangerous policies were blatantly rooted in racism, xenophobia, and white supremacy, President Biden has not made the improvements our communities have demanded.
The United States must follow international human rights law when it comes to asylum seekers, refugees, and immigrants. Our government must also recognize and redress the systemic racism that permeates our immigration system, discriminating against immigrants of color.
In the fight for true immigrant justice and relief, we need all hands on deck.
Our work includes:
- Organizing clergy through our BIMA Campaign (Building Immigration Momentum & Action), encouraging rabbis and cantors to recognize how they can use their platform to change the narrative around immigration for the better
- Human rights delegations to the southern border for clergy, with our partners at HIAS
- Coalition work through the Interfaith Immigration Coalition
- Working with the All In For Registry campaign to update our immigration laws to allow millions of longtime undocumented US residents a path to permanent legal status
- Advocating to Congress and the federal government for a more humane immigration system that welcomes asylum seekers and refugees with dignity, provides legitimate pathways to citizenship for more of our neighbors, and reduces reliance on detention and deportation.
*In the Torah, the word "ger" refers to a person who came from elsewhere, but is now a long-term or permanent resident of their new community.
Partners:
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[name] => Israel Campaigns
[slug] => israel-campaigns
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[parent] => 0
[count] => 353
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[term_id] => 9
[name] => Mass Incarceration
[slug] => mass-incarceration
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 9
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[description] =>
"Exalted and High, Mighty and Awesome, You bring low the proud and lift up the fallen; You free the imprisoned, redeem the humble, and help the poor."
-Blessing after the Shema, Morning service
Mass incarceration is a racial justice issue.
We cannot achieve real change unless we recognize and name that racism is at the root of this disaster. As Bryan Stevenson puts it: "Slavery didn't end in 1865, it just evolved." Though just 5% of the world's population lives in the United States, our country imprisons 25% of the world's incarcerated people, and people of color are disproportionately targeted.
T’ruah’s campaign to end mass incarceration engages rabbis, cantors, and their communities in making concrete change locally and nationally to our broken criminal justice system. We believe that the goal of our criminal justice system should be
teshuvah, not simply punishment. We draw inspiration from Jewish legal writings that aim to create a criminal justice system rooted in dignity and justice for both perpetrator and victim.
Our work includes:
- Organizing to end prolonged solitary confinement, which international law experts have classified as torture.
- Advocating for an end to police practices that result in disproportionate stops, arrests, and deaths of people of color.
- Organizing rabbis and their communities to protest police violence and to demand full investigations in cases of killings by police officers.
- Advocating for more just sentencing policies.
- Helping Jewish communities to volunteer with incarcerated individuals and their families, employ the formerly incarcerated, and engage in local campaigns to change state criminal justice laws.
- Educating the Jewish community about why our current system of mass incarceration benefits none of us.
- Educating our communities about the intersection between the U.S.’s prison industrial complex and the detention of immigrants. See our immigration campaign for more.
Local organizing:
- In New York City, chaverim are engaged in ending all solitary confinement in city jails, and working toward the closure of Rikers Island. In Westchester, we are part of the #CommunitiesNotCages coalition to overhaul New York State’s racist and draconian sentencing laws.
- The Massachusetts T’ruah cluster is working in coalition with formerly incarcerated women and their families, who are leading the fight to pass a moratorium on new prison and jail construction in the state — stopping a $50 million proposed women’s prison and re-allocating taxpayer money to communities most affected by mass incarceration.
Partners:
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[name] => Mikdash: The Jewish Sanctuary Movement
[slug] => mikdash-the-jewish-sanctuary-movement
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[description] =>
T’ruah’s sanctuary network, Mikdash, is made up of over 70 member communities. We work as part of an interfaith network to mobilize synagogues and other Jewish communities to protect those facing deportation or other immigration challenges. By becoming part of the Mikdash network, communities pledge to take concrete actions, which may include legal support, housing, financial help, and other assistance for our friends and neighbors.
The New Sanctuary Movement — a coalition of hundreds of immigrant and faith-based organizations — works to protect and defend immigrants in the United States, especially those at risk for arrest and deportation. At T'ruah, we believe we have a moral obligation to join in their struggle, honoring the biblical injunction to "welcome the stranger" as well as the memory of Jewish refugees around the world.
With our help, Jewish communities across the United States are joining with others to take action to support and protect the vulnerable.
If your congregation is interested in learning more about becoming a sanctuary community, please contact us at office@truah.org.
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[name] => Modern Day Slavery and Human Trafficking
[slug] => slavery-and-trafficking
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[description] =>
"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, focusing on the issue of slavery in supply chains. Our work includes
- Partnering with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to expand the Fair Food Program, the most effective slavery prevention program in U.S. agriculture.
- We are the only Jewish organization that is a member of ATEST, the Alliance to End Slavery &Trafficking, the premier U.S. coalition dedicated to supporting those vulnerable to trafficking.
- Supporting federal legislation to help survivors of trafficking.
- Training more than 70 rabbis in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC to engage their communities in addressing slavery and trafficking locally.
- Co-leading the Jewish Coalition Against Trafficking, together with the National Council of Jewish Women.
- Partnering with Equal Exchange and Divine Chocolate, to encourage Jewish communities to purchase kosher Fair Trade Chanukah gelt, kosher-for-Passover chocolate, coffee, and other products.
Three thousand years after the Jewish people are said to have been liberated from slavery, and 150 years after the Civil War,
more people are enslaved today than at any other point in history.
According to the most conservative estimates of the International Labor Organization, nearly 21 million people are held in situations of forced labor today: three out of every 1,000 people in the world.
Human trafficking does not occur in a vacuum but represents the extreme end of a continuum of worker exploitation and vulnerability. We therefore support worker-led campaigns to raise wages, combat abuses, and create meaningful enforcement mechanisms to implement hard-won rights.
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[name] => North American Campaigns
[slug] => north-american-campaigns
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 213
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[description] =>
[parent] => 0
[count] => 384
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[11] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 237
[name] => Plant Justice Not Settlements
[slug] => plant-justice-not-settlements
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 237
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[description] => In 2016, T’ruah
won an important victory for transparency when we persuaded the Jewish National Fund-USA to publish a list of its projects on its publicly-available tax forms for the first time.
That’s the good news. But the bad news is that we now know that JNF-USA doesn’t just plant trees in Israel, but also invests in settlements s over the Green Line, beyond Israel’s internationally recognized borders.
JNF-USA once had a
policy of not funding over the Green Line.
Please join us in demanding it return to this policy.
By supporting settlements, JNF-USA contributes to the violation of the human rights of Palestinians, and to blocking a long-term agreement that will be the only way to protect the human rights and security of both Israelis and Palestinians. Settlements limit Palestinians’ freedom of movement, take their land and destroy all hopes for a viable, sovereign and territorially contiguous Palestinian state.
The JNF-USA needs to hear from you.
Please ask JNF-USA CEO Russell Robinson today to pledge not to spend one more dollar over the Green Line.
By treating illegal settlements as if they were merely another part of Israel, JNF-USA is committing the sin of
genevat da’at, misleading people. And it is contributing to the human rights abuses and land theft the settlements cause.
As the Torah proclaims, “Damned be he who moves back the territory-marker of his neighbor!” (Deut. 37:17)
Write to JNF-USA CEO Russell Robinson
Learn more
Watch our video
Look at our map of JNF-USA projects over the Green Line
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[name] => Racial Justice
[slug] => racial-justice
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[description] =>
"When the community is immersed in suffering, a person may not say: I will go to my home and I will eat and drink, and be at peace with myself."
-Taanit 11a
Racial justice is a Jewish value, and Black lives matter. Period.
Unlike the other issues T'ruah works on, the pursuit of racial justice is not a single isolated campaign, but rather a value that permeates every single one of our campaigns.
Our statement of
Commitment to Racial Justice is a manifesto intended to hold us accountable in all aspects of our work.
Some campaigns in which our commitment to racial justice is most visible are our campaigns to
end mass incarceration and
solitary confinement, which disproportionately target Black Americans and other people of color.
As we advocate for
immigrants' rights and
workers' rights, we call out the racism that brings more media attention to one group of refugees over another and which allows Americans to ignore the dangerous and degrading conditions in which workers grow the food we eat.
In our work on
antisemitism, we seek to elevate the experiences of Jews of Color, who are exposed not only to the threat of antisemitism but simultaneously face racism and other forms of bigotry.
Finally, we practice what we preach. T'ruah seeks to redress racial injustice
internally, through our ongoing Diversity Equity Inclusion and Justice initiative. In our hiring practices, compensation philosophy, harassment policy, and other workplace policies, we aspire to equity and just treatment of our employees.
Our work includes:
- Resources: We offer a variety of resources for the Jewish community – particularly white Jews – about how to most effectively be in solidarity with our Black and brown friends, family, and neighbors.
- Human rights delegations: We have brought two delegations of rabbis, cantors, and other Jewish communal leaders to the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. Through sophisticated training and experiential learning with T’ruah, Jewish clergy have learned about how the legacy of slavery and racialized violence continues to reverberate through every part of our society, and have gone home dedicated to taking action against racism.
- Educational programs: From 2021-23 we guided two cohorts through Synagogue Teams for Equity and Partnerships (STEP), a program that brought together New York-area synagogues with non-Jewish communities of color to build new relationships or deepen existing ones. Additionally, we have hosted Antiracism Communities of Practice for chaverim, and have offered multipart courses on the intersections of Antisemitism and Race for national groups.
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[name] => Worker Justice
[slug] => worker-justice
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[description] =>
"Great is work, as it gives honor
to the one who does it."
—Nedarim 49b
Our tradition tells us that it is a Jewish moral imperative to treat workers fairly. But we know that in this country and around the world, the workplace is often ground zero for forced labor, exploitation, wage theft, and violence – especially for members of Black, brown, and undocumented communities, as well as those with temporary work visas. From the tomato fields of Immokalee, FL, to construction sites in Brooklyn, to undocumented workers excluded from COVID benefits, T’ruah rabbis and cantors across the country are in solidarity with workers standing up for dignity, equity, and safety in their workplaces.
Our work includes:
- Solidarity with farmworkers: Since 2011, T’ruah has brought more than 100 rabbis, cantors, and lay leaders to visit the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a farmworker-led organization that is transforming the Florida tomato fields from places of modern day slavery to some of the best workplaces in U.S. agriculture. The #tomatorabbis, as members of the rabbinic delegations call themselves, have gone home to involve members of their own communities in asking major corporations to join the coalition’s Fair Food Program, which raises the wages of tomato workers and ensures fair, regulated working conditions in the fields to end the conditions that have led to widespread labor trafficking and slavery.T’ruah has worked with the coalition to bring Trader Joe’s, Ahold (Stop & Shop/Giant), and Chipotle into the Fair Food Program. We are currently organizing Jewish communities to ask Wendy’s to join 14 major corporations in doing the same, and are partnering with the coalition to expand the Fair Food Program into additional states and crops.
- Building the faith-rooted movement for worker justice: Along with organizations and networks like the Interreligious Network for Worker Solidarity, T'ruah works to bolster national advocacy and organizing that builds up the worker justice movement and aims to stop the attacks on workers coming from both legislatures and individual companies.
- Selling fairly traded chocolate for Jewish holiday celebrations: T’ruah partners with Equal Exchange and Divine Chocolate, to encourage Jewish communities to purchase kosher fairly traded Chanukah gelt, kosher-for-Passover chocolate, coffee, and other products.
Local campaigns:
T'ruah's New York City cluster is partnering with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) and the Laundry Workers Center on their Cabricanecos campaign, standing in solidarity with migrant and indigenous workers who are seeking access to safer and more equitable working conditions at job sites across Brooklyn.
Partners:
Internally, T'ruah strives to live our values around worker justice. Whenever possible, our products, including paper materials and t-shirts, are union printed, and we use a union cleaning company for our office. We aspire to equity, transparency, and dignity in all aspects of our hiring process and in how we treat our employees.
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Free Speech and The Right to Boycott
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[term_id] => 266
[name] => Democracy and Voting Rights
[slug] => democracy-and-voting-rights
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[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => “A ruler is not to be appointed unless the community is first consulted.”
-Babylonian Talmud Berachot 55a
Since right-wing politicians in many states are working to undermine the basic process of voting and the people’s trust in our election institutions, the work we do is crucial to securing our rights to vote and participate in the democratic process. We work to support rabbis, cantors, and the wider Jewish community in learning and taking action to protect voting rights and the integrity of the democratic process.
We also work hard to protect the values of freedom of speech. This includes the right to boycott. Regardless of whether we support the choice of whom is being boycotted, the power to speak, not just with words, but with money, is an essential right under the First Amendment.
Our work includes:
Recruiting poll chaplains to support election sites through de-escalation.
Collaborating with A More Perfect Union to support rabbis and cantors in building relationships with their local election officials, and build trust in election processes.
Creating Jewish teachings and thought leadership on democracy through Emor.
Joining interfaith partners to advocate and build support for legislation that would support, protect, and expand the right to vote.
Partners:
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights is a 501(c)(3) and does not conduct partisan political activities in support or in opposition to any political candidate.
Learn about our related work on Free Speech and the Right to Boycott.
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[1] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 217
[name] => Ending the Occupation
[slug] => ending-the-occupation
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 217
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => "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 cantors, we care deeply about Israel’s future as a Jewish, democratic state, and as a safe haven for the Jewish people, who have suffered generations of persecution with no country of our own.
At the same time, we recognize the impact and consequences of Israel’s creation for the Palestinian people, and the many decades of suffering incurred by leaders prioritizing power over people. Since 1967, Israel has maintained a violent military occupation of Palestinian land, violating the human rights of millions each day. To ensure the long-term security, dignity, and prosperity of both Israelis and Palestinians, the occupation must end.
With T’ruah’s support, courageous Jewish clergy draw attention to the injustices done in our name.
Our work includes:
Training and educating current and future American rabbis and cantors to be the moral leaders we need. Over 80% of rabbinical and cantorial students spending their required year in Israel participate in our Year-in-Israel Program, which takes students to see human rights issues with their own eyes and meet the activists working to address them
Running trips to the West Bank for ordained Jewish clergy
Providing educational programming on specific issues and bringing the voices of Israeli and Palestinian activists and human rights experts to our community
Organizing rabbis, cantors, and their communities to take action to protect democracy in Israel and to support the human rights of both Israelis and Palestinians
Partners:
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[2] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 253
[name] => Fighting Antisemitism
[slug] => fighting-antisemitism
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 253
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => "Love your neighbor as yourself."
-Leviticus 19:18
T'ruah is committed to standing against antisemitism in all its manifestations. As antisemitic incidents increase at an alarming rate, rabbis and cantors are often on the front lines, facing antisemitic flyering, graffiti, and vandalism; harassment and threats; and in some cases, violence. Those who wear identifiably Jewish clothing have become targets for antisemitic attacks, and the result is that Jews are increasingly concerned for their safety on the street and in the synagogue.
Education
Our approach to combatting antisemitism begins with education. It is increasingly clear that there are widespread misperceptions about antisemitism, and even about Jews and Judaism. Even among Jews, not everyone agrees on what constitutes antisemitism. Our educational resources and trainings aim to fill that gap, so that both Jews and non-Jews feel confident they can identify, name, and effectively respond to antisemitic incidents.
Fighting antisemitism in public and private
There is no one-size-fits-all response to antisemitism. While public officials must be called out for antisemitic speech, T'ruah also works privately within our coalitions and partnerships to address antisemitism — and other forms of bigotry — through conversation and education.
Valid criticism of Israel or antisemitism?
Our expertise includes defining the sometimes muddy boundary between criticism of Israel and antisemitism, which we explore in depth in our A Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism. While it is certainly true that not all criticism of Israel is antisemitic — we criticize Israel's policies every day — it is also true that criticism of Israel can sometimes devolve into antisemitism.
That said, we refuse to allow fear of antisemitism to lead us to become xenophobic or closed-off. Our approach to addressing antisemitism is deeper and broader relationships with other groups that have been marginalized, striving together towards collective liberation.
Our work includes:
- Creating educational resources for rabbis and cantors and for the public, such as our A Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism, so that Jews and non-Jews have the tools they need to better understand and recognize antisemitism when it happens.
- Delivering staff-led trainings in antisemitism for Jewish and non-Jewish organizations, as well as to elected officials.
- Developing a training in "Bystander Intervention to Stop Antisemitism" with Right To Be, so that ordinary people know how to intervene if they witness antisemitic harassment or violence. More than 700 people have completed this training.
- Advocating for sound policies that combat antisemitism and against policies that equate fighting antisemitism with suppressing criticism of Israel — policies that only make it harder to identify and stop actual antisemitism. For more on this topic, read about our campaign for Free Speech and the Right to Boycott.
- Supporting our rabbis and cantors as they encounter antisemitism in the course of their work, including through Communities of Practice, one-on-one coaching, and by creating opportunities to gain support from others in our network who have experienced similar incidents.
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"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 is committed to fighting against concerted efforts to suppress free speech in the United States, including the right to boycott.
Currently,
about 35 states have passed or enacted laws or executive orders targeting boycotts of Israel and/or West Bank settlements. T’ruah does not endorse or participate in the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement; at the same time, we maintain committed to our country’s bedrock principle of free speech, including the right to economic boycott.
These anti-boycott laws are often passed under the guise of fighting antisemitism, but criticism of Israel — including in the form of a targeted boycott — is not inherently antisemitic. [For more on this, read our
Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism.]
Anti-BDS laws set a dangerous precedent. Lawmakers in several states have already begun proposing and passing copycat laws restricting the state from doing business with companies that ‘discriminate’ against firearms or ammunition manufacturers or fossil fuel companies.
The threat of these laws is only growing, and we are sounding the alarm.
Our work includes:
- T’ruah opposes legislation that seeks to prohibit the boycott of Israel and/or settlements. T’ruah – together with J Street and other partners in the Progressive Israel Network – has filed amicus briefs in cases in Texas, Georgia, and Arkansas, in which we affirm that boycotts must remain a protected form of free speech for all of us, and not be restricted by political whims, even when we personally or collectively disagree with the motivations behind those boycotts.
- In 2023, T’ruah will release a new resource for the general public laying out the harms of anti-BDS legislation. This brief guide will provide clarity around a contentious and confusing issue. We hope it will help Jewish clergy, elected officials, students, and everyone else in our community engage in critical conversations about our constitutional freedoms and efforts to limit free speech in the United States.
- We educate and empower rabbis and cantors to oppose legislation that seeks to codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism into domestic law or policy. The core IHRA definition itself is not problematic. However, the full definition includes a series of contemporary examples of antisemitism that wrongly equate what may be legitimate expressions of free speech with antisemitism — with real consequences for Palestinian rights activists, educators, human rights organizations, and others — while making it harder to fight actual antisemitism.As an organization committed to holding Israel accountable for its human rights abuses as well as to stopping antisemitism wherever it occurs, the codification of IHRA and the spread of anti-BDS laws directly endanger our work and that of our partners.
Partners
[parent] => 266
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[4] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 273
[name] => Funding Transparency
[slug] => funding-transparency
[term_group] => 0
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[description] =>
"These are the records of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle of the Pact, which were drawn up at Moses’ bidding..."
-Exodus 38:21
According to Midrash, after the Mishkan (Tabernacle) was completed, some Israelites accused Moses of misusing their donations. Moses’ response was a full accounting of every piece of jewelry, gold, and precious stone that the people had offered.
We should ask no less of our communal leaders today.
T’ruah seeks transparency and accountability in how U.S. donor funds are spent in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. A "follow the money" approach not only brings transparency to the foreign actors shaping realities on the ground, but has the potential to reduce the funding these groups receive and meaningfully reduce their ability to do harm.
Our work includes:
Ending tax benefits for terrorists.
T'ruah shines light on far-right American Jewish charities that fund Israeli terrorist groups — in direct violation of U.S. law, which forbids tax-exempt dollars from going to terrorist organizations.
Since 2016, T'ruah has filed a series of complaints with the IRS about the Central Fund of Israel (CFI), the Charity of Light Fund, and others.
T’ruah achieved a major victory in 2016, after exposing that Honenu — a group that was giving cash payments to Israelis convicted of terrorism and to their families — was receiving tax exempt donations through the Central Fund of Israel, a U.S. foundation. The IRS investigated, and Central Fund of Israel cut off funding to Honenu until the latter ended this practice.
In 2022, we organized a letter from 19 prominent New York City rabbis to the donor-advised Jewish Communal Fund, warning them that some of their donors' money is making its way to Lehava via CFI. In the past 20 years, JCF has sent over $23 million to the Central Fund of Israel, which in turn funds groups that funnel money to Lehava, a militant offshoot of Kahane Chai, led by Kahanist Rabbi Bentzi Gopstein. As of today, the Jewish Communal Fund has not taken action to ensure their donors' money does not fund terrorism.
Bringing attention to the far-right donors in the U.S. eroding democracy in Israel
From the American billionaires behind the Kohelet Policy Forum — originator of some of Israel's most undemocratic legislation — to the powerful Miami-based Falic family, which funnels cash to Lehava, funds from individual American donors have helped to drive the current attack on Israeli democracy, including the ongoing occupation and the chipping away of basic civil rights. Read our CEO Rabbi Jill Jacobs's op-ed in The Forward:
"How did Israeli democracy come under threat? Follow the money."
Monitoring and exposing how American Jewish charities spend U.S. donor funds to promote settlement expansion and occupation.
The American arm of the Jewish National Fund, JNF-USA, is well known for planting trees in Israel. In 2015 and 2016, as part of T'ruah's successful “Transparency in Funding” (also known as “Eifo George,” after the campaign video) campaign, we produced two videos calling on the JNF-USA to be transparent about the fact that a portion of the money it raised went over the Green Line to Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
As a result of our campaign, which was covered in the
Forward,
Haaretz and elsewhere, JNF-USA began listing its funding in Israel and the West Bank in greater (although not complete) detail on
its 990 tax forms.
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[count] => 21
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[term_id] => 267
[name] => Immigration Justice
[slug] => immigration-justice
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[description] =>
"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 immigrants remain far from our shared vision. While the Trump Administration’s dangerous policies were blatantly rooted in racism, xenophobia, and white supremacy, President Biden has not made the improvements our communities have demanded.
The United States must follow international human rights law when it comes to asylum seekers, refugees, and immigrants. Our government must also recognize and redress the systemic racism that permeates our immigration system, discriminating against immigrants of color.
In the fight for true immigrant justice and relief, we need all hands on deck.
Our work includes:
- Organizing clergy through our BIMA Campaign (Building Immigration Momentum & Action), encouraging rabbis and cantors to recognize how they can use their platform to change the narrative around immigration for the better
- Human rights delegations to the southern border for clergy, with our partners at HIAS
- Coalition work through the Interfaith Immigration Coalition
- Working with the All In For Registry campaign to update our immigration laws to allow millions of longtime undocumented US residents a path to permanent legal status
- Advocating to Congress and the federal government for a more humane immigration system that welcomes asylum seekers and refugees with dignity, provides legitimate pathways to citizenship for more of our neighbors, and reduces reliance on detention and deportation.
*In the Torah, the word "ger" refers to a person who came from elsewhere, but is now a long-term or permanent resident of their new community.
Partners:
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[term_id] => 212
[name] => Israel Campaigns
[slug] => israel-campaigns
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 212
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
[parent] => 0
[count] => 353
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[term_id] => 9
[name] => Mass Incarceration
[slug] => mass-incarceration
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 9
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[description] =>
"Exalted and High, Mighty and Awesome, You bring low the proud and lift up the fallen; You free the imprisoned, redeem the humble, and help the poor."
-Blessing after the Shema, Morning service
Mass incarceration is a racial justice issue.
We cannot achieve real change unless we recognize and name that racism is at the root of this disaster. As Bryan Stevenson puts it: "Slavery didn't end in 1865, it just evolved." Though just 5% of the world's population lives in the United States, our country imprisons 25% of the world's incarcerated people, and people of color are disproportionately targeted.
T’ruah’s campaign to end mass incarceration engages rabbis, cantors, and their communities in making concrete change locally and nationally to our broken criminal justice system. We believe that the goal of our criminal justice system should be
teshuvah, not simply punishment. We draw inspiration from Jewish legal writings that aim to create a criminal justice system rooted in dignity and justice for both perpetrator and victim.
Our work includes:
- Organizing to end prolonged solitary confinement, which international law experts have classified as torture.
- Advocating for an end to police practices that result in disproportionate stops, arrests, and deaths of people of color.
- Organizing rabbis and their communities to protest police violence and to demand full investigations in cases of killings by police officers.
- Advocating for more just sentencing policies.
- Helping Jewish communities to volunteer with incarcerated individuals and their families, employ the formerly incarcerated, and engage in local campaigns to change state criminal justice laws.
- Educating the Jewish community about why our current system of mass incarceration benefits none of us.
- Educating our communities about the intersection between the U.S.’s prison industrial complex and the detention of immigrants. See our immigration campaign for more.
Local organizing:
- In New York City, chaverim are engaged in ending all solitary confinement in city jails, and working toward the closure of Rikers Island. In Westchester, we are part of the #CommunitiesNotCages coalition to overhaul New York State’s racist and draconian sentencing laws.
- The Massachusetts T’ruah cluster is working in coalition with formerly incarcerated women and their families, who are leading the fight to pass a moratorium on new prison and jail construction in the state — stopping a $50 million proposed women’s prison and re-allocating taxpayer money to communities most affected by mass incarceration.
Partners:
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[count] => 94
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[name] => Mikdash: The Jewish Sanctuary Movement
[slug] => mikdash-the-jewish-sanctuary-movement
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[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
T’ruah’s sanctuary network, Mikdash, is made up of over 70 member communities. We work as part of an interfaith network to mobilize synagogues and other Jewish communities to protect those facing deportation or other immigration challenges. By becoming part of the Mikdash network, communities pledge to take concrete actions, which may include legal support, housing, financial help, and other assistance for our friends and neighbors.
The New Sanctuary Movement — a coalition of hundreds of immigrant and faith-based organizations — works to protect and defend immigrants in the United States, especially those at risk for arrest and deportation. At T'ruah, we believe we have a moral obligation to join in their struggle, honoring the biblical injunction to "welcome the stranger" as well as the memory of Jewish refugees around the world.
With our help, Jewish communities across the United States are joining with others to take action to support and protect the vulnerable.
If your congregation is interested in learning more about becoming a sanctuary community, please contact us at office@truah.org.
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[count] => 179
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[name] => Modern Day Slavery and Human Trafficking
[slug] => slavery-and-trafficking
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[description] =>
"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, focusing on the issue of slavery in supply chains. Our work includes
- Partnering with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to expand the Fair Food Program, the most effective slavery prevention program in U.S. agriculture.
- We are the only Jewish organization that is a member of ATEST, the Alliance to End Slavery &Trafficking, the premier U.S. coalition dedicated to supporting those vulnerable to trafficking.
- Supporting federal legislation to help survivors of trafficking.
- Training more than 70 rabbis in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC to engage their communities in addressing slavery and trafficking locally.
- Co-leading the Jewish Coalition Against Trafficking, together with the National Council of Jewish Women.
- Partnering with Equal Exchange and Divine Chocolate, to encourage Jewish communities to purchase kosher Fair Trade Chanukah gelt, kosher-for-Passover chocolate, coffee, and other products.
Three thousand years after the Jewish people are said to have been liberated from slavery, and 150 years after the Civil War,
more people are enslaved today than at any other point in history.
According to the most conservative estimates of the International Labor Organization, nearly 21 million people are held in situations of forced labor today: three out of every 1,000 people in the world.
Human trafficking does not occur in a vacuum but represents the extreme end of a continuum of worker exploitation and vulnerability. We therefore support worker-led campaigns to raise wages, combat abuses, and create meaningful enforcement mechanisms to implement hard-won rights.
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[name] => North American Campaigns
[slug] => north-american-campaigns
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 213
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
[parent] => 0
[count] => 384
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[11] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 237
[name] => Plant Justice Not Settlements
[slug] => plant-justice-not-settlements
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 237
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => In 2016, T’ruah
won an important victory for transparency when we persuaded the Jewish National Fund-USA to publish a list of its projects on its publicly-available tax forms for the first time.
That’s the good news. But the bad news is that we now know that JNF-USA doesn’t just plant trees in Israel, but also invests in settlements s over the Green Line, beyond Israel’s internationally recognized borders.
JNF-USA once had a
policy of not funding over the Green Line.
Please join us in demanding it return to this policy.
By supporting settlements, JNF-USA contributes to the violation of the human rights of Palestinians, and to blocking a long-term agreement that will be the only way to protect the human rights and security of both Israelis and Palestinians. Settlements limit Palestinians’ freedom of movement, take their land and destroy all hopes for a viable, sovereign and territorially contiguous Palestinian state.
The JNF-USA needs to hear from you.
Please ask JNF-USA CEO Russell Robinson today to pledge not to spend one more dollar over the Green Line.
By treating illegal settlements as if they were merely another part of Israel, JNF-USA is committing the sin of
genevat da’at, misleading people. And it is contributing to the human rights abuses and land theft the settlements cause.
As the Torah proclaims, “Damned be he who moves back the territory-marker of his neighbor!” (Deut. 37:17)
Write to JNF-USA CEO Russell Robinson
Learn more
Watch our video
Look at our map of JNF-USA projects over the Green Line
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[name] => Racial Justice
[slug] => racial-justice
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[description] =>
"When the community is immersed in suffering, a person may not say: I will go to my home and I will eat and drink, and be at peace with myself."
-Taanit 11a
Racial justice is a Jewish value, and Black lives matter. Period.
Unlike the other issues T'ruah works on, the pursuit of racial justice is not a single isolated campaign, but rather a value that permeates every single one of our campaigns.
Our statement of
Commitment to Racial Justice is a manifesto intended to hold us accountable in all aspects of our work.
Some campaigns in which our commitment to racial justice is most visible are our campaigns to
end mass incarceration and
solitary confinement, which disproportionately target Black Americans and other people of color.
As we advocate for
immigrants' rights and
workers' rights, we call out the racism that brings more media attention to one group of refugees over another and which allows Americans to ignore the dangerous and degrading conditions in which workers grow the food we eat.
In our work on
antisemitism, we seek to elevate the experiences of Jews of Color, who are exposed not only to the threat of antisemitism but simultaneously face racism and other forms of bigotry.
Finally, we practice what we preach. T'ruah seeks to redress racial injustice
internally, through our ongoing Diversity Equity Inclusion and Justice initiative. In our hiring practices, compensation philosophy, harassment policy, and other workplace policies, we aspire to equity and just treatment of our employees.
Our work includes:
- Resources: We offer a variety of resources for the Jewish community – particularly white Jews – about how to most effectively be in solidarity with our Black and brown friends, family, and neighbors.
- Human rights delegations: We have brought two delegations of rabbis, cantors, and other Jewish communal leaders to the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. Through sophisticated training and experiential learning with T’ruah, Jewish clergy have learned about how the legacy of slavery and racialized violence continues to reverberate through every part of our society, and have gone home dedicated to taking action against racism.
- Educational programs: From 2021-23 we guided two cohorts through Synagogue Teams for Equity and Partnerships (STEP), a program that brought together New York-area synagogues with non-Jewish communities of color to build new relationships or deepen existing ones. Additionally, we have hosted Antiracism Communities of Practice for chaverim, and have offered multipart courses on the intersections of Antisemitism and Race for national groups.
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[term_id] => 193
[name] => Worker Justice
[slug] => worker-justice
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 193
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"Great is work, as it gives honor
to the one who does it."
—Nedarim 49b
Our tradition tells us that it is a Jewish moral imperative to treat workers fairly. But we know that in this country and around the world, the workplace is often ground zero for forced labor, exploitation, wage theft, and violence – especially for members of Black, brown, and undocumented communities, as well as those with temporary work visas. From the tomato fields of Immokalee, FL, to construction sites in Brooklyn, to undocumented workers excluded from COVID benefits, T’ruah rabbis and cantors across the country are in solidarity with workers standing up for dignity, equity, and safety in their workplaces.
Our work includes:
- Solidarity with farmworkers: Since 2011, T’ruah has brought more than 100 rabbis, cantors, and lay leaders to visit the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a farmworker-led organization that is transforming the Florida tomato fields from places of modern day slavery to some of the best workplaces in U.S. agriculture. The #tomatorabbis, as members of the rabbinic delegations call themselves, have gone home to involve members of their own communities in asking major corporations to join the coalition’s Fair Food Program, which raises the wages of tomato workers and ensures fair, regulated working conditions in the fields to end the conditions that have led to widespread labor trafficking and slavery.T’ruah has worked with the coalition to bring Trader Joe’s, Ahold (Stop & Shop/Giant), and Chipotle into the Fair Food Program. We are currently organizing Jewish communities to ask Wendy’s to join 14 major corporations in doing the same, and are partnering with the coalition to expand the Fair Food Program into additional states and crops.
- Building the faith-rooted movement for worker justice: Along with organizations and networks like the Interreligious Network for Worker Solidarity, T'ruah works to bolster national advocacy and organizing that builds up the worker justice movement and aims to stop the attacks on workers coming from both legislatures and individual companies.
- Selling fairly traded chocolate for Jewish holiday celebrations: T’ruah partners with Equal Exchange and Divine Chocolate, to encourage Jewish communities to purchase kosher fairly traded Chanukah gelt, kosher-for-Passover chocolate, coffee, and other products.
Local campaigns:
T'ruah's New York City cluster is partnering with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) and the Laundry Workers Center on their Cabricanecos campaign, standing in solidarity with migrant and indigenous workers who are seeking access to safer and more equitable working conditions at job sites across Brooklyn.
Partners:
Internally, T'ruah strives to live our values around worker justice. Whenever possible, our products, including paper materials and t-shirts, are union printed, and we use a union cleaning company for our office. We aspire to equity, transparency, and dignity in all aspects of our hiring process and in how we treat our employees.
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1
Funding Transparency
Array
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[0] => WP_Term Object
(
[term_id] => 266
[name] => Democracy and Voting Rights
[slug] => democracy-and-voting-rights
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 266
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => “A ruler is not to be appointed unless the community is first consulted.”
-Babylonian Talmud Berachot 55a
Since right-wing politicians in many states are working to undermine the basic process of voting and the people’s trust in our election institutions, the work we do is crucial to securing our rights to vote and participate in the democratic process. We work to support rabbis, cantors, and the wider Jewish community in learning and taking action to protect voting rights and the integrity of the democratic process.
We also work hard to protect the values of freedom of speech. This includes the right to boycott. Regardless of whether we support the choice of whom is being boycotted, the power to speak, not just with words, but with money, is an essential right under the First Amendment.
Our work includes:
Recruiting poll chaplains to support election sites through de-escalation.
Collaborating with A More Perfect Union to support rabbis and cantors in building relationships with their local election officials, and build trust in election processes.
Creating Jewish teachings and thought leadership on democracy through Emor.
Joining interfaith partners to advocate and build support for legislation that would support, protect, and expand the right to vote.
Partners:
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights is a 501(c)(3) and does not conduct partisan political activities in support or in opposition to any political candidate.
Learn about our related work on Free Speech and the Right to Boycott.
[parent] => 213
[count] => 24
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[1] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 217
[name] => Ending the Occupation
[slug] => ending-the-occupation
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 217
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => "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 cantors, we care deeply about Israel’s future as a Jewish, democratic state, and as a safe haven for the Jewish people, who have suffered generations of persecution with no country of our own.
At the same time, we recognize the impact and consequences of Israel’s creation for the Palestinian people, and the many decades of suffering incurred by leaders prioritizing power over people. Since 1967, Israel has maintained a violent military occupation of Palestinian land, violating the human rights of millions each day. To ensure the long-term security, dignity, and prosperity of both Israelis and Palestinians, the occupation must end.
With T’ruah’s support, courageous Jewish clergy draw attention to the injustices done in our name.
Our work includes:
Training and educating current and future American rabbis and cantors to be the moral leaders we need. Over 80% of rabbinical and cantorial students spending their required year in Israel participate in our Year-in-Israel Program, which takes students to see human rights issues with their own eyes and meet the activists working to address them
Running trips to the West Bank for ordained Jewish clergy
Providing educational programming on specific issues and bringing the voices of Israeli and Palestinian activists and human rights experts to our community
Organizing rabbis, cantors, and their communities to take action to protect democracy in Israel and to support the human rights of both Israelis and Palestinians
Partners:
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[count] => 192
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[2] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 253
[name] => Fighting Antisemitism
[slug] => fighting-antisemitism
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 253
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => "Love your neighbor as yourself."
-Leviticus 19:18
T'ruah is committed to standing against antisemitism in all its manifestations. As antisemitic incidents increase at an alarming rate, rabbis and cantors are often on the front lines, facing antisemitic flyering, graffiti, and vandalism; harassment and threats; and in some cases, violence. Those who wear identifiably Jewish clothing have become targets for antisemitic attacks, and the result is that Jews are increasingly concerned for their safety on the street and in the synagogue.
Education
Our approach to combatting antisemitism begins with education. It is increasingly clear that there are widespread misperceptions about antisemitism, and even about Jews and Judaism. Even among Jews, not everyone agrees on what constitutes antisemitism. Our educational resources and trainings aim to fill that gap, so that both Jews and non-Jews feel confident they can identify, name, and effectively respond to antisemitic incidents.
Fighting antisemitism in public and private
There is no one-size-fits-all response to antisemitism. While public officials must be called out for antisemitic speech, T'ruah also works privately within our coalitions and partnerships to address antisemitism — and other forms of bigotry — through conversation and education.
Valid criticism of Israel or antisemitism?
Our expertise includes defining the sometimes muddy boundary between criticism of Israel and antisemitism, which we explore in depth in our A Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism. While it is certainly true that not all criticism of Israel is antisemitic — we criticize Israel's policies every day — it is also true that criticism of Israel can sometimes devolve into antisemitism.
That said, we refuse to allow fear of antisemitism to lead us to become xenophobic or closed-off. Our approach to addressing antisemitism is deeper and broader relationships with other groups that have been marginalized, striving together towards collective liberation.
Our work includes:
- Creating educational resources for rabbis and cantors and for the public, such as our A Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism, so that Jews and non-Jews have the tools they need to better understand and recognize antisemitism when it happens.
- Delivering staff-led trainings in antisemitism for Jewish and non-Jewish organizations, as well as to elected officials.
- Developing a training in "Bystander Intervention to Stop Antisemitism" with Right To Be, so that ordinary people know how to intervene if they witness antisemitic harassment or violence. More than 700 people have completed this training.
- Advocating for sound policies that combat antisemitism and against policies that equate fighting antisemitism with suppressing criticism of Israel — policies that only make it harder to identify and stop actual antisemitism. For more on this topic, read about our campaign for Free Speech and the Right to Boycott.
- Supporting our rabbis and cantors as they encounter antisemitism in the course of their work, including through Communities of Practice, one-on-one coaching, and by creating opportunities to gain support from others in our network who have experienced similar incidents.
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[term_id] => 274
[name] => Free Speech and The Right to Boycott
[slug] => free-speech-boycott-rights
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[description] =>
"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 is committed to fighting against concerted efforts to suppress free speech in the United States, including the right to boycott.
Currently,
about 35 states have passed or enacted laws or executive orders targeting boycotts of Israel and/or West Bank settlements. T’ruah does not endorse or participate in the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement; at the same time, we maintain committed to our country’s bedrock principle of free speech, including the right to economic boycott.
These anti-boycott laws are often passed under the guise of fighting antisemitism, but criticism of Israel — including in the form of a targeted boycott — is not inherently antisemitic. [For more on this, read our
Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism.]
Anti-BDS laws set a dangerous precedent. Lawmakers in several states have already begun proposing and passing copycat laws restricting the state from doing business with companies that ‘discriminate’ against firearms or ammunition manufacturers or fossil fuel companies.
The threat of these laws is only growing, and we are sounding the alarm.
Our work includes:
- T’ruah opposes legislation that seeks to prohibit the boycott of Israel and/or settlements. T’ruah – together with J Street and other partners in the Progressive Israel Network – has filed amicus briefs in cases in Texas, Georgia, and Arkansas, in which we affirm that boycotts must remain a protected form of free speech for all of us, and not be restricted by political whims, even when we personally or collectively disagree with the motivations behind those boycotts.
- In 2023, T’ruah will release a new resource for the general public laying out the harms of anti-BDS legislation. This brief guide will provide clarity around a contentious and confusing issue. We hope it will help Jewish clergy, elected officials, students, and everyone else in our community engage in critical conversations about our constitutional freedoms and efforts to limit free speech in the United States.
- We educate and empower rabbis and cantors to oppose legislation that seeks to codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism into domestic law or policy. The core IHRA definition itself is not problematic. However, the full definition includes a series of contemporary examples of antisemitism that wrongly equate what may be legitimate expressions of free speech with antisemitism — with real consequences for Palestinian rights activists, educators, human rights organizations, and others — while making it harder to fight actual antisemitism.As an organization committed to holding Israel accountable for its human rights abuses as well as to stopping antisemitism wherever it occurs, the codification of IHRA and the spread of anti-BDS laws directly endanger our work and that of our partners.
Partners
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[4] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 273
[name] => Funding Transparency
[slug] => funding-transparency
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[description] =>
"These are the records of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle of the Pact, which were drawn up at Moses’ bidding..."
-Exodus 38:21
According to Midrash, after the Mishkan (Tabernacle) was completed, some Israelites accused Moses of misusing their donations. Moses’ response was a full accounting of every piece of jewelry, gold, and precious stone that the people had offered.
We should ask no less of our communal leaders today.
T’ruah seeks transparency and accountability in how U.S. donor funds are spent in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. A "follow the money" approach not only brings transparency to the foreign actors shaping realities on the ground, but has the potential to reduce the funding these groups receive and meaningfully reduce their ability to do harm.
Our work includes:
Ending tax benefits for terrorists.
T'ruah shines light on far-right American Jewish charities that fund Israeli terrorist groups — in direct violation of U.S. law, which forbids tax-exempt dollars from going to terrorist organizations.
Since 2016, T'ruah has filed a series of complaints with the IRS about the Central Fund of Israel (CFI), the Charity of Light Fund, and others.
T’ruah achieved a major victory in 2016, after exposing that Honenu — a group that was giving cash payments to Israelis convicted of terrorism and to their families — was receiving tax exempt donations through the Central Fund of Israel, a U.S. foundation. The IRS investigated, and Central Fund of Israel cut off funding to Honenu until the latter ended this practice.
In 2022, we organized a letter from 19 prominent New York City rabbis to the donor-advised Jewish Communal Fund, warning them that some of their donors' money is making its way to Lehava via CFI. In the past 20 years, JCF has sent over $23 million to the Central Fund of Israel, which in turn funds groups that funnel money to Lehava, a militant offshoot of Kahane Chai, led by Kahanist Rabbi Bentzi Gopstein. As of today, the Jewish Communal Fund has not taken action to ensure their donors' money does not fund terrorism.
Bringing attention to the far-right donors in the U.S. eroding democracy in Israel
From the American billionaires behind the Kohelet Policy Forum — originator of some of Israel's most undemocratic legislation — to the powerful Miami-based Falic family, which funnels cash to Lehava, funds from individual American donors have helped to drive the current attack on Israeli democracy, including the ongoing occupation and the chipping away of basic civil rights. Read our CEO Rabbi Jill Jacobs's op-ed in The Forward:
"How did Israeli democracy come under threat? Follow the money."
Monitoring and exposing how American Jewish charities spend U.S. donor funds to promote settlement expansion and occupation.
The American arm of the Jewish National Fund, JNF-USA, is well known for planting trees in Israel. In 2015 and 2016, as part of T'ruah's successful “Transparency in Funding” (also known as “Eifo George,” after the campaign video) campaign, we produced two videos calling on the JNF-USA to be transparent about the fact that a portion of the money it raised went over the Green Line to Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
As a result of our campaign, which was covered in the
Forward,
Haaretz and elsewhere, JNF-USA began listing its funding in Israel and the West Bank in greater (although not complete) detail on
its 990 tax forms.
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[count] => 21
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[name] => Immigration Justice
[slug] => immigration-justice
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[description] =>
"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 immigrants remain far from our shared vision. While the Trump Administration’s dangerous policies were blatantly rooted in racism, xenophobia, and white supremacy, President Biden has not made the improvements our communities have demanded.
The United States must follow international human rights law when it comes to asylum seekers, refugees, and immigrants. Our government must also recognize and redress the systemic racism that permeates our immigration system, discriminating against immigrants of color.
In the fight for true immigrant justice and relief, we need all hands on deck.
Our work includes:
- Organizing clergy through our BIMA Campaign (Building Immigration Momentum & Action), encouraging rabbis and cantors to recognize how they can use their platform to change the narrative around immigration for the better
- Human rights delegations to the southern border for clergy, with our partners at HIAS
- Coalition work through the Interfaith Immigration Coalition
- Working with the All In For Registry campaign to update our immigration laws to allow millions of longtime undocumented US residents a path to permanent legal status
- Advocating to Congress and the federal government for a more humane immigration system that welcomes asylum seekers and refugees with dignity, provides legitimate pathways to citizenship for more of our neighbors, and reduces reliance on detention and deportation.
*In the Torah, the word "ger" refers to a person who came from elsewhere, but is now a long-term or permanent resident of their new community.
Partners:
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[term_id] => 212
[name] => Israel Campaigns
[slug] => israel-campaigns
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[description] =>
[parent] => 0
[count] => 353
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[term_id] => 9
[name] => Mass Incarceration
[slug] => mass-incarceration
[term_group] => 0
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[description] =>
"Exalted and High, Mighty and Awesome, You bring low the proud and lift up the fallen; You free the imprisoned, redeem the humble, and help the poor."
-Blessing after the Shema, Morning service
Mass incarceration is a racial justice issue.
We cannot achieve real change unless we recognize and name that racism is at the root of this disaster. As Bryan Stevenson puts it: "Slavery didn't end in 1865, it just evolved." Though just 5% of the world's population lives in the United States, our country imprisons 25% of the world's incarcerated people, and people of color are disproportionately targeted.
T’ruah’s campaign to end mass incarceration engages rabbis, cantors, and their communities in making concrete change locally and nationally to our broken criminal justice system. We believe that the goal of our criminal justice system should be
teshuvah, not simply punishment. We draw inspiration from Jewish legal writings that aim to create a criminal justice system rooted in dignity and justice for both perpetrator and victim.
Our work includes:
- Organizing to end prolonged solitary confinement, which international law experts have classified as torture.
- Advocating for an end to police practices that result in disproportionate stops, arrests, and deaths of people of color.
- Organizing rabbis and their communities to protest police violence and to demand full investigations in cases of killings by police officers.
- Advocating for more just sentencing policies.
- Helping Jewish communities to volunteer with incarcerated individuals and their families, employ the formerly incarcerated, and engage in local campaigns to change state criminal justice laws.
- Educating the Jewish community about why our current system of mass incarceration benefits none of us.
- Educating our communities about the intersection between the U.S.’s prison industrial complex and the detention of immigrants. See our immigration campaign for more.
Local organizing:
- In New York City, chaverim are engaged in ending all solitary confinement in city jails, and working toward the closure of Rikers Island. In Westchester, we are part of the #CommunitiesNotCages coalition to overhaul New York State’s racist and draconian sentencing laws.
- The Massachusetts T’ruah cluster is working in coalition with formerly incarcerated women and their families, who are leading the fight to pass a moratorium on new prison and jail construction in the state — stopping a $50 million proposed women’s prison and re-allocating taxpayer money to communities most affected by mass incarceration.
Partners:
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[count] => 94
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[name] => Mikdash: The Jewish Sanctuary Movement
[slug] => mikdash-the-jewish-sanctuary-movement
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[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
T’ruah’s sanctuary network, Mikdash, is made up of over 70 member communities. We work as part of an interfaith network to mobilize synagogues and other Jewish communities to protect those facing deportation or other immigration challenges. By becoming part of the Mikdash network, communities pledge to take concrete actions, which may include legal support, housing, financial help, and other assistance for our friends and neighbors.
The New Sanctuary Movement — a coalition of hundreds of immigrant and faith-based organizations — works to protect and defend immigrants in the United States, especially those at risk for arrest and deportation. At T'ruah, we believe we have a moral obligation to join in their struggle, honoring the biblical injunction to "welcome the stranger" as well as the memory of Jewish refugees around the world.
With our help, Jewish communities across the United States are joining with others to take action to support and protect the vulnerable.
If your congregation is interested in learning more about becoming a sanctuary community, please contact us at office@truah.org.
[parent] => 213
[count] => 179
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[name] => Modern Day Slavery and Human Trafficking
[slug] => slavery-and-trafficking
[term_group] => 0
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[description] =>
"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, focusing on the issue of slavery in supply chains. Our work includes
- Partnering with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to expand the Fair Food Program, the most effective slavery prevention program in U.S. agriculture.
- We are the only Jewish organization that is a member of ATEST, the Alliance to End Slavery &Trafficking, the premier U.S. coalition dedicated to supporting those vulnerable to trafficking.
- Supporting federal legislation to help survivors of trafficking.
- Training more than 70 rabbis in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC to engage their communities in addressing slavery and trafficking locally.
- Co-leading the Jewish Coalition Against Trafficking, together with the National Council of Jewish Women.
- Partnering with Equal Exchange and Divine Chocolate, to encourage Jewish communities to purchase kosher Fair Trade Chanukah gelt, kosher-for-Passover chocolate, coffee, and other products.
Three thousand years after the Jewish people are said to have been liberated from slavery, and 150 years after the Civil War,
more people are enslaved today than at any other point in history.
According to the most conservative estimates of the International Labor Organization, nearly 21 million people are held in situations of forced labor today: three out of every 1,000 people in the world.
Human trafficking does not occur in a vacuum but represents the extreme end of a continuum of worker exploitation and vulnerability. We therefore support worker-led campaigns to raise wages, combat abuses, and create meaningful enforcement mechanisms to implement hard-won rights.
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[name] => North American Campaigns
[slug] => north-american-campaigns
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 213
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
[parent] => 0
[count] => 384
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[11] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 237
[name] => Plant Justice Not Settlements
[slug] => plant-justice-not-settlements
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 237
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => In 2016, T’ruah
won an important victory for transparency when we persuaded the Jewish National Fund-USA to publish a list of its projects on its publicly-available tax forms for the first time.
That’s the good news. But the bad news is that we now know that JNF-USA doesn’t just plant trees in Israel, but also invests in settlements s over the Green Line, beyond Israel’s internationally recognized borders.
JNF-USA once had a
policy of not funding over the Green Line.
Please join us in demanding it return to this policy.
By supporting settlements, JNF-USA contributes to the violation of the human rights of Palestinians, and to blocking a long-term agreement that will be the only way to protect the human rights and security of both Israelis and Palestinians. Settlements limit Palestinians’ freedom of movement, take their land and destroy all hopes for a viable, sovereign and territorially contiguous Palestinian state.
The JNF-USA needs to hear from you.
Please ask JNF-USA CEO Russell Robinson today to pledge not to spend one more dollar over the Green Line.
By treating illegal settlements as if they were merely another part of Israel, JNF-USA is committing the sin of
genevat da’at, misleading people. And it is contributing to the human rights abuses and land theft the settlements cause.
As the Torah proclaims, “Damned be he who moves back the territory-marker of his neighbor!” (Deut. 37:17)
Write to JNF-USA CEO Russell Robinson
Learn more
Watch our video
Look at our map of JNF-USA projects over the Green Line
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[name] => Racial Justice
[slug] => racial-justice
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"When the community is immersed in suffering, a person may not say: I will go to my home and I will eat and drink, and be at peace with myself."
-Taanit 11a
Racial justice is a Jewish value, and Black lives matter. Period.
Unlike the other issues T'ruah works on, the pursuit of racial justice is not a single isolated campaign, but rather a value that permeates every single one of our campaigns.
Our statement of
Commitment to Racial Justice is a manifesto intended to hold us accountable in all aspects of our work.
Some campaigns in which our commitment to racial justice is most visible are our campaigns to
end mass incarceration and
solitary confinement, which disproportionately target Black Americans and other people of color.
As we advocate for
immigrants' rights and
workers' rights, we call out the racism that brings more media attention to one group of refugees over another and which allows Americans to ignore the dangerous and degrading conditions in which workers grow the food we eat.
In our work on
antisemitism, we seek to elevate the experiences of Jews of Color, who are exposed not only to the threat of antisemitism but simultaneously face racism and other forms of bigotry.
Finally, we practice what we preach. T'ruah seeks to redress racial injustice
internally, through our ongoing Diversity Equity Inclusion and Justice initiative. In our hiring practices, compensation philosophy, harassment policy, and other workplace policies, we aspire to equity and just treatment of our employees.
Our work includes:
- Resources: We offer a variety of resources for the Jewish community – particularly white Jews – about how to most effectively be in solidarity with our Black and brown friends, family, and neighbors.
- Human rights delegations: We have brought two delegations of rabbis, cantors, and other Jewish communal leaders to the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. Through sophisticated training and experiential learning with T’ruah, Jewish clergy have learned about how the legacy of slavery and racialized violence continues to reverberate through every part of our society, and have gone home dedicated to taking action against racism.
- Educational programs: From 2021-23 we guided two cohorts through Synagogue Teams for Equity and Partnerships (STEP), a program that brought together New York-area synagogues with non-Jewish communities of color to build new relationships or deepen existing ones. Additionally, we have hosted Antiracism Communities of Practice for chaverim, and have offered multipart courses on the intersections of Antisemitism and Race for national groups.
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[term_id] => 193
[name] => Worker Justice
[slug] => worker-justice
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 193
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"Great is work, as it gives honor
to the one who does it."
—Nedarim 49b
Our tradition tells us that it is a Jewish moral imperative to treat workers fairly. But we know that in this country and around the world, the workplace is often ground zero for forced labor, exploitation, wage theft, and violence – especially for members of Black, brown, and undocumented communities, as well as those with temporary work visas. From the tomato fields of Immokalee, FL, to construction sites in Brooklyn, to undocumented workers excluded from COVID benefits, T’ruah rabbis and cantors across the country are in solidarity with workers standing up for dignity, equity, and safety in their workplaces.
Our work includes:
- Solidarity with farmworkers: Since 2011, T’ruah has brought more than 100 rabbis, cantors, and lay leaders to visit the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a farmworker-led organization that is transforming the Florida tomato fields from places of modern day slavery to some of the best workplaces in U.S. agriculture. The #tomatorabbis, as members of the rabbinic delegations call themselves, have gone home to involve members of their own communities in asking major corporations to join the coalition’s Fair Food Program, which raises the wages of tomato workers and ensures fair, regulated working conditions in the fields to end the conditions that have led to widespread labor trafficking and slavery.T’ruah has worked with the coalition to bring Trader Joe’s, Ahold (Stop & Shop/Giant), and Chipotle into the Fair Food Program. We are currently organizing Jewish communities to ask Wendy’s to join 14 major corporations in doing the same, and are partnering with the coalition to expand the Fair Food Program into additional states and crops.
- Building the faith-rooted movement for worker justice: Along with organizations and networks like the Interreligious Network for Worker Solidarity, T'ruah works to bolster national advocacy and organizing that builds up the worker justice movement and aims to stop the attacks on workers coming from both legislatures and individual companies.
- Selling fairly traded chocolate for Jewish holiday celebrations: T’ruah partners with Equal Exchange and Divine Chocolate, to encourage Jewish communities to purchase kosher fairly traded Chanukah gelt, kosher-for-Passover chocolate, coffee, and other products.
Local campaigns:
T'ruah's New York City cluster is partnering with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) and the Laundry Workers Center on their Cabricanecos campaign, standing in solidarity with migrant and indigenous workers who are seeking access to safer and more equitable working conditions at job sites across Brooklyn.
Partners:
Internally, T'ruah strives to live our values around worker justice. Whenever possible, our products, including paper materials and t-shirts, are union printed, and we use a union cleaning company for our office. We aspire to equity, transparency, and dignity in all aspects of our hiring process and in how we treat our employees.
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1
Immigration Justice
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[0] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 266
[name] => Democracy and Voting Rights
[slug] => democracy-and-voting-rights
[term_group] => 0
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[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => “A ruler is not to be appointed unless the community is first consulted.”
-Babylonian Talmud Berachot 55a
Since right-wing politicians in many states are working to undermine the basic process of voting and the people’s trust in our election institutions, the work we do is crucial to securing our rights to vote and participate in the democratic process. We work to support rabbis, cantors, and the wider Jewish community in learning and taking action to protect voting rights and the integrity of the democratic process.
We also work hard to protect the values of freedom of speech. This includes the right to boycott. Regardless of whether we support the choice of whom is being boycotted, the power to speak, not just with words, but with money, is an essential right under the First Amendment.
Our work includes:
Recruiting poll chaplains to support election sites through de-escalation.
Collaborating with A More Perfect Union to support rabbis and cantors in building relationships with their local election officials, and build trust in election processes.
Creating Jewish teachings and thought leadership on democracy through Emor.
Joining interfaith partners to advocate and build support for legislation that would support, protect, and expand the right to vote.
Partners:
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights is a 501(c)(3) and does not conduct partisan political activities in support or in opposition to any political candidate.
Learn about our related work on Free Speech and the Right to Boycott.
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[1] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 217
[name] => Ending the Occupation
[slug] => ending-the-occupation
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 217
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => "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 cantors, we care deeply about Israel’s future as a Jewish, democratic state, and as a safe haven for the Jewish people, who have suffered generations of persecution with no country of our own.
At the same time, we recognize the impact and consequences of Israel’s creation for the Palestinian people, and the many decades of suffering incurred by leaders prioritizing power over people. Since 1967, Israel has maintained a violent military occupation of Palestinian land, violating the human rights of millions each day. To ensure the long-term security, dignity, and prosperity of both Israelis and Palestinians, the occupation must end.
With T’ruah’s support, courageous Jewish clergy draw attention to the injustices done in our name.
Our work includes:
Training and educating current and future American rabbis and cantors to be the moral leaders we need. Over 80% of rabbinical and cantorial students spending their required year in Israel participate in our Year-in-Israel Program, which takes students to see human rights issues with their own eyes and meet the activists working to address them
Running trips to the West Bank for ordained Jewish clergy
Providing educational programming on specific issues and bringing the voices of Israeli and Palestinian activists and human rights experts to our community
Organizing rabbis, cantors, and their communities to take action to protect democracy in Israel and to support the human rights of both Israelis and Palestinians
Partners:
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[2] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 253
[name] => Fighting Antisemitism
[slug] => fighting-antisemitism
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 253
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => "Love your neighbor as yourself."
-Leviticus 19:18
T'ruah is committed to standing against antisemitism in all its manifestations. As antisemitic incidents increase at an alarming rate, rabbis and cantors are often on the front lines, facing antisemitic flyering, graffiti, and vandalism; harassment and threats; and in some cases, violence. Those who wear identifiably Jewish clothing have become targets for antisemitic attacks, and the result is that Jews are increasingly concerned for their safety on the street and in the synagogue.
Education
Our approach to combatting antisemitism begins with education. It is increasingly clear that there are widespread misperceptions about antisemitism, and even about Jews and Judaism. Even among Jews, not everyone agrees on what constitutes antisemitism. Our educational resources and trainings aim to fill that gap, so that both Jews and non-Jews feel confident they can identify, name, and effectively respond to antisemitic incidents.
Fighting antisemitism in public and private
There is no one-size-fits-all response to antisemitism. While public officials must be called out for antisemitic speech, T'ruah also works privately within our coalitions and partnerships to address antisemitism — and other forms of bigotry — through conversation and education.
Valid criticism of Israel or antisemitism?
Our expertise includes defining the sometimes muddy boundary between criticism of Israel and antisemitism, which we explore in depth in our A Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism. While it is certainly true that not all criticism of Israel is antisemitic — we criticize Israel's policies every day — it is also true that criticism of Israel can sometimes devolve into antisemitism.
That said, we refuse to allow fear of antisemitism to lead us to become xenophobic or closed-off. Our approach to addressing antisemitism is deeper and broader relationships with other groups that have been marginalized, striving together towards collective liberation.
Our work includes:
- Creating educational resources for rabbis and cantors and for the public, such as our A Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism, so that Jews and non-Jews have the tools they need to better understand and recognize antisemitism when it happens.
- Delivering staff-led trainings in antisemitism for Jewish and non-Jewish organizations, as well as to elected officials.
- Developing a training in "Bystander Intervention to Stop Antisemitism" with Right To Be, so that ordinary people know how to intervene if they witness antisemitic harassment or violence. More than 700 people have completed this training.
- Advocating for sound policies that combat antisemitism and against policies that equate fighting antisemitism with suppressing criticism of Israel — policies that only make it harder to identify and stop actual antisemitism. For more on this topic, read about our campaign for Free Speech and the Right to Boycott.
- Supporting our rabbis and cantors as they encounter antisemitism in the course of their work, including through Communities of Practice, one-on-one coaching, and by creating opportunities to gain support from others in our network who have experienced similar incidents.
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[term_id] => 274
[name] => Free Speech and The Right to Boycott
[slug] => free-speech-boycott-rights
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[description] =>
"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 is committed to fighting against concerted efforts to suppress free speech in the United States, including the right to boycott.
Currently,
about 35 states have passed or enacted laws or executive orders targeting boycotts of Israel and/or West Bank settlements. T’ruah does not endorse or participate in the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement; at the same time, we maintain committed to our country’s bedrock principle of free speech, including the right to economic boycott.
These anti-boycott laws are often passed under the guise of fighting antisemitism, but criticism of Israel — including in the form of a targeted boycott — is not inherently antisemitic. [For more on this, read our
Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism.]
Anti-BDS laws set a dangerous precedent. Lawmakers in several states have already begun proposing and passing copycat laws restricting the state from doing business with companies that ‘discriminate’ against firearms or ammunition manufacturers or fossil fuel companies.
The threat of these laws is only growing, and we are sounding the alarm.
Our work includes:
- T’ruah opposes legislation that seeks to prohibit the boycott of Israel and/or settlements. T’ruah – together with J Street and other partners in the Progressive Israel Network – has filed amicus briefs in cases in Texas, Georgia, and Arkansas, in which we affirm that boycotts must remain a protected form of free speech for all of us, and not be restricted by political whims, even when we personally or collectively disagree with the motivations behind those boycotts.
- In 2023, T’ruah will release a new resource for the general public laying out the harms of anti-BDS legislation. This brief guide will provide clarity around a contentious and confusing issue. We hope it will help Jewish clergy, elected officials, students, and everyone else in our community engage in critical conversations about our constitutional freedoms and efforts to limit free speech in the United States.
- We educate and empower rabbis and cantors to oppose legislation that seeks to codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism into domestic law or policy. The core IHRA definition itself is not problematic. However, the full definition includes a series of contemporary examples of antisemitism that wrongly equate what may be legitimate expressions of free speech with antisemitism — with real consequences for Palestinian rights activists, educators, human rights organizations, and others — while making it harder to fight actual antisemitism.As an organization committed to holding Israel accountable for its human rights abuses as well as to stopping antisemitism wherever it occurs, the codification of IHRA and the spread of anti-BDS laws directly endanger our work and that of our partners.
Partners
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[term_id] => 273
[name] => Funding Transparency
[slug] => funding-transparency
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[description] =>
"These are the records of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle of the Pact, which were drawn up at Moses’ bidding..."
-Exodus 38:21
According to Midrash, after the Mishkan (Tabernacle) was completed, some Israelites accused Moses of misusing their donations. Moses’ response was a full accounting of every piece of jewelry, gold, and precious stone that the people had offered.
We should ask no less of our communal leaders today.
T’ruah seeks transparency and accountability in how U.S. donor funds are spent in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. A "follow the money" approach not only brings transparency to the foreign actors shaping realities on the ground, but has the potential to reduce the funding these groups receive and meaningfully reduce their ability to do harm.
Our work includes:
Ending tax benefits for terrorists.
T'ruah shines light on far-right American Jewish charities that fund Israeli terrorist groups — in direct violation of U.S. law, which forbids tax-exempt dollars from going to terrorist organizations.
Since 2016, T'ruah has filed a series of complaints with the IRS about the Central Fund of Israel (CFI), the Charity of Light Fund, and others.
T’ruah achieved a major victory in 2016, after exposing that Honenu — a group that was giving cash payments to Israelis convicted of terrorism and to their families — was receiving tax exempt donations through the Central Fund of Israel, a U.S. foundation. The IRS investigated, and Central Fund of Israel cut off funding to Honenu until the latter ended this practice.
In 2022, we organized a letter from 19 prominent New York City rabbis to the donor-advised Jewish Communal Fund, warning them that some of their donors' money is making its way to Lehava via CFI. In the past 20 years, JCF has sent over $23 million to the Central Fund of Israel, which in turn funds groups that funnel money to Lehava, a militant offshoot of Kahane Chai, led by Kahanist Rabbi Bentzi Gopstein. As of today, the Jewish Communal Fund has not taken action to ensure their donors' money does not fund terrorism.
Bringing attention to the far-right donors in the U.S. eroding democracy in Israel
From the American billionaires behind the Kohelet Policy Forum — originator of some of Israel's most undemocratic legislation — to the powerful Miami-based Falic family, which funnels cash to Lehava, funds from individual American donors have helped to drive the current attack on Israeli democracy, including the ongoing occupation and the chipping away of basic civil rights. Read our CEO Rabbi Jill Jacobs's op-ed in The Forward:
"How did Israeli democracy come under threat? Follow the money."
Monitoring and exposing how American Jewish charities spend U.S. donor funds to promote settlement expansion and occupation.
The American arm of the Jewish National Fund, JNF-USA, is well known for planting trees in Israel. In 2015 and 2016, as part of T'ruah's successful “Transparency in Funding” (also known as “Eifo George,” after the campaign video) campaign, we produced two videos calling on the JNF-USA to be transparent about the fact that a portion of the money it raised went over the Green Line to Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
As a result of our campaign, which was covered in the
Forward,
Haaretz and elsewhere, JNF-USA began listing its funding in Israel and the West Bank in greater (although not complete) detail on
its 990 tax forms.
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[term_id] => 267
[name] => Immigration Justice
[slug] => immigration-justice
[term_group] => 0
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[description] =>
"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 immigrants remain far from our shared vision. While the Trump Administration’s dangerous policies were blatantly rooted in racism, xenophobia, and white supremacy, President Biden has not made the improvements our communities have demanded.
The United States must follow international human rights law when it comes to asylum seekers, refugees, and immigrants. Our government must also recognize and redress the systemic racism that permeates our immigration system, discriminating against immigrants of color.
In the fight for true immigrant justice and relief, we need all hands on deck.
Our work includes:
- Organizing clergy through our BIMA Campaign (Building Immigration Momentum & Action), encouraging rabbis and cantors to recognize how they can use their platform to change the narrative around immigration for the better
- Human rights delegations to the southern border for clergy, with our partners at HIAS
- Coalition work through the Interfaith Immigration Coalition
- Working with the All In For Registry campaign to update our immigration laws to allow millions of longtime undocumented US residents a path to permanent legal status
- Advocating to Congress and the federal government for a more humane immigration system that welcomes asylum seekers and refugees with dignity, provides legitimate pathways to citizenship for more of our neighbors, and reduces reliance on detention and deportation.
*In the Torah, the word "ger" refers to a person who came from elsewhere, but is now a long-term or permanent resident of their new community.
Partners:
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[term_id] => 212
[name] => Israel Campaigns
[slug] => israel-campaigns
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[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
[parent] => 0
[count] => 353
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[term_id] => 9
[name] => Mass Incarceration
[slug] => mass-incarceration
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 9
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[description] =>
"Exalted and High, Mighty and Awesome, You bring low the proud and lift up the fallen; You free the imprisoned, redeem the humble, and help the poor."
-Blessing after the Shema, Morning service
Mass incarceration is a racial justice issue.
We cannot achieve real change unless we recognize and name that racism is at the root of this disaster. As Bryan Stevenson puts it: "Slavery didn't end in 1865, it just evolved." Though just 5% of the world's population lives in the United States, our country imprisons 25% of the world's incarcerated people, and people of color are disproportionately targeted.
T’ruah’s campaign to end mass incarceration engages rabbis, cantors, and their communities in making concrete change locally and nationally to our broken criminal justice system. We believe that the goal of our criminal justice system should be
teshuvah, not simply punishment. We draw inspiration from Jewish legal writings that aim to create a criminal justice system rooted in dignity and justice for both perpetrator and victim.
Our work includes:
- Organizing to end prolonged solitary confinement, which international law experts have classified as torture.
- Advocating for an end to police practices that result in disproportionate stops, arrests, and deaths of people of color.
- Organizing rabbis and their communities to protest police violence and to demand full investigations in cases of killings by police officers.
- Advocating for more just sentencing policies.
- Helping Jewish communities to volunteer with incarcerated individuals and their families, employ the formerly incarcerated, and engage in local campaigns to change state criminal justice laws.
- Educating the Jewish community about why our current system of mass incarceration benefits none of us.
- Educating our communities about the intersection between the U.S.’s prison industrial complex and the detention of immigrants. See our immigration campaign for more.
Local organizing:
- In New York City, chaverim are engaged in ending all solitary confinement in city jails, and working toward the closure of Rikers Island. In Westchester, we are part of the #CommunitiesNotCages coalition to overhaul New York State’s racist and draconian sentencing laws.
- The Massachusetts T’ruah cluster is working in coalition with formerly incarcerated women and their families, who are leading the fight to pass a moratorium on new prison and jail construction in the state — stopping a $50 million proposed women’s prison and re-allocating taxpayer money to communities most affected by mass incarceration.
Partners:
[parent] => 213
[count] => 94
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[8] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 214
[name] => Mikdash: The Jewish Sanctuary Movement
[slug] => mikdash-the-jewish-sanctuary-movement
[term_group] => 0
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[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
T’ruah’s sanctuary network, Mikdash, is made up of over 70 member communities. We work as part of an interfaith network to mobilize synagogues and other Jewish communities to protect those facing deportation or other immigration challenges. By becoming part of the Mikdash network, communities pledge to take concrete actions, which may include legal support, housing, financial help, and other assistance for our friends and neighbors.
The New Sanctuary Movement — a coalition of hundreds of immigrant and faith-based organizations — works to protect and defend immigrants in the United States, especially those at risk for arrest and deportation. At T'ruah, we believe we have a moral obligation to join in their struggle, honoring the biblical injunction to "welcome the stranger" as well as the memory of Jewish refugees around the world.
With our help, Jewish communities across the United States are joining with others to take action to support and protect the vulnerable.
If your congregation is interested in learning more about becoming a sanctuary community, please contact us at office@truah.org.
[parent] => 213
[count] => 179
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[term_id] => 10
[name] => Modern Day Slavery and Human Trafficking
[slug] => slavery-and-trafficking
[term_group] => 0
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[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"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, focusing on the issue of slavery in supply chains. Our work includes
- Partnering with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to expand the Fair Food Program, the most effective slavery prevention program in U.S. agriculture.
- We are the only Jewish organization that is a member of ATEST, the Alliance to End Slavery &Trafficking, the premier U.S. coalition dedicated to supporting those vulnerable to trafficking.
- Supporting federal legislation to help survivors of trafficking.
- Training more than 70 rabbis in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC to engage their communities in addressing slavery and trafficking locally.
- Co-leading the Jewish Coalition Against Trafficking, together with the National Council of Jewish Women.
- Partnering with Equal Exchange and Divine Chocolate, to encourage Jewish communities to purchase kosher Fair Trade Chanukah gelt, kosher-for-Passover chocolate, coffee, and other products.
Three thousand years after the Jewish people are said to have been liberated from slavery, and 150 years after the Civil War,
more people are enslaved today than at any other point in history.
According to the most conservative estimates of the International Labor Organization, nearly 21 million people are held in situations of forced labor today: three out of every 1,000 people in the world.
Human trafficking does not occur in a vacuum but represents the extreme end of a continuum of worker exploitation and vulnerability. We therefore support worker-led campaigns to raise wages, combat abuses, and create meaningful enforcement mechanisms to implement hard-won rights.
[parent] => 213
[count] => 32
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[10] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 213
[name] => North American Campaigns
[slug] => north-american-campaigns
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 213
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
[parent] => 0
[count] => 384
[filter] => raw
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[11] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 237
[name] => Plant Justice Not Settlements
[slug] => plant-justice-not-settlements
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 237
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => In 2016, T’ruah
won an important victory for transparency when we persuaded the Jewish National Fund-USA to publish a list of its projects on its publicly-available tax forms for the first time.
That’s the good news. But the bad news is that we now know that JNF-USA doesn’t just plant trees in Israel, but also invests in settlements s over the Green Line, beyond Israel’s internationally recognized borders.
JNF-USA once had a
policy of not funding over the Green Line.
Please join us in demanding it return to this policy.
By supporting settlements, JNF-USA contributes to the violation of the human rights of Palestinians, and to blocking a long-term agreement that will be the only way to protect the human rights and security of both Israelis and Palestinians. Settlements limit Palestinians’ freedom of movement, take their land and destroy all hopes for a viable, sovereign and territorially contiguous Palestinian state.
The JNF-USA needs to hear from you.
Please ask JNF-USA CEO Russell Robinson today to pledge not to spend one more dollar over the Green Line.
By treating illegal settlements as if they were merely another part of Israel, JNF-USA is committing the sin of
genevat da’at, misleading people. And it is contributing to the human rights abuses and land theft the settlements cause.
As the Torah proclaims, “Damned be he who moves back the territory-marker of his neighbor!” (Deut. 37:17)
Write to JNF-USA CEO Russell Robinson
Learn more
Watch our video
Look at our map of JNF-USA projects over the Green Line
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[term_id] => 263
[name] => Racial Justice
[slug] => racial-justice
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 263
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"When the community is immersed in suffering, a person may not say: I will go to my home and I will eat and drink, and be at peace with myself."
-Taanit 11a
Racial justice is a Jewish value, and Black lives matter. Period.
Unlike the other issues T'ruah works on, the pursuit of racial justice is not a single isolated campaign, but rather a value that permeates every single one of our campaigns.
Our statement of
Commitment to Racial Justice is a manifesto intended to hold us accountable in all aspects of our work.
Some campaigns in which our commitment to racial justice is most visible are our campaigns to
end mass incarceration and
solitary confinement, which disproportionately target Black Americans and other people of color.
As we advocate for
immigrants' rights and
workers' rights, we call out the racism that brings more media attention to one group of refugees over another and which allows Americans to ignore the dangerous and degrading conditions in which workers grow the food we eat.
In our work on
antisemitism, we seek to elevate the experiences of Jews of Color, who are exposed not only to the threat of antisemitism but simultaneously face racism and other forms of bigotry.
Finally, we practice what we preach. T'ruah seeks to redress racial injustice
internally, through our ongoing Diversity Equity Inclusion and Justice initiative. In our hiring practices, compensation philosophy, harassment policy, and other workplace policies, we aspire to equity and just treatment of our employees.
Our work includes:
- Resources: We offer a variety of resources for the Jewish community – particularly white Jews – about how to most effectively be in solidarity with our Black and brown friends, family, and neighbors.
- Human rights delegations: We have brought two delegations of rabbis, cantors, and other Jewish communal leaders to the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. Through sophisticated training and experiential learning with T’ruah, Jewish clergy have learned about how the legacy of slavery and racialized violence continues to reverberate through every part of our society, and have gone home dedicated to taking action against racism.
- Educational programs: From 2021-23 we guided two cohorts through Synagogue Teams for Equity and Partnerships (STEP), a program that brought together New York-area synagogues with non-Jewish communities of color to build new relationships or deepen existing ones. Additionally, we have hosted Antiracism Communities of Practice for chaverim, and have offered multipart courses on the intersections of Antisemitism and Race for national groups.
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[term_id] => 193
[name] => Worker Justice
[slug] => worker-justice
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 193
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"Great is work, as it gives honor
to the one who does it."
—Nedarim 49b
Our tradition tells us that it is a Jewish moral imperative to treat workers fairly. But we know that in this country and around the world, the workplace is often ground zero for forced labor, exploitation, wage theft, and violence – especially for members of Black, brown, and undocumented communities, as well as those with temporary work visas. From the tomato fields of Immokalee, FL, to construction sites in Brooklyn, to undocumented workers excluded from COVID benefits, T’ruah rabbis and cantors across the country are in solidarity with workers standing up for dignity, equity, and safety in their workplaces.
Our work includes:
- Solidarity with farmworkers: Since 2011, T’ruah has brought more than 100 rabbis, cantors, and lay leaders to visit the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a farmworker-led organization that is transforming the Florida tomato fields from places of modern day slavery to some of the best workplaces in U.S. agriculture. The #tomatorabbis, as members of the rabbinic delegations call themselves, have gone home to involve members of their own communities in asking major corporations to join the coalition’s Fair Food Program, which raises the wages of tomato workers and ensures fair, regulated working conditions in the fields to end the conditions that have led to widespread labor trafficking and slavery.T’ruah has worked with the coalition to bring Trader Joe’s, Ahold (Stop & Shop/Giant), and Chipotle into the Fair Food Program. We are currently organizing Jewish communities to ask Wendy’s to join 14 major corporations in doing the same, and are partnering with the coalition to expand the Fair Food Program into additional states and crops.
- Building the faith-rooted movement for worker justice: Along with organizations and networks like the Interreligious Network for Worker Solidarity, T'ruah works to bolster national advocacy and organizing that builds up the worker justice movement and aims to stop the attacks on workers coming from both legislatures and individual companies.
- Selling fairly traded chocolate for Jewish holiday celebrations: T’ruah partners with Equal Exchange and Divine Chocolate, to encourage Jewish communities to purchase kosher fairly traded Chanukah gelt, kosher-for-Passover chocolate, coffee, and other products.
Local campaigns:
T'ruah's New York City cluster is partnering with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) and the Laundry Workers Center on their Cabricanecos campaign, standing in solidarity with migrant and indigenous workers who are seeking access to safer and more equitable working conditions at job sites across Brooklyn.
Partners:
Internally, T'ruah strives to live our values around worker justice. Whenever possible, our products, including paper materials and t-shirts, are union printed, and we use a union cleaning company for our office. We aspire to equity, transparency, and dignity in all aspects of our hiring process and in how we treat our employees.
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1
Israel Campaigns
Array
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[0] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 266
[name] => Democracy and Voting Rights
[slug] => democracy-and-voting-rights
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 266
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => “A ruler is not to be appointed unless the community is first consulted.”
-Babylonian Talmud Berachot 55a
Since right-wing politicians in many states are working to undermine the basic process of voting and the people’s trust in our election institutions, the work we do is crucial to securing our rights to vote and participate in the democratic process. We work to support rabbis, cantors, and the wider Jewish community in learning and taking action to protect voting rights and the integrity of the democratic process.
We also work hard to protect the values of freedom of speech. This includes the right to boycott. Regardless of whether we support the choice of whom is being boycotted, the power to speak, not just with words, but with money, is an essential right under the First Amendment.
Our work includes:
Recruiting poll chaplains to support election sites through de-escalation.
Collaborating with A More Perfect Union to support rabbis and cantors in building relationships with their local election officials, and build trust in election processes.
Creating Jewish teachings and thought leadership on democracy through Emor.
Joining interfaith partners to advocate and build support for legislation that would support, protect, and expand the right to vote.
Partners:
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights is a 501(c)(3) and does not conduct partisan political activities in support or in opposition to any political candidate.
Learn about our related work on Free Speech and the Right to Boycott.
[parent] => 213
[count] => 24
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[1] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 217
[name] => Ending the Occupation
[slug] => ending-the-occupation
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 217
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => "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 cantors, we care deeply about Israel’s future as a Jewish, democratic state, and as a safe haven for the Jewish people, who have suffered generations of persecution with no country of our own.
At the same time, we recognize the impact and consequences of Israel’s creation for the Palestinian people, and the many decades of suffering incurred by leaders prioritizing power over people. Since 1967, Israel has maintained a violent military occupation of Palestinian land, violating the human rights of millions each day. To ensure the long-term security, dignity, and prosperity of both Israelis and Palestinians, the occupation must end.
With T’ruah’s support, courageous Jewish clergy draw attention to the injustices done in our name.
Our work includes:
Training and educating current and future American rabbis and cantors to be the moral leaders we need. Over 80% of rabbinical and cantorial students spending their required year in Israel participate in our Year-in-Israel Program, which takes students to see human rights issues with their own eyes and meet the activists working to address them
Running trips to the West Bank for ordained Jewish clergy
Providing educational programming on specific issues and bringing the voices of Israeli and Palestinian activists and human rights experts to our community
Organizing rabbis, cantors, and their communities to take action to protect democracy in Israel and to support the human rights of both Israelis and Palestinians
Partners:
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[count] => 192
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[2] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 253
[name] => Fighting Antisemitism
[slug] => fighting-antisemitism
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 253
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => "Love your neighbor as yourself."
-Leviticus 19:18
T'ruah is committed to standing against antisemitism in all its manifestations. As antisemitic incidents increase at an alarming rate, rabbis and cantors are often on the front lines, facing antisemitic flyering, graffiti, and vandalism; harassment and threats; and in some cases, violence. Those who wear identifiably Jewish clothing have become targets for antisemitic attacks, and the result is that Jews are increasingly concerned for their safety on the street and in the synagogue.
Education
Our approach to combatting antisemitism begins with education. It is increasingly clear that there are widespread misperceptions about antisemitism, and even about Jews and Judaism. Even among Jews, not everyone agrees on what constitutes antisemitism. Our educational resources and trainings aim to fill that gap, so that both Jews and non-Jews feel confident they can identify, name, and effectively respond to antisemitic incidents.
Fighting antisemitism in public and private
There is no one-size-fits-all response to antisemitism. While public officials must be called out for antisemitic speech, T'ruah also works privately within our coalitions and partnerships to address antisemitism — and other forms of bigotry — through conversation and education.
Valid criticism of Israel or antisemitism?
Our expertise includes defining the sometimes muddy boundary between criticism of Israel and antisemitism, which we explore in depth in our A Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism. While it is certainly true that not all criticism of Israel is antisemitic — we criticize Israel's policies every day — it is also true that criticism of Israel can sometimes devolve into antisemitism.
That said, we refuse to allow fear of antisemitism to lead us to become xenophobic or closed-off. Our approach to addressing antisemitism is deeper and broader relationships with other groups that have been marginalized, striving together towards collective liberation.
Our work includes:
- Creating educational resources for rabbis and cantors and for the public, such as our A Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism, so that Jews and non-Jews have the tools they need to better understand and recognize antisemitism when it happens.
- Delivering staff-led trainings in antisemitism for Jewish and non-Jewish organizations, as well as to elected officials.
- Developing a training in "Bystander Intervention to Stop Antisemitism" with Right To Be, so that ordinary people know how to intervene if they witness antisemitic harassment or violence. More than 700 people have completed this training.
- Advocating for sound policies that combat antisemitism and against policies that equate fighting antisemitism with suppressing criticism of Israel — policies that only make it harder to identify and stop actual antisemitism. For more on this topic, read about our campaign for Free Speech and the Right to Boycott.
- Supporting our rabbis and cantors as they encounter antisemitism in the course of their work, including through Communities of Practice, one-on-one coaching, and by creating opportunities to gain support from others in our network who have experienced similar incidents.
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[term_id] => 274
[name] => Free Speech and The Right to Boycott
[slug] => free-speech-boycott-rights
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 274
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[description] =>
"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 is committed to fighting against concerted efforts to suppress free speech in the United States, including the right to boycott.
Currently,
about 35 states have passed or enacted laws or executive orders targeting boycotts of Israel and/or West Bank settlements. T’ruah does not endorse or participate in the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement; at the same time, we maintain committed to our country’s bedrock principle of free speech, including the right to economic boycott.
These anti-boycott laws are often passed under the guise of fighting antisemitism, but criticism of Israel — including in the form of a targeted boycott — is not inherently antisemitic. [For more on this, read our
Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism.]
Anti-BDS laws set a dangerous precedent. Lawmakers in several states have already begun proposing and passing copycat laws restricting the state from doing business with companies that ‘discriminate’ against firearms or ammunition manufacturers or fossil fuel companies.
The threat of these laws is only growing, and we are sounding the alarm.
Our work includes:
- T’ruah opposes legislation that seeks to prohibit the boycott of Israel and/or settlements. T’ruah – together with J Street and other partners in the Progressive Israel Network – has filed amicus briefs in cases in Texas, Georgia, and Arkansas, in which we affirm that boycotts must remain a protected form of free speech for all of us, and not be restricted by political whims, even when we personally or collectively disagree with the motivations behind those boycotts.
- In 2023, T’ruah will release a new resource for the general public laying out the harms of anti-BDS legislation. This brief guide will provide clarity around a contentious and confusing issue. We hope it will help Jewish clergy, elected officials, students, and everyone else in our community engage in critical conversations about our constitutional freedoms and efforts to limit free speech in the United States.
- We educate and empower rabbis and cantors to oppose legislation that seeks to codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism into domestic law or policy. The core IHRA definition itself is not problematic. However, the full definition includes a series of contemporary examples of antisemitism that wrongly equate what may be legitimate expressions of free speech with antisemitism — with real consequences for Palestinian rights activists, educators, human rights organizations, and others — while making it harder to fight actual antisemitism.As an organization committed to holding Israel accountable for its human rights abuses as well as to stopping antisemitism wherever it occurs, the codification of IHRA and the spread of anti-BDS laws directly endanger our work and that of our partners.
Partners
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[4] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 273
[name] => Funding Transparency
[slug] => funding-transparency
[term_group] => 0
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[description] =>
"These are the records of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle of the Pact, which were drawn up at Moses’ bidding..."
-Exodus 38:21
According to Midrash, after the Mishkan (Tabernacle) was completed, some Israelites accused Moses of misusing their donations. Moses’ response was a full accounting of every piece of jewelry, gold, and precious stone that the people had offered.
We should ask no less of our communal leaders today.
T’ruah seeks transparency and accountability in how U.S. donor funds are spent in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. A "follow the money" approach not only brings transparency to the foreign actors shaping realities on the ground, but has the potential to reduce the funding these groups receive and meaningfully reduce their ability to do harm.
Our work includes:
Ending tax benefits for terrorists.
T'ruah shines light on far-right American Jewish charities that fund Israeli terrorist groups — in direct violation of U.S. law, which forbids tax-exempt dollars from going to terrorist organizations.
Since 2016, T'ruah has filed a series of complaints with the IRS about the Central Fund of Israel (CFI), the Charity of Light Fund, and others.
T’ruah achieved a major victory in 2016, after exposing that Honenu — a group that was giving cash payments to Israelis convicted of terrorism and to their families — was receiving tax exempt donations through the Central Fund of Israel, a U.S. foundation. The IRS investigated, and Central Fund of Israel cut off funding to Honenu until the latter ended this practice.
In 2022, we organized a letter from 19 prominent New York City rabbis to the donor-advised Jewish Communal Fund, warning them that some of their donors' money is making its way to Lehava via CFI. In the past 20 years, JCF has sent over $23 million to the Central Fund of Israel, which in turn funds groups that funnel money to Lehava, a militant offshoot of Kahane Chai, led by Kahanist Rabbi Bentzi Gopstein. As of today, the Jewish Communal Fund has not taken action to ensure their donors' money does not fund terrorism.
Bringing attention to the far-right donors in the U.S. eroding democracy in Israel
From the American billionaires behind the Kohelet Policy Forum — originator of some of Israel's most undemocratic legislation — to the powerful Miami-based Falic family, which funnels cash to Lehava, funds from individual American donors have helped to drive the current attack on Israeli democracy, including the ongoing occupation and the chipping away of basic civil rights. Read our CEO Rabbi Jill Jacobs's op-ed in The Forward:
"How did Israeli democracy come under threat? Follow the money."
Monitoring and exposing how American Jewish charities spend U.S. donor funds to promote settlement expansion and occupation.
The American arm of the Jewish National Fund, JNF-USA, is well known for planting trees in Israel. In 2015 and 2016, as part of T'ruah's successful “Transparency in Funding” (also known as “Eifo George,” after the campaign video) campaign, we produced two videos calling on the JNF-USA to be transparent about the fact that a portion of the money it raised went over the Green Line to Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
As a result of our campaign, which was covered in the
Forward,
Haaretz and elsewhere, JNF-USA began listing its funding in Israel and the West Bank in greater (although not complete) detail on
its 990 tax forms.
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[count] => 21
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[term_id] => 267
[name] => Immigration Justice
[slug] => immigration-justice
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[description] =>
"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 immigrants remain far from our shared vision. While the Trump Administration’s dangerous policies were blatantly rooted in racism, xenophobia, and white supremacy, President Biden has not made the improvements our communities have demanded.
The United States must follow international human rights law when it comes to asylum seekers, refugees, and immigrants. Our government must also recognize and redress the systemic racism that permeates our immigration system, discriminating against immigrants of color.
In the fight for true immigrant justice and relief, we need all hands on deck.
Our work includes:
- Organizing clergy through our BIMA Campaign (Building Immigration Momentum & Action), encouraging rabbis and cantors to recognize how they can use their platform to change the narrative around immigration for the better
- Human rights delegations to the southern border for clergy, with our partners at HIAS
- Coalition work through the Interfaith Immigration Coalition
- Working with the All In For Registry campaign to update our immigration laws to allow millions of longtime undocumented US residents a path to permanent legal status
- Advocating to Congress and the federal government for a more humane immigration system that welcomes asylum seekers and refugees with dignity, provides legitimate pathways to citizenship for more of our neighbors, and reduces reliance on detention and deportation.
*In the Torah, the word "ger" refers to a person who came from elsewhere, but is now a long-term or permanent resident of their new community.
Partners:
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[count] => 72
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[term_id] => 212
[name] => Israel Campaigns
[slug] => israel-campaigns
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[parent] => 0
[count] => 353
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[term_id] => 9
[name] => Mass Incarceration
[slug] => mass-incarceration
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[description] =>
"Exalted and High, Mighty and Awesome, You bring low the proud and lift up the fallen; You free the imprisoned, redeem the humble, and help the poor."
-Blessing after the Shema, Morning service
Mass incarceration is a racial justice issue.
We cannot achieve real change unless we recognize and name that racism is at the root of this disaster. As Bryan Stevenson puts it: "Slavery didn't end in 1865, it just evolved." Though just 5% of the world's population lives in the United States, our country imprisons 25% of the world's incarcerated people, and people of color are disproportionately targeted.
T’ruah’s campaign to end mass incarceration engages rabbis, cantors, and their communities in making concrete change locally and nationally to our broken criminal justice system. We believe that the goal of our criminal justice system should be
teshuvah, not simply punishment. We draw inspiration from Jewish legal writings that aim to create a criminal justice system rooted in dignity and justice for both perpetrator and victim.
Our work includes:
- Organizing to end prolonged solitary confinement, which international law experts have classified as torture.
- Advocating for an end to police practices that result in disproportionate stops, arrests, and deaths of people of color.
- Organizing rabbis and their communities to protest police violence and to demand full investigations in cases of killings by police officers.
- Advocating for more just sentencing policies.
- Helping Jewish communities to volunteer with incarcerated individuals and their families, employ the formerly incarcerated, and engage in local campaigns to change state criminal justice laws.
- Educating the Jewish community about why our current system of mass incarceration benefits none of us.
- Educating our communities about the intersection between the U.S.’s prison industrial complex and the detention of immigrants. See our immigration campaign for more.
Local organizing:
- In New York City, chaverim are engaged in ending all solitary confinement in city jails, and working toward the closure of Rikers Island. In Westchester, we are part of the #CommunitiesNotCages coalition to overhaul New York State’s racist and draconian sentencing laws.
- The Massachusetts T’ruah cluster is working in coalition with formerly incarcerated women and their families, who are leading the fight to pass a moratorium on new prison and jail construction in the state — stopping a $50 million proposed women’s prison and re-allocating taxpayer money to communities most affected by mass incarceration.
Partners:
[parent] => 213
[count] => 94
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[name] => Mikdash: The Jewish Sanctuary Movement
[slug] => mikdash-the-jewish-sanctuary-movement
[term_group] => 0
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[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
T’ruah’s sanctuary network, Mikdash, is made up of over 70 member communities. We work as part of an interfaith network to mobilize synagogues and other Jewish communities to protect those facing deportation or other immigration challenges. By becoming part of the Mikdash network, communities pledge to take concrete actions, which may include legal support, housing, financial help, and other assistance for our friends and neighbors.
The New Sanctuary Movement — a coalition of hundreds of immigrant and faith-based organizations — works to protect and defend immigrants in the United States, especially those at risk for arrest and deportation. At T'ruah, we believe we have a moral obligation to join in their struggle, honoring the biblical injunction to "welcome the stranger" as well as the memory of Jewish refugees around the world.
With our help, Jewish communities across the United States are joining with others to take action to support and protect the vulnerable.
If your congregation is interested in learning more about becoming a sanctuary community, please contact us at office@truah.org.
[parent] => 213
[count] => 179
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[term_id] => 10
[name] => Modern Day Slavery and Human Trafficking
[slug] => slavery-and-trafficking
[term_group] => 0
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[description] =>
"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, focusing on the issue of slavery in supply chains. Our work includes
- Partnering with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to expand the Fair Food Program, the most effective slavery prevention program in U.S. agriculture.
- We are the only Jewish organization that is a member of ATEST, the Alliance to End Slavery &Trafficking, the premier U.S. coalition dedicated to supporting those vulnerable to trafficking.
- Supporting federal legislation to help survivors of trafficking.
- Training more than 70 rabbis in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC to engage their communities in addressing slavery and trafficking locally.
- Co-leading the Jewish Coalition Against Trafficking, together with the National Council of Jewish Women.
- Partnering with Equal Exchange and Divine Chocolate, to encourage Jewish communities to purchase kosher Fair Trade Chanukah gelt, kosher-for-Passover chocolate, coffee, and other products.
Three thousand years after the Jewish people are said to have been liberated from slavery, and 150 years after the Civil War,
more people are enslaved today than at any other point in history.
According to the most conservative estimates of the International Labor Organization, nearly 21 million people are held in situations of forced labor today: three out of every 1,000 people in the world.
Human trafficking does not occur in a vacuum but represents the extreme end of a continuum of worker exploitation and vulnerability. We therefore support worker-led campaigns to raise wages, combat abuses, and create meaningful enforcement mechanisms to implement hard-won rights.
[parent] => 213
[count] => 32
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[term_id] => 213
[name] => North American Campaigns
[slug] => north-american-campaigns
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 213
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
[parent] => 0
[count] => 384
[filter] => raw
[term_order] => 8
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[11] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 237
[name] => Plant Justice Not Settlements
[slug] => plant-justice-not-settlements
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 237
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => In 2016, T’ruah
won an important victory for transparency when we persuaded the Jewish National Fund-USA to publish a list of its projects on its publicly-available tax forms for the first time.
That’s the good news. But the bad news is that we now know that JNF-USA doesn’t just plant trees in Israel, but also invests in settlements s over the Green Line, beyond Israel’s internationally recognized borders.
JNF-USA once had a
policy of not funding over the Green Line.
Please join us in demanding it return to this policy.
By supporting settlements, JNF-USA contributes to the violation of the human rights of Palestinians, and to blocking a long-term agreement that will be the only way to protect the human rights and security of both Israelis and Palestinians. Settlements limit Palestinians’ freedom of movement, take their land and destroy all hopes for a viable, sovereign and territorially contiguous Palestinian state.
The JNF-USA needs to hear from you.
Please ask JNF-USA CEO Russell Robinson today to pledge not to spend one more dollar over the Green Line.
By treating illegal settlements as if they were merely another part of Israel, JNF-USA is committing the sin of
genevat da’at, misleading people. And it is contributing to the human rights abuses and land theft the settlements cause.
As the Torah proclaims, “Damned be he who moves back the territory-marker of his neighbor!” (Deut. 37:17)
Write to JNF-USA CEO Russell Robinson
Learn more
Watch our video
Look at our map of JNF-USA projects over the Green Line
[parent] => 212
[count] => 41
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[term_id] => 263
[name] => Racial Justice
[slug] => racial-justice
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 263
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[description] =>
"When the community is immersed in suffering, a person may not say: I will go to my home and I will eat and drink, and be at peace with myself."
-Taanit 11a
Racial justice is a Jewish value, and Black lives matter. Period.
Unlike the other issues T'ruah works on, the pursuit of racial justice is not a single isolated campaign, but rather a value that permeates every single one of our campaigns.
Our statement of
Commitment to Racial Justice is a manifesto intended to hold us accountable in all aspects of our work.
Some campaigns in which our commitment to racial justice is most visible are our campaigns to
end mass incarceration and
solitary confinement, which disproportionately target Black Americans and other people of color.
As we advocate for
immigrants' rights and
workers' rights, we call out the racism that brings more media attention to one group of refugees over another and which allows Americans to ignore the dangerous and degrading conditions in which workers grow the food we eat.
In our work on
antisemitism, we seek to elevate the experiences of Jews of Color, who are exposed not only to the threat of antisemitism but simultaneously face racism and other forms of bigotry.
Finally, we practice what we preach. T'ruah seeks to redress racial injustice
internally, through our ongoing Diversity Equity Inclusion and Justice initiative. In our hiring practices, compensation philosophy, harassment policy, and other workplace policies, we aspire to equity and just treatment of our employees.
Our work includes:
- Resources: We offer a variety of resources for the Jewish community – particularly white Jews – about how to most effectively be in solidarity with our Black and brown friends, family, and neighbors.
- Human rights delegations: We have brought two delegations of rabbis, cantors, and other Jewish communal leaders to the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. Through sophisticated training and experiential learning with T’ruah, Jewish clergy have learned about how the legacy of slavery and racialized violence continues to reverberate through every part of our society, and have gone home dedicated to taking action against racism.
- Educational programs: From 2021-23 we guided two cohorts through Synagogue Teams for Equity and Partnerships (STEP), a program that brought together New York-area synagogues with non-Jewish communities of color to build new relationships or deepen existing ones. Additionally, we have hosted Antiracism Communities of Practice for chaverim, and have offered multipart courses on the intersections of Antisemitism and Race for national groups.
[parent] => 213
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[term_id] => 193
[name] => Worker Justice
[slug] => worker-justice
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 193
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"Great is work, as it gives honor
to the one who does it."
—Nedarim 49b
Our tradition tells us that it is a Jewish moral imperative to treat workers fairly. But we know that in this country and around the world, the workplace is often ground zero for forced labor, exploitation, wage theft, and violence – especially for members of Black, brown, and undocumented communities, as well as those with temporary work visas. From the tomato fields of Immokalee, FL, to construction sites in Brooklyn, to undocumented workers excluded from COVID benefits, T’ruah rabbis and cantors across the country are in solidarity with workers standing up for dignity, equity, and safety in their workplaces.
Our work includes:
- Solidarity with farmworkers: Since 2011, T’ruah has brought more than 100 rabbis, cantors, and lay leaders to visit the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a farmworker-led organization that is transforming the Florida tomato fields from places of modern day slavery to some of the best workplaces in U.S. agriculture. The #tomatorabbis, as members of the rabbinic delegations call themselves, have gone home to involve members of their own communities in asking major corporations to join the coalition’s Fair Food Program, which raises the wages of tomato workers and ensures fair, regulated working conditions in the fields to end the conditions that have led to widespread labor trafficking and slavery.T’ruah has worked with the coalition to bring Trader Joe’s, Ahold (Stop & Shop/Giant), and Chipotle into the Fair Food Program. We are currently organizing Jewish communities to ask Wendy’s to join 14 major corporations in doing the same, and are partnering with the coalition to expand the Fair Food Program into additional states and crops.
- Building the faith-rooted movement for worker justice: Along with organizations and networks like the Interreligious Network for Worker Solidarity, T'ruah works to bolster national advocacy and organizing that builds up the worker justice movement and aims to stop the attacks on workers coming from both legislatures and individual companies.
- Selling fairly traded chocolate for Jewish holiday celebrations: T’ruah partners with Equal Exchange and Divine Chocolate, to encourage Jewish communities to purchase kosher fairly traded Chanukah gelt, kosher-for-Passover chocolate, coffee, and other products.
Local campaigns:
T'ruah's New York City cluster is partnering with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) and the Laundry Workers Center on their Cabricanecos campaign, standing in solidarity with migrant and indigenous workers who are seeking access to safer and more equitable working conditions at job sites across Brooklyn.
Partners:
Internally, T'ruah strives to live our values around worker justice. Whenever possible, our products, including paper materials and t-shirts, are union printed, and we use a union cleaning company for our office. We aspire to equity, transparency, and dignity in all aspects of our hiring process and in how we treat our employees.
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1
Mass Incarceration
Array
(
[0] => WP_Term Object
(
[term_id] => 266
[name] => Democracy and Voting Rights
[slug] => democracy-and-voting-rights
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 266
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => “A ruler is not to be appointed unless the community is first consulted.”
-Babylonian Talmud Berachot 55a
Since right-wing politicians in many states are working to undermine the basic process of voting and the people’s trust in our election institutions, the work we do is crucial to securing our rights to vote and participate in the democratic process. We work to support rabbis, cantors, and the wider Jewish community in learning and taking action to protect voting rights and the integrity of the democratic process.
We also work hard to protect the values of freedom of speech. This includes the right to boycott. Regardless of whether we support the choice of whom is being boycotted, the power to speak, not just with words, but with money, is an essential right under the First Amendment.
Our work includes:
Recruiting poll chaplains to support election sites through de-escalation.
Collaborating with A More Perfect Union to support rabbis and cantors in building relationships with their local election officials, and build trust in election processes.
Creating Jewish teachings and thought leadership on democracy through Emor.
Joining interfaith partners to advocate and build support for legislation that would support, protect, and expand the right to vote.
Partners:
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights is a 501(c)(3) and does not conduct partisan political activities in support or in opposition to any political candidate.
Learn about our related work on Free Speech and the Right to Boycott.
[parent] => 213
[count] => 24
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[1] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 217
[name] => Ending the Occupation
[slug] => ending-the-occupation
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 217
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => "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 cantors, we care deeply about Israel’s future as a Jewish, democratic state, and as a safe haven for the Jewish people, who have suffered generations of persecution with no country of our own.
At the same time, we recognize the impact and consequences of Israel’s creation for the Palestinian people, and the many decades of suffering incurred by leaders prioritizing power over people. Since 1967, Israel has maintained a violent military occupation of Palestinian land, violating the human rights of millions each day. To ensure the long-term security, dignity, and prosperity of both Israelis and Palestinians, the occupation must end.
With T’ruah’s support, courageous Jewish clergy draw attention to the injustices done in our name.
Our work includes:
Training and educating current and future American rabbis and cantors to be the moral leaders we need. Over 80% of rabbinical and cantorial students spending their required year in Israel participate in our Year-in-Israel Program, which takes students to see human rights issues with their own eyes and meet the activists working to address them
Running trips to the West Bank for ordained Jewish clergy
Providing educational programming on specific issues and bringing the voices of Israeli and Palestinian activists and human rights experts to our community
Organizing rabbis, cantors, and their communities to take action to protect democracy in Israel and to support the human rights of both Israelis and Palestinians
Partners:
[parent] => 212
[count] => 192
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[term_order] => 7
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[2] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 253
[name] => Fighting Antisemitism
[slug] => fighting-antisemitism
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 253
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => "Love your neighbor as yourself."
-Leviticus 19:18
T'ruah is committed to standing against antisemitism in all its manifestations. As antisemitic incidents increase at an alarming rate, rabbis and cantors are often on the front lines, facing antisemitic flyering, graffiti, and vandalism; harassment and threats; and in some cases, violence. Those who wear identifiably Jewish clothing have become targets for antisemitic attacks, and the result is that Jews are increasingly concerned for their safety on the street and in the synagogue.
Education
Our approach to combatting antisemitism begins with education. It is increasingly clear that there are widespread misperceptions about antisemitism, and even about Jews and Judaism. Even among Jews, not everyone agrees on what constitutes antisemitism. Our educational resources and trainings aim to fill that gap, so that both Jews and non-Jews feel confident they can identify, name, and effectively respond to antisemitic incidents.
Fighting antisemitism in public and private
There is no one-size-fits-all response to antisemitism. While public officials must be called out for antisemitic speech, T'ruah also works privately within our coalitions and partnerships to address antisemitism — and other forms of bigotry — through conversation and education.
Valid criticism of Israel or antisemitism?
Our expertise includes defining the sometimes muddy boundary between criticism of Israel and antisemitism, which we explore in depth in our A Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism. While it is certainly true that not all criticism of Israel is antisemitic — we criticize Israel's policies every day — it is also true that criticism of Israel can sometimes devolve into antisemitism.
That said, we refuse to allow fear of antisemitism to lead us to become xenophobic or closed-off. Our approach to addressing antisemitism is deeper and broader relationships with other groups that have been marginalized, striving together towards collective liberation.
Our work includes:
- Creating educational resources for rabbis and cantors and for the public, such as our A Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism, so that Jews and non-Jews have the tools they need to better understand and recognize antisemitism when it happens.
- Delivering staff-led trainings in antisemitism for Jewish and non-Jewish organizations, as well as to elected officials.
- Developing a training in "Bystander Intervention to Stop Antisemitism" with Right To Be, so that ordinary people know how to intervene if they witness antisemitic harassment or violence. More than 700 people have completed this training.
- Advocating for sound policies that combat antisemitism and against policies that equate fighting antisemitism with suppressing criticism of Israel — policies that only make it harder to identify and stop actual antisemitism. For more on this topic, read about our campaign for Free Speech and the Right to Boycott.
- Supporting our rabbis and cantors as they encounter antisemitism in the course of their work, including through Communities of Practice, one-on-one coaching, and by creating opportunities to gain support from others in our network who have experienced similar incidents.
[parent] => 213
[count] => 35
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[3] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 274
[name] => Free Speech and The Right to Boycott
[slug] => free-speech-boycott-rights
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 274
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"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 is committed to fighting against concerted efforts to suppress free speech in the United States, including the right to boycott.
Currently,
about 35 states have passed or enacted laws or executive orders targeting boycotts of Israel and/or West Bank settlements. T’ruah does not endorse or participate in the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement; at the same time, we maintain committed to our country’s bedrock principle of free speech, including the right to economic boycott.
These anti-boycott laws are often passed under the guise of fighting antisemitism, but criticism of Israel — including in the form of a targeted boycott — is not inherently antisemitic. [For more on this, read our
Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism.]
Anti-BDS laws set a dangerous precedent. Lawmakers in several states have already begun proposing and passing copycat laws restricting the state from doing business with companies that ‘discriminate’ against firearms or ammunition manufacturers or fossil fuel companies.
The threat of these laws is only growing, and we are sounding the alarm.
Our work includes:
- T’ruah opposes legislation that seeks to prohibit the boycott of Israel and/or settlements. T’ruah – together with J Street and other partners in the Progressive Israel Network – has filed amicus briefs in cases in Texas, Georgia, and Arkansas, in which we affirm that boycotts must remain a protected form of free speech for all of us, and not be restricted by political whims, even when we personally or collectively disagree with the motivations behind those boycotts.
- In 2023, T’ruah will release a new resource for the general public laying out the harms of anti-BDS legislation. This brief guide will provide clarity around a contentious and confusing issue. We hope it will help Jewish clergy, elected officials, students, and everyone else in our community engage in critical conversations about our constitutional freedoms and efforts to limit free speech in the United States.
- We educate and empower rabbis and cantors to oppose legislation that seeks to codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism into domestic law or policy. The core IHRA definition itself is not problematic. However, the full definition includes a series of contemporary examples of antisemitism that wrongly equate what may be legitimate expressions of free speech with antisemitism — with real consequences for Palestinian rights activists, educators, human rights organizations, and others — while making it harder to fight actual antisemitism.As an organization committed to holding Israel accountable for its human rights abuses as well as to stopping antisemitism wherever it occurs, the codification of IHRA and the spread of anti-BDS laws directly endanger our work and that of our partners.
Partners
[parent] => 266
[count] => 14
[filter] => raw
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[4] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 273
[name] => Funding Transparency
[slug] => funding-transparency
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 273
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"These are the records of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle of the Pact, which were drawn up at Moses’ bidding..."
-Exodus 38:21
According to Midrash, after the Mishkan (Tabernacle) was completed, some Israelites accused Moses of misusing their donations. Moses’ response was a full accounting of every piece of jewelry, gold, and precious stone that the people had offered.
We should ask no less of our communal leaders today.
T’ruah seeks transparency and accountability in how U.S. donor funds are spent in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. A "follow the money" approach not only brings transparency to the foreign actors shaping realities on the ground, but has the potential to reduce the funding these groups receive and meaningfully reduce their ability to do harm.
Our work includes:
Ending tax benefits for terrorists.
T'ruah shines light on far-right American Jewish charities that fund Israeli terrorist groups — in direct violation of U.S. law, which forbids tax-exempt dollars from going to terrorist organizations.
Since 2016, T'ruah has filed a series of complaints with the IRS about the Central Fund of Israel (CFI), the Charity of Light Fund, and others.
T’ruah achieved a major victory in 2016, after exposing that Honenu — a group that was giving cash payments to Israelis convicted of terrorism and to their families — was receiving tax exempt donations through the Central Fund of Israel, a U.S. foundation. The IRS investigated, and Central Fund of Israel cut off funding to Honenu until the latter ended this practice.
In 2022, we organized a letter from 19 prominent New York City rabbis to the donor-advised Jewish Communal Fund, warning them that some of their donors' money is making its way to Lehava via CFI. In the past 20 years, JCF has sent over $23 million to the Central Fund of Israel, which in turn funds groups that funnel money to Lehava, a militant offshoot of Kahane Chai, led by Kahanist Rabbi Bentzi Gopstein. As of today, the Jewish Communal Fund has not taken action to ensure their donors' money does not fund terrorism.
Bringing attention to the far-right donors in the U.S. eroding democracy in Israel
From the American billionaires behind the Kohelet Policy Forum — originator of some of Israel's most undemocratic legislation — to the powerful Miami-based Falic family, which funnels cash to Lehava, funds from individual American donors have helped to drive the current attack on Israeli democracy, including the ongoing occupation and the chipping away of basic civil rights. Read our CEO Rabbi Jill Jacobs's op-ed in The Forward:
"How did Israeli democracy come under threat? Follow the money."
Monitoring and exposing how American Jewish charities spend U.S. donor funds to promote settlement expansion and occupation.
The American arm of the Jewish National Fund, JNF-USA, is well known for planting trees in Israel. In 2015 and 2016, as part of T'ruah's successful “Transparency in Funding” (also known as “Eifo George,” after the campaign video) campaign, we produced two videos calling on the JNF-USA to be transparent about the fact that a portion of the money it raised went over the Green Line to Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
As a result of our campaign, which was covered in the
Forward,
Haaretz and elsewhere, JNF-USA began listing its funding in Israel and the West Bank in greater (although not complete) detail on
its 990 tax forms.
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[name] => Immigration Justice
[slug] => immigration-justice
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"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 immigrants remain far from our shared vision. While the Trump Administration’s dangerous policies were blatantly rooted in racism, xenophobia, and white supremacy, President Biden has not made the improvements our communities have demanded.
The United States must follow international human rights law when it comes to asylum seekers, refugees, and immigrants. Our government must also recognize and redress the systemic racism that permeates our immigration system, discriminating against immigrants of color.
In the fight for true immigrant justice and relief, we need all hands on deck.
Our work includes:
- Organizing clergy through our BIMA Campaign (Building Immigration Momentum & Action), encouraging rabbis and cantors to recognize how they can use their platform to change the narrative around immigration for the better
- Human rights delegations to the southern border for clergy, with our partners at HIAS
- Coalition work through the Interfaith Immigration Coalition
- Working with the All In For Registry campaign to update our immigration laws to allow millions of longtime undocumented US residents a path to permanent legal status
- Advocating to Congress and the federal government for a more humane immigration system that welcomes asylum seekers and refugees with dignity, provides legitimate pathways to citizenship for more of our neighbors, and reduces reliance on detention and deportation.
*In the Torah, the word "ger" refers to a person who came from elsewhere, but is now a long-term or permanent resident of their new community.
Partners:
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[name] => Israel Campaigns
[slug] => israel-campaigns
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[parent] => 0
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[name] => Mass Incarceration
[slug] => mass-incarceration
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[description] =>
"Exalted and High, Mighty and Awesome, You bring low the proud and lift up the fallen; You free the imprisoned, redeem the humble, and help the poor."
-Blessing after the Shema, Morning service
Mass incarceration is a racial justice issue.
We cannot achieve real change unless we recognize and name that racism is at the root of this disaster. As Bryan Stevenson puts it: "Slavery didn't end in 1865, it just evolved." Though just 5% of the world's population lives in the United States, our country imprisons 25% of the world's incarcerated people, and people of color are disproportionately targeted.
T’ruah’s campaign to end mass incarceration engages rabbis, cantors, and their communities in making concrete change locally and nationally to our broken criminal justice system. We believe that the goal of our criminal justice system should be
teshuvah, not simply punishment. We draw inspiration from Jewish legal writings that aim to create a criminal justice system rooted in dignity and justice for both perpetrator and victim.
Our work includes:
- Organizing to end prolonged solitary confinement, which international law experts have classified as torture.
- Advocating for an end to police practices that result in disproportionate stops, arrests, and deaths of people of color.
- Organizing rabbis and their communities to protest police violence and to demand full investigations in cases of killings by police officers.
- Advocating for more just sentencing policies.
- Helping Jewish communities to volunteer with incarcerated individuals and their families, employ the formerly incarcerated, and engage in local campaigns to change state criminal justice laws.
- Educating the Jewish community about why our current system of mass incarceration benefits none of us.
- Educating our communities about the intersection between the U.S.’s prison industrial complex and the detention of immigrants. See our immigration campaign for more.
Local organizing:
- In New York City, chaverim are engaged in ending all solitary confinement in city jails, and working toward the closure of Rikers Island. In Westchester, we are part of the #CommunitiesNotCages coalition to overhaul New York State’s racist and draconian sentencing laws.
- The Massachusetts T’ruah cluster is working in coalition with formerly incarcerated women and their families, who are leading the fight to pass a moratorium on new prison and jail construction in the state — stopping a $50 million proposed women’s prison and re-allocating taxpayer money to communities most affected by mass incarceration.
Partners:
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[count] => 94
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[name] => Mikdash: The Jewish Sanctuary Movement
[slug] => mikdash-the-jewish-sanctuary-movement
[term_group] => 0
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[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
T’ruah’s sanctuary network, Mikdash, is made up of over 70 member communities. We work as part of an interfaith network to mobilize synagogues and other Jewish communities to protect those facing deportation or other immigration challenges. By becoming part of the Mikdash network, communities pledge to take concrete actions, which may include legal support, housing, financial help, and other assistance for our friends and neighbors.
The New Sanctuary Movement — a coalition of hundreds of immigrant and faith-based organizations — works to protect and defend immigrants in the United States, especially those at risk for arrest and deportation. At T'ruah, we believe we have a moral obligation to join in their struggle, honoring the biblical injunction to "welcome the stranger" as well as the memory of Jewish refugees around the world.
With our help, Jewish communities across the United States are joining with others to take action to support and protect the vulnerable.
If your congregation is interested in learning more about becoming a sanctuary community, please contact us at office@truah.org.
[parent] => 213
[count] => 179
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[term_id] => 10
[name] => Modern Day Slavery and Human Trafficking
[slug] => slavery-and-trafficking
[term_group] => 0
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[description] =>
"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, focusing on the issue of slavery in supply chains. Our work includes
- Partnering with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to expand the Fair Food Program, the most effective slavery prevention program in U.S. agriculture.
- We are the only Jewish organization that is a member of ATEST, the Alliance to End Slavery &Trafficking, the premier U.S. coalition dedicated to supporting those vulnerable to trafficking.
- Supporting federal legislation to help survivors of trafficking.
- Training more than 70 rabbis in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC to engage their communities in addressing slavery and trafficking locally.
- Co-leading the Jewish Coalition Against Trafficking, together with the National Council of Jewish Women.
- Partnering with Equal Exchange and Divine Chocolate, to encourage Jewish communities to purchase kosher Fair Trade Chanukah gelt, kosher-for-Passover chocolate, coffee, and other products.
Three thousand years after the Jewish people are said to have been liberated from slavery, and 150 years after the Civil War,
more people are enslaved today than at any other point in history.
According to the most conservative estimates of the International Labor Organization, nearly 21 million people are held in situations of forced labor today: three out of every 1,000 people in the world.
Human trafficking does not occur in a vacuum but represents the extreme end of a continuum of worker exploitation and vulnerability. We therefore support worker-led campaigns to raise wages, combat abuses, and create meaningful enforcement mechanisms to implement hard-won rights.
[parent] => 213
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[name] => North American Campaigns
[slug] => north-american-campaigns
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 213
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
[parent] => 0
[count] => 384
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[11] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 237
[name] => Plant Justice Not Settlements
[slug] => plant-justice-not-settlements
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 237
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => In 2016, T’ruah
won an important victory for transparency when we persuaded the Jewish National Fund-USA to publish a list of its projects on its publicly-available tax forms for the first time.
That’s the good news. But the bad news is that we now know that JNF-USA doesn’t just plant trees in Israel, but also invests in settlements s over the Green Line, beyond Israel’s internationally recognized borders.
JNF-USA once had a
policy of not funding over the Green Line.
Please join us in demanding it return to this policy.
By supporting settlements, JNF-USA contributes to the violation of the human rights of Palestinians, and to blocking a long-term agreement that will be the only way to protect the human rights and security of both Israelis and Palestinians. Settlements limit Palestinians’ freedom of movement, take their land and destroy all hopes for a viable, sovereign and territorially contiguous Palestinian state.
The JNF-USA needs to hear from you.
Please ask JNF-USA CEO Russell Robinson today to pledge not to spend one more dollar over the Green Line.
By treating illegal settlements as if they were merely another part of Israel, JNF-USA is committing the sin of
genevat da’at, misleading people. And it is contributing to the human rights abuses and land theft the settlements cause.
As the Torah proclaims, “Damned be he who moves back the territory-marker of his neighbor!” (Deut. 37:17)
Write to JNF-USA CEO Russell Robinson
Learn more
Watch our video
Look at our map of JNF-USA projects over the Green Line
[parent] => 212
[count] => 41
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[name] => Racial Justice
[slug] => racial-justice
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[description] =>
"When the community is immersed in suffering, a person may not say: I will go to my home and I will eat and drink, and be at peace with myself."
-Taanit 11a
Racial justice is a Jewish value, and Black lives matter. Period.
Unlike the other issues T'ruah works on, the pursuit of racial justice is not a single isolated campaign, but rather a value that permeates every single one of our campaigns.
Our statement of
Commitment to Racial Justice is a manifesto intended to hold us accountable in all aspects of our work.
Some campaigns in which our commitment to racial justice is most visible are our campaigns to
end mass incarceration and
solitary confinement, which disproportionately target Black Americans and other people of color.
As we advocate for
immigrants' rights and
workers' rights, we call out the racism that brings more media attention to one group of refugees over another and which allows Americans to ignore the dangerous and degrading conditions in which workers grow the food we eat.
In our work on
antisemitism, we seek to elevate the experiences of Jews of Color, who are exposed not only to the threat of antisemitism but simultaneously face racism and other forms of bigotry.
Finally, we practice what we preach. T'ruah seeks to redress racial injustice
internally, through our ongoing Diversity Equity Inclusion and Justice initiative. In our hiring practices, compensation philosophy, harassment policy, and other workplace policies, we aspire to equity and just treatment of our employees.
Our work includes:
- Resources: We offer a variety of resources for the Jewish community – particularly white Jews – about how to most effectively be in solidarity with our Black and brown friends, family, and neighbors.
- Human rights delegations: We have brought two delegations of rabbis, cantors, and other Jewish communal leaders to the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. Through sophisticated training and experiential learning with T’ruah, Jewish clergy have learned about how the legacy of slavery and racialized violence continues to reverberate through every part of our society, and have gone home dedicated to taking action against racism.
- Educational programs: From 2021-23 we guided two cohorts through Synagogue Teams for Equity and Partnerships (STEP), a program that brought together New York-area synagogues with non-Jewish communities of color to build new relationships or deepen existing ones. Additionally, we have hosted Antiracism Communities of Practice for chaverim, and have offered multipart courses on the intersections of Antisemitism and Race for national groups.
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[name] => Worker Justice
[slug] => worker-justice
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 193
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"Great is work, as it gives honor
to the one who does it."
—Nedarim 49b
Our tradition tells us that it is a Jewish moral imperative to treat workers fairly. But we know that in this country and around the world, the workplace is often ground zero for forced labor, exploitation, wage theft, and violence – especially for members of Black, brown, and undocumented communities, as well as those with temporary work visas. From the tomato fields of Immokalee, FL, to construction sites in Brooklyn, to undocumented workers excluded from COVID benefits, T’ruah rabbis and cantors across the country are in solidarity with workers standing up for dignity, equity, and safety in their workplaces.
Our work includes:
- Solidarity with farmworkers: Since 2011, T’ruah has brought more than 100 rabbis, cantors, and lay leaders to visit the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a farmworker-led organization that is transforming the Florida tomato fields from places of modern day slavery to some of the best workplaces in U.S. agriculture. The #tomatorabbis, as members of the rabbinic delegations call themselves, have gone home to involve members of their own communities in asking major corporations to join the coalition’s Fair Food Program, which raises the wages of tomato workers and ensures fair, regulated working conditions in the fields to end the conditions that have led to widespread labor trafficking and slavery.T’ruah has worked with the coalition to bring Trader Joe’s, Ahold (Stop & Shop/Giant), and Chipotle into the Fair Food Program. We are currently organizing Jewish communities to ask Wendy’s to join 14 major corporations in doing the same, and are partnering with the coalition to expand the Fair Food Program into additional states and crops.
- Building the faith-rooted movement for worker justice: Along with organizations and networks like the Interreligious Network for Worker Solidarity, T'ruah works to bolster national advocacy and organizing that builds up the worker justice movement and aims to stop the attacks on workers coming from both legislatures and individual companies.
- Selling fairly traded chocolate for Jewish holiday celebrations: T’ruah partners with Equal Exchange and Divine Chocolate, to encourage Jewish communities to purchase kosher fairly traded Chanukah gelt, kosher-for-Passover chocolate, coffee, and other products.
Local campaigns:
T'ruah's New York City cluster is partnering with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) and the Laundry Workers Center on their Cabricanecos campaign, standing in solidarity with migrant and indigenous workers who are seeking access to safer and more equitable working conditions at job sites across Brooklyn.
Partners:
Internally, T'ruah strives to live our values around worker justice. Whenever possible, our products, including paper materials and t-shirts, are union printed, and we use a union cleaning company for our office. We aspire to equity, transparency, and dignity in all aspects of our hiring process and in how we treat our employees.
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Mikdash: The Jewish Sanctuary Movement
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[0] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 266
[name] => Democracy and Voting Rights
[slug] => democracy-and-voting-rights
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 266
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => “A ruler is not to be appointed unless the community is first consulted.”
-Babylonian Talmud Berachot 55a
Since right-wing politicians in many states are working to undermine the basic process of voting and the people’s trust in our election institutions, the work we do is crucial to securing our rights to vote and participate in the democratic process. We work to support rabbis, cantors, and the wider Jewish community in learning and taking action to protect voting rights and the integrity of the democratic process.
We also work hard to protect the values of freedom of speech. This includes the right to boycott. Regardless of whether we support the choice of whom is being boycotted, the power to speak, not just with words, but with money, is an essential right under the First Amendment.
Our work includes:
Recruiting poll chaplains to support election sites through de-escalation.
Collaborating with A More Perfect Union to support rabbis and cantors in building relationships with their local election officials, and build trust in election processes.
Creating Jewish teachings and thought leadership on democracy through Emor.
Joining interfaith partners to advocate and build support for legislation that would support, protect, and expand the right to vote.
Partners:
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights is a 501(c)(3) and does not conduct partisan political activities in support or in opposition to any political candidate.
Learn about our related work on Free Speech and the Right to Boycott.
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[1] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 217
[name] => Ending the Occupation
[slug] => ending-the-occupation
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 217
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => "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 cantors, we care deeply about Israel’s future as a Jewish, democratic state, and as a safe haven for the Jewish people, who have suffered generations of persecution with no country of our own.
At the same time, we recognize the impact and consequences of Israel’s creation for the Palestinian people, and the many decades of suffering incurred by leaders prioritizing power over people. Since 1967, Israel has maintained a violent military occupation of Palestinian land, violating the human rights of millions each day. To ensure the long-term security, dignity, and prosperity of both Israelis and Palestinians, the occupation must end.
With T’ruah’s support, courageous Jewish clergy draw attention to the injustices done in our name.
Our work includes:
Training and educating current and future American rabbis and cantors to be the moral leaders we need. Over 80% of rabbinical and cantorial students spending their required year in Israel participate in our Year-in-Israel Program, which takes students to see human rights issues with their own eyes and meet the activists working to address them
Running trips to the West Bank for ordained Jewish clergy
Providing educational programming on specific issues and bringing the voices of Israeli and Palestinian activists and human rights experts to our community
Organizing rabbis, cantors, and their communities to take action to protect democracy in Israel and to support the human rights of both Israelis and Palestinians
Partners:
[parent] => 212
[count] => 192
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[2] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 253
[name] => Fighting Antisemitism
[slug] => fighting-antisemitism
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 253
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => "Love your neighbor as yourself."
-Leviticus 19:18
T'ruah is committed to standing against antisemitism in all its manifestations. As antisemitic incidents increase at an alarming rate, rabbis and cantors are often on the front lines, facing antisemitic flyering, graffiti, and vandalism; harassment and threats; and in some cases, violence. Those who wear identifiably Jewish clothing have become targets for antisemitic attacks, and the result is that Jews are increasingly concerned for their safety on the street and in the synagogue.
Education
Our approach to combatting antisemitism begins with education. It is increasingly clear that there are widespread misperceptions about antisemitism, and even about Jews and Judaism. Even among Jews, not everyone agrees on what constitutes antisemitism. Our educational resources and trainings aim to fill that gap, so that both Jews and non-Jews feel confident they can identify, name, and effectively respond to antisemitic incidents.
Fighting antisemitism in public and private
There is no one-size-fits-all response to antisemitism. While public officials must be called out for antisemitic speech, T'ruah also works privately within our coalitions and partnerships to address antisemitism — and other forms of bigotry — through conversation and education.
Valid criticism of Israel or antisemitism?
Our expertise includes defining the sometimes muddy boundary between criticism of Israel and antisemitism, which we explore in depth in our A Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism. While it is certainly true that not all criticism of Israel is antisemitic — we criticize Israel's policies every day — it is also true that criticism of Israel can sometimes devolve into antisemitism.
That said, we refuse to allow fear of antisemitism to lead us to become xenophobic or closed-off. Our approach to addressing antisemitism is deeper and broader relationships with other groups that have been marginalized, striving together towards collective liberation.
Our work includes:
- Creating educational resources for rabbis and cantors and for the public, such as our A Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism, so that Jews and non-Jews have the tools they need to better understand and recognize antisemitism when it happens.
- Delivering staff-led trainings in antisemitism for Jewish and non-Jewish organizations, as well as to elected officials.
- Developing a training in "Bystander Intervention to Stop Antisemitism" with Right To Be, so that ordinary people know how to intervene if they witness antisemitic harassment or violence. More than 700 people have completed this training.
- Advocating for sound policies that combat antisemitism and against policies that equate fighting antisemitism with suppressing criticism of Israel — policies that only make it harder to identify and stop actual antisemitism. For more on this topic, read about our campaign for Free Speech and the Right to Boycott.
- Supporting our rabbis and cantors as they encounter antisemitism in the course of their work, including through Communities of Practice, one-on-one coaching, and by creating opportunities to gain support from others in our network who have experienced similar incidents.
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[term_id] => 274
[name] => Free Speech and The Right to Boycott
[slug] => free-speech-boycott-rights
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[description] =>
"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 is committed to fighting against concerted efforts to suppress free speech in the United States, including the right to boycott.
Currently,
about 35 states have passed or enacted laws or executive orders targeting boycotts of Israel and/or West Bank settlements. T’ruah does not endorse or participate in the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement; at the same time, we maintain committed to our country’s bedrock principle of free speech, including the right to economic boycott.
These anti-boycott laws are often passed under the guise of fighting antisemitism, but criticism of Israel — including in the form of a targeted boycott — is not inherently antisemitic. [For more on this, read our
Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism.]
Anti-BDS laws set a dangerous precedent. Lawmakers in several states have already begun proposing and passing copycat laws restricting the state from doing business with companies that ‘discriminate’ against firearms or ammunition manufacturers or fossil fuel companies.
The threat of these laws is only growing, and we are sounding the alarm.
Our work includes:
- T’ruah opposes legislation that seeks to prohibit the boycott of Israel and/or settlements. T’ruah – together with J Street and other partners in the Progressive Israel Network – has filed amicus briefs in cases in Texas, Georgia, and Arkansas, in which we affirm that boycotts must remain a protected form of free speech for all of us, and not be restricted by political whims, even when we personally or collectively disagree with the motivations behind those boycotts.
- In 2023, T’ruah will release a new resource for the general public laying out the harms of anti-BDS legislation. This brief guide will provide clarity around a contentious and confusing issue. We hope it will help Jewish clergy, elected officials, students, and everyone else in our community engage in critical conversations about our constitutional freedoms and efforts to limit free speech in the United States.
- We educate and empower rabbis and cantors to oppose legislation that seeks to codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism into domestic law or policy. The core IHRA definition itself is not problematic. However, the full definition includes a series of contemporary examples of antisemitism that wrongly equate what may be legitimate expressions of free speech with antisemitism — with real consequences for Palestinian rights activists, educators, human rights organizations, and others — while making it harder to fight actual antisemitism.As an organization committed to holding Israel accountable for its human rights abuses as well as to stopping antisemitism wherever it occurs, the codification of IHRA and the spread of anti-BDS laws directly endanger our work and that of our partners.
Partners
[parent] => 266
[count] => 14
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[4] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 273
[name] => Funding Transparency
[slug] => funding-transparency
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 273
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[description] =>
"These are the records of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle of the Pact, which were drawn up at Moses’ bidding..."
-Exodus 38:21
According to Midrash, after the Mishkan (Tabernacle) was completed, some Israelites accused Moses of misusing their donations. Moses’ response was a full accounting of every piece of jewelry, gold, and precious stone that the people had offered.
We should ask no less of our communal leaders today.
T’ruah seeks transparency and accountability in how U.S. donor funds are spent in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. A "follow the money" approach not only brings transparency to the foreign actors shaping realities on the ground, but has the potential to reduce the funding these groups receive and meaningfully reduce their ability to do harm.
Our work includes:
Ending tax benefits for terrorists.
T'ruah shines light on far-right American Jewish charities that fund Israeli terrorist groups — in direct violation of U.S. law, which forbids tax-exempt dollars from going to terrorist organizations.
Since 2016, T'ruah has filed a series of complaints with the IRS about the Central Fund of Israel (CFI), the Charity of Light Fund, and others.
T’ruah achieved a major victory in 2016, after exposing that Honenu — a group that was giving cash payments to Israelis convicted of terrorism and to their families — was receiving tax exempt donations through the Central Fund of Israel, a U.S. foundation. The IRS investigated, and Central Fund of Israel cut off funding to Honenu until the latter ended this practice.
In 2022, we organized a letter from 19 prominent New York City rabbis to the donor-advised Jewish Communal Fund, warning them that some of their donors' money is making its way to Lehava via CFI. In the past 20 years, JCF has sent over $23 million to the Central Fund of Israel, which in turn funds groups that funnel money to Lehava, a militant offshoot of Kahane Chai, led by Kahanist Rabbi Bentzi Gopstein. As of today, the Jewish Communal Fund has not taken action to ensure their donors' money does not fund terrorism.
Bringing attention to the far-right donors in the U.S. eroding democracy in Israel
From the American billionaires behind the Kohelet Policy Forum — originator of some of Israel's most undemocratic legislation — to the powerful Miami-based Falic family, which funnels cash to Lehava, funds from individual American donors have helped to drive the current attack on Israeli democracy, including the ongoing occupation and the chipping away of basic civil rights. Read our CEO Rabbi Jill Jacobs's op-ed in The Forward:
"How did Israeli democracy come under threat? Follow the money."
Monitoring and exposing how American Jewish charities spend U.S. donor funds to promote settlement expansion and occupation.
The American arm of the Jewish National Fund, JNF-USA, is well known for planting trees in Israel. In 2015 and 2016, as part of T'ruah's successful “Transparency in Funding” (also known as “Eifo George,” after the campaign video) campaign, we produced two videos calling on the JNF-USA to be transparent about the fact that a portion of the money it raised went over the Green Line to Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
As a result of our campaign, which was covered in the
Forward,
Haaretz and elsewhere, JNF-USA began listing its funding in Israel and the West Bank in greater (although not complete) detail on
its 990 tax forms.
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[count] => 21
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[5] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 267
[name] => Immigration Justice
[slug] => immigration-justice
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 267
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"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 immigrants remain far from our shared vision. While the Trump Administration’s dangerous policies were blatantly rooted in racism, xenophobia, and white supremacy, President Biden has not made the improvements our communities have demanded.
The United States must follow international human rights law when it comes to asylum seekers, refugees, and immigrants. Our government must also recognize and redress the systemic racism that permeates our immigration system, discriminating against immigrants of color.
In the fight for true immigrant justice and relief, we need all hands on deck.
Our work includes:
- Organizing clergy through our BIMA Campaign (Building Immigration Momentum & Action), encouraging rabbis and cantors to recognize how they can use their platform to change the narrative around immigration for the better
- Human rights delegations to the southern border for clergy, with our partners at HIAS
- Coalition work through the Interfaith Immigration Coalition
- Working with the All In For Registry campaign to update our immigration laws to allow millions of longtime undocumented US residents a path to permanent legal status
- Advocating to Congress and the federal government for a more humane immigration system that welcomes asylum seekers and refugees with dignity, provides legitimate pathways to citizenship for more of our neighbors, and reduces reliance on detention and deportation.
*In the Torah, the word "ger" refers to a person who came from elsewhere, but is now a long-term or permanent resident of their new community.
Partners:
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[name] => Mass Incarceration
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"Exalted and High, Mighty and Awesome, You bring low the proud and lift up the fallen; You free the imprisoned, redeem the humble, and help the poor."
-Blessing after the Shema, Morning service
Mass incarceration is a racial justice issue.
We cannot achieve real change unless we recognize and name that racism is at the root of this disaster. As Bryan Stevenson puts it: "Slavery didn't end in 1865, it just evolved." Though just 5% of the world's population lives in the United States, our country imprisons 25% of the world's incarcerated people, and people of color are disproportionately targeted.
T’ruah’s campaign to end mass incarceration engages rabbis, cantors, and their communities in making concrete change locally and nationally to our broken criminal justice system. We believe that the goal of our criminal justice system should be
teshuvah, not simply punishment. We draw inspiration from Jewish legal writings that aim to create a criminal justice system rooted in dignity and justice for both perpetrator and victim.
Our work includes:
- Organizing to end prolonged solitary confinement, which international law experts have classified as torture.
- Advocating for an end to police practices that result in disproportionate stops, arrests, and deaths of people of color.
- Organizing rabbis and their communities to protest police violence and to demand full investigations in cases of killings by police officers.
- Advocating for more just sentencing policies.
- Helping Jewish communities to volunteer with incarcerated individuals and their families, employ the formerly incarcerated, and engage in local campaigns to change state criminal justice laws.
- Educating the Jewish community about why our current system of mass incarceration benefits none of us.
- Educating our communities about the intersection between the U.S.’s prison industrial complex and the detention of immigrants. See our immigration campaign for more.
Local organizing:
- In New York City, chaverim are engaged in ending all solitary confinement in city jails, and working toward the closure of Rikers Island. In Westchester, we are part of the #CommunitiesNotCages coalition to overhaul New York State’s racist and draconian sentencing laws.
- The Massachusetts T’ruah cluster is working in coalition with formerly incarcerated women and their families, who are leading the fight to pass a moratorium on new prison and jail construction in the state — stopping a $50 million proposed women’s prison and re-allocating taxpayer money to communities most affected by mass incarceration.
Partners:
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[name] => Mikdash: The Jewish Sanctuary Movement
[slug] => mikdash-the-jewish-sanctuary-movement
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[description] =>
T’ruah’s sanctuary network, Mikdash, is made up of over 70 member communities. We work as part of an interfaith network to mobilize synagogues and other Jewish communities to protect those facing deportation or other immigration challenges. By becoming part of the Mikdash network, communities pledge to take concrete actions, which may include legal support, housing, financial help, and other assistance for our friends and neighbors.
The New Sanctuary Movement — a coalition of hundreds of immigrant and faith-based organizations — works to protect and defend immigrants in the United States, especially those at risk for arrest and deportation. At T'ruah, we believe we have a moral obligation to join in their struggle, honoring the biblical injunction to "welcome the stranger" as well as the memory of Jewish refugees around the world.
With our help, Jewish communities across the United States are joining with others to take action to support and protect the vulnerable.
If your congregation is interested in learning more about becoming a sanctuary community, please contact us at office@truah.org.
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[name] => Modern Day Slavery and Human Trafficking
[slug] => slavery-and-trafficking
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[description] =>
"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, focusing on the issue of slavery in supply chains. Our work includes
- Partnering with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to expand the Fair Food Program, the most effective slavery prevention program in U.S. agriculture.
- We are the only Jewish organization that is a member of ATEST, the Alliance to End Slavery &Trafficking, the premier U.S. coalition dedicated to supporting those vulnerable to trafficking.
- Supporting federal legislation to help survivors of trafficking.
- Training more than 70 rabbis in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC to engage their communities in addressing slavery and trafficking locally.
- Co-leading the Jewish Coalition Against Trafficking, together with the National Council of Jewish Women.
- Partnering with Equal Exchange and Divine Chocolate, to encourage Jewish communities to purchase kosher Fair Trade Chanukah gelt, kosher-for-Passover chocolate, coffee, and other products.
Three thousand years after the Jewish people are said to have been liberated from slavery, and 150 years after the Civil War,
more people are enslaved today than at any other point in history.
According to the most conservative estimates of the International Labor Organization, nearly 21 million people are held in situations of forced labor today: three out of every 1,000 people in the world.
Human trafficking does not occur in a vacuum but represents the extreme end of a continuum of worker exploitation and vulnerability. We therefore support worker-led campaigns to raise wages, combat abuses, and create meaningful enforcement mechanisms to implement hard-won rights.
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[name] => North American Campaigns
[slug] => north-american-campaigns
[term_group] => 0
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[parent] => 0
[count] => 384
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[name] => Plant Justice Not Settlements
[slug] => plant-justice-not-settlements
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 237
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[description] => In 2016, T’ruah
won an important victory for transparency when we persuaded the Jewish National Fund-USA to publish a list of its projects on its publicly-available tax forms for the first time.
That’s the good news. But the bad news is that we now know that JNF-USA doesn’t just plant trees in Israel, but also invests in settlements s over the Green Line, beyond Israel’s internationally recognized borders.
JNF-USA once had a
policy of not funding over the Green Line.
Please join us in demanding it return to this policy.
By supporting settlements, JNF-USA contributes to the violation of the human rights of Palestinians, and to blocking a long-term agreement that will be the only way to protect the human rights and security of both Israelis and Palestinians. Settlements limit Palestinians’ freedom of movement, take their land and destroy all hopes for a viable, sovereign and territorially contiguous Palestinian state.
The JNF-USA needs to hear from you.
Please ask JNF-USA CEO Russell Robinson today to pledge not to spend one more dollar over the Green Line.
By treating illegal settlements as if they were merely another part of Israel, JNF-USA is committing the sin of
genevat da’at, misleading people. And it is contributing to the human rights abuses and land theft the settlements cause.
As the Torah proclaims, “Damned be he who moves back the territory-marker of his neighbor!” (Deut. 37:17)
Write to JNF-USA CEO Russell Robinson
Learn more
Watch our video
Look at our map of JNF-USA projects over the Green Line
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[name] => Racial Justice
[slug] => racial-justice
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"When the community is immersed in suffering, a person may not say: I will go to my home and I will eat and drink, and be at peace with myself."
-Taanit 11a
Racial justice is a Jewish value, and Black lives matter. Period.
Unlike the other issues T'ruah works on, the pursuit of racial justice is not a single isolated campaign, but rather a value that permeates every single one of our campaigns.
Our statement of
Commitment to Racial Justice is a manifesto intended to hold us accountable in all aspects of our work.
Some campaigns in which our commitment to racial justice is most visible are our campaigns to
end mass incarceration and
solitary confinement, which disproportionately target Black Americans and other people of color.
As we advocate for
immigrants' rights and
workers' rights, we call out the racism that brings more media attention to one group of refugees over another and which allows Americans to ignore the dangerous and degrading conditions in which workers grow the food we eat.
In our work on
antisemitism, we seek to elevate the experiences of Jews of Color, who are exposed not only to the threat of antisemitism but simultaneously face racism and other forms of bigotry.
Finally, we practice what we preach. T'ruah seeks to redress racial injustice
internally, through our ongoing Diversity Equity Inclusion and Justice initiative. In our hiring practices, compensation philosophy, harassment policy, and other workplace policies, we aspire to equity and just treatment of our employees.
Our work includes:
- Resources: We offer a variety of resources for the Jewish community – particularly white Jews – about how to most effectively be in solidarity with our Black and brown friends, family, and neighbors.
- Human rights delegations: We have brought two delegations of rabbis, cantors, and other Jewish communal leaders to the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. Through sophisticated training and experiential learning with T’ruah, Jewish clergy have learned about how the legacy of slavery and racialized violence continues to reverberate through every part of our society, and have gone home dedicated to taking action against racism.
- Educational programs: From 2021-23 we guided two cohorts through Synagogue Teams for Equity and Partnerships (STEP), a program that brought together New York-area synagogues with non-Jewish communities of color to build new relationships or deepen existing ones. Additionally, we have hosted Antiracism Communities of Practice for chaverim, and have offered multipart courses on the intersections of Antisemitism and Race for national groups.
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[name] => Worker Justice
[slug] => worker-justice
[term_group] => 0
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[description] =>
"Great is work, as it gives honor
to the one who does it."
—Nedarim 49b
Our tradition tells us that it is a Jewish moral imperative to treat workers fairly. But we know that in this country and around the world, the workplace is often ground zero for forced labor, exploitation, wage theft, and violence – especially for members of Black, brown, and undocumented communities, as well as those with temporary work visas. From the tomato fields of Immokalee, FL, to construction sites in Brooklyn, to undocumented workers excluded from COVID benefits, T’ruah rabbis and cantors across the country are in solidarity with workers standing up for dignity, equity, and safety in their workplaces.
Our work includes:
- Solidarity with farmworkers: Since 2011, T’ruah has brought more than 100 rabbis, cantors, and lay leaders to visit the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a farmworker-led organization that is transforming the Florida tomato fields from places of modern day slavery to some of the best workplaces in U.S. agriculture. The #tomatorabbis, as members of the rabbinic delegations call themselves, have gone home to involve members of their own communities in asking major corporations to join the coalition’s Fair Food Program, which raises the wages of tomato workers and ensures fair, regulated working conditions in the fields to end the conditions that have led to widespread labor trafficking and slavery.T’ruah has worked with the coalition to bring Trader Joe’s, Ahold (Stop & Shop/Giant), and Chipotle into the Fair Food Program. We are currently organizing Jewish communities to ask Wendy’s to join 14 major corporations in doing the same, and are partnering with the coalition to expand the Fair Food Program into additional states and crops.
- Building the faith-rooted movement for worker justice: Along with organizations and networks like the Interreligious Network for Worker Solidarity, T'ruah works to bolster national advocacy and organizing that builds up the worker justice movement and aims to stop the attacks on workers coming from both legislatures and individual companies.
- Selling fairly traded chocolate for Jewish holiday celebrations: T’ruah partners with Equal Exchange and Divine Chocolate, to encourage Jewish communities to purchase kosher fairly traded Chanukah gelt, kosher-for-Passover chocolate, coffee, and other products.
Local campaigns:
T'ruah's New York City cluster is partnering with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) and the Laundry Workers Center on their Cabricanecos campaign, standing in solidarity with migrant and indigenous workers who are seeking access to safer and more equitable working conditions at job sites across Brooklyn.
Partners:
Internally, T'ruah strives to live our values around worker justice. Whenever possible, our products, including paper materials and t-shirts, are union printed, and we use a union cleaning company for our office. We aspire to equity, transparency, and dignity in all aspects of our hiring process and in how we treat our employees.
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Modern Day Slavery and Human Trafficking
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[0] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 266
[name] => Democracy and Voting Rights
[slug] => democracy-and-voting-rights
[term_group] => 0
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[description] => “A ruler is not to be appointed unless the community is first consulted.”
-Babylonian Talmud Berachot 55a
Since right-wing politicians in many states are working to undermine the basic process of voting and the people’s trust in our election institutions, the work we do is crucial to securing our rights to vote and participate in the democratic process. We work to support rabbis, cantors, and the wider Jewish community in learning and taking action to protect voting rights and the integrity of the democratic process.
We also work hard to protect the values of freedom of speech. This includes the right to boycott. Regardless of whether we support the choice of whom is being boycotted, the power to speak, not just with words, but with money, is an essential right under the First Amendment.
Our work includes:
Recruiting poll chaplains to support election sites through de-escalation.
Collaborating with A More Perfect Union to support rabbis and cantors in building relationships with their local election officials, and build trust in election processes.
Creating Jewish teachings and thought leadership on democracy through Emor.
Joining interfaith partners to advocate and build support for legislation that would support, protect, and expand the right to vote.
Partners:
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights is a 501(c)(3) and does not conduct partisan political activities in support or in opposition to any political candidate.
Learn about our related work on Free Speech and the Right to Boycott.
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[term_id] => 217
[name] => Ending the Occupation
[slug] => ending-the-occupation
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 217
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => "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 cantors, we care deeply about Israel’s future as a Jewish, democratic state, and as a safe haven for the Jewish people, who have suffered generations of persecution with no country of our own.
At the same time, we recognize the impact and consequences of Israel’s creation for the Palestinian people, and the many decades of suffering incurred by leaders prioritizing power over people. Since 1967, Israel has maintained a violent military occupation of Palestinian land, violating the human rights of millions each day. To ensure the long-term security, dignity, and prosperity of both Israelis and Palestinians, the occupation must end.
With T’ruah’s support, courageous Jewish clergy draw attention to the injustices done in our name.
Our work includes:
Training and educating current and future American rabbis and cantors to be the moral leaders we need. Over 80% of rabbinical and cantorial students spending their required year in Israel participate in our Year-in-Israel Program, which takes students to see human rights issues with their own eyes and meet the activists working to address them
Running trips to the West Bank for ordained Jewish clergy
Providing educational programming on specific issues and bringing the voices of Israeli and Palestinian activists and human rights experts to our community
Organizing rabbis, cantors, and their communities to take action to protect democracy in Israel and to support the human rights of both Israelis and Palestinians
Partners:
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[count] => 192
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[2] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 253
[name] => Fighting Antisemitism
[slug] => fighting-antisemitism
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 253
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => "Love your neighbor as yourself."
-Leviticus 19:18
T'ruah is committed to standing against antisemitism in all its manifestations. As antisemitic incidents increase at an alarming rate, rabbis and cantors are often on the front lines, facing antisemitic flyering, graffiti, and vandalism; harassment and threats; and in some cases, violence. Those who wear identifiably Jewish clothing have become targets for antisemitic attacks, and the result is that Jews are increasingly concerned for their safety on the street and in the synagogue.
Education
Our approach to combatting antisemitism begins with education. It is increasingly clear that there are widespread misperceptions about antisemitism, and even about Jews and Judaism. Even among Jews, not everyone agrees on what constitutes antisemitism. Our educational resources and trainings aim to fill that gap, so that both Jews and non-Jews feel confident they can identify, name, and effectively respond to antisemitic incidents.
Fighting antisemitism in public and private
There is no one-size-fits-all response to antisemitism. While public officials must be called out for antisemitic speech, T'ruah also works privately within our coalitions and partnerships to address antisemitism — and other forms of bigotry — through conversation and education.
Valid criticism of Israel or antisemitism?
Our expertise includes defining the sometimes muddy boundary between criticism of Israel and antisemitism, which we explore in depth in our A Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism. While it is certainly true that not all criticism of Israel is antisemitic — we criticize Israel's policies every day — it is also true that criticism of Israel can sometimes devolve into antisemitism.
That said, we refuse to allow fear of antisemitism to lead us to become xenophobic or closed-off. Our approach to addressing antisemitism is deeper and broader relationships with other groups that have been marginalized, striving together towards collective liberation.
Our work includes:
- Creating educational resources for rabbis and cantors and for the public, such as our A Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism, so that Jews and non-Jews have the tools they need to better understand and recognize antisemitism when it happens.
- Delivering staff-led trainings in antisemitism for Jewish and non-Jewish organizations, as well as to elected officials.
- Developing a training in "Bystander Intervention to Stop Antisemitism" with Right To Be, so that ordinary people know how to intervene if they witness antisemitic harassment or violence. More than 700 people have completed this training.
- Advocating for sound policies that combat antisemitism and against policies that equate fighting antisemitism with suppressing criticism of Israel — policies that only make it harder to identify and stop actual antisemitism. For more on this topic, read about our campaign for Free Speech and the Right to Boycott.
- Supporting our rabbis and cantors as they encounter antisemitism in the course of their work, including through Communities of Practice, one-on-one coaching, and by creating opportunities to gain support from others in our network who have experienced similar incidents.
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[term_id] => 274
[name] => Free Speech and The Right to Boycott
[slug] => free-speech-boycott-rights
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[description] =>
"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 is committed to fighting against concerted efforts to suppress free speech in the United States, including the right to boycott.
Currently,
about 35 states have passed or enacted laws or executive orders targeting boycotts of Israel and/or West Bank settlements. T’ruah does not endorse or participate in the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement; at the same time, we maintain committed to our country’s bedrock principle of free speech, including the right to economic boycott.
These anti-boycott laws are often passed under the guise of fighting antisemitism, but criticism of Israel — including in the form of a targeted boycott — is not inherently antisemitic. [For more on this, read our
Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism.]
Anti-BDS laws set a dangerous precedent. Lawmakers in several states have already begun proposing and passing copycat laws restricting the state from doing business with companies that ‘discriminate’ against firearms or ammunition manufacturers or fossil fuel companies.
The threat of these laws is only growing, and we are sounding the alarm.
Our work includes:
- T’ruah opposes legislation that seeks to prohibit the boycott of Israel and/or settlements. T’ruah – together with J Street and other partners in the Progressive Israel Network – has filed amicus briefs in cases in Texas, Georgia, and Arkansas, in which we affirm that boycotts must remain a protected form of free speech for all of us, and not be restricted by political whims, even when we personally or collectively disagree with the motivations behind those boycotts.
- In 2023, T’ruah will release a new resource for the general public laying out the harms of anti-BDS legislation. This brief guide will provide clarity around a contentious and confusing issue. We hope it will help Jewish clergy, elected officials, students, and everyone else in our community engage in critical conversations about our constitutional freedoms and efforts to limit free speech in the United States.
- We educate and empower rabbis and cantors to oppose legislation that seeks to codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism into domestic law or policy. The core IHRA definition itself is not problematic. However, the full definition includes a series of contemporary examples of antisemitism that wrongly equate what may be legitimate expressions of free speech with antisemitism — with real consequences for Palestinian rights activists, educators, human rights organizations, and others — while making it harder to fight actual antisemitism.As an organization committed to holding Israel accountable for its human rights abuses as well as to stopping antisemitism wherever it occurs, the codification of IHRA and the spread of anti-BDS laws directly endanger our work and that of our partners.
Partners
[parent] => 266
[count] => 14
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[4] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 273
[name] => Funding Transparency
[slug] => funding-transparency
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[description] =>
"These are the records of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle of the Pact, which were drawn up at Moses’ bidding..."
-Exodus 38:21
According to Midrash, after the Mishkan (Tabernacle) was completed, some Israelites accused Moses of misusing their donations. Moses’ response was a full accounting of every piece of jewelry, gold, and precious stone that the people had offered.
We should ask no less of our communal leaders today.
T’ruah seeks transparency and accountability in how U.S. donor funds are spent in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. A "follow the money" approach not only brings transparency to the foreign actors shaping realities on the ground, but has the potential to reduce the funding these groups receive and meaningfully reduce their ability to do harm.
Our work includes:
Ending tax benefits for terrorists.
T'ruah shines light on far-right American Jewish charities that fund Israeli terrorist groups — in direct violation of U.S. law, which forbids tax-exempt dollars from going to terrorist organizations.
Since 2016, T'ruah has filed a series of complaints with the IRS about the Central Fund of Israel (CFI), the Charity of Light Fund, and others.
T’ruah achieved a major victory in 2016, after exposing that Honenu — a group that was giving cash payments to Israelis convicted of terrorism and to their families — was receiving tax exempt donations through the Central Fund of Israel, a U.S. foundation. The IRS investigated, and Central Fund of Israel cut off funding to Honenu until the latter ended this practice.
In 2022, we organized a letter from 19 prominent New York City rabbis to the donor-advised Jewish Communal Fund, warning them that some of their donors' money is making its way to Lehava via CFI. In the past 20 years, JCF has sent over $23 million to the Central Fund of Israel, which in turn funds groups that funnel money to Lehava, a militant offshoot of Kahane Chai, led by Kahanist Rabbi Bentzi Gopstein. As of today, the Jewish Communal Fund has not taken action to ensure their donors' money does not fund terrorism.
Bringing attention to the far-right donors in the U.S. eroding democracy in Israel
From the American billionaires behind the Kohelet Policy Forum — originator of some of Israel's most undemocratic legislation — to the powerful Miami-based Falic family, which funnels cash to Lehava, funds from individual American donors have helped to drive the current attack on Israeli democracy, including the ongoing occupation and the chipping away of basic civil rights. Read our CEO Rabbi Jill Jacobs's op-ed in The Forward:
"How did Israeli democracy come under threat? Follow the money."
Monitoring and exposing how American Jewish charities spend U.S. donor funds to promote settlement expansion and occupation.
The American arm of the Jewish National Fund, JNF-USA, is well known for planting trees in Israel. In 2015 and 2016, as part of T'ruah's successful “Transparency in Funding” (also known as “Eifo George,” after the campaign video) campaign, we produced two videos calling on the JNF-USA to be transparent about the fact that a portion of the money it raised went over the Green Line to Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
As a result of our campaign, which was covered in the
Forward,
Haaretz and elsewhere, JNF-USA began listing its funding in Israel and the West Bank in greater (although not complete) detail on
its 990 tax forms.
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[count] => 21
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[5] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 267
[name] => Immigration Justice
[slug] => immigration-justice
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 267
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"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 immigrants remain far from our shared vision. While the Trump Administration’s dangerous policies were blatantly rooted in racism, xenophobia, and white supremacy, President Biden has not made the improvements our communities have demanded.
The United States must follow international human rights law when it comes to asylum seekers, refugees, and immigrants. Our government must also recognize and redress the systemic racism that permeates our immigration system, discriminating against immigrants of color.
In the fight for true immigrant justice and relief, we need all hands on deck.
Our work includes:
- Organizing clergy through our BIMA Campaign (Building Immigration Momentum & Action), encouraging rabbis and cantors to recognize how they can use their platform to change the narrative around immigration for the better
- Human rights delegations to the southern border for clergy, with our partners at HIAS
- Coalition work through the Interfaith Immigration Coalition
- Working with the All In For Registry campaign to update our immigration laws to allow millions of longtime undocumented US residents a path to permanent legal status
- Advocating to Congress and the federal government for a more humane immigration system that welcomes asylum seekers and refugees with dignity, provides legitimate pathways to citizenship for more of our neighbors, and reduces reliance on detention and deportation.
*In the Torah, the word "ger" refers to a person who came from elsewhere, but is now a long-term or permanent resident of their new community.
Partners:
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[name] => Israel Campaigns
[slug] => israel-campaigns
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[name] => Mass Incarceration
[slug] => mass-incarceration
[term_group] => 0
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[description] =>
"Exalted and High, Mighty and Awesome, You bring low the proud and lift up the fallen; You free the imprisoned, redeem the humble, and help the poor."
-Blessing after the Shema, Morning service
Mass incarceration is a racial justice issue.
We cannot achieve real change unless we recognize and name that racism is at the root of this disaster. As Bryan Stevenson puts it: "Slavery didn't end in 1865, it just evolved." Though just 5% of the world's population lives in the United States, our country imprisons 25% of the world's incarcerated people, and people of color are disproportionately targeted.
T’ruah’s campaign to end mass incarceration engages rabbis, cantors, and their communities in making concrete change locally and nationally to our broken criminal justice system. We believe that the goal of our criminal justice system should be
teshuvah, not simply punishment. We draw inspiration from Jewish legal writings that aim to create a criminal justice system rooted in dignity and justice for both perpetrator and victim.
Our work includes:
- Organizing to end prolonged solitary confinement, which international law experts have classified as torture.
- Advocating for an end to police practices that result in disproportionate stops, arrests, and deaths of people of color.
- Organizing rabbis and their communities to protest police violence and to demand full investigations in cases of killings by police officers.
- Advocating for more just sentencing policies.
- Helping Jewish communities to volunteer with incarcerated individuals and their families, employ the formerly incarcerated, and engage in local campaigns to change state criminal justice laws.
- Educating the Jewish community about why our current system of mass incarceration benefits none of us.
- Educating our communities about the intersection between the U.S.’s prison industrial complex and the detention of immigrants. See our immigration campaign for more.
Local organizing:
- In New York City, chaverim are engaged in ending all solitary confinement in city jails, and working toward the closure of Rikers Island. In Westchester, we are part of the #CommunitiesNotCages coalition to overhaul New York State’s racist and draconian sentencing laws.
- The Massachusetts T’ruah cluster is working in coalition with formerly incarcerated women and their families, who are leading the fight to pass a moratorium on new prison and jail construction in the state — stopping a $50 million proposed women’s prison and re-allocating taxpayer money to communities most affected by mass incarceration.
Partners:
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[name] => Mikdash: The Jewish Sanctuary Movement
[slug] => mikdash-the-jewish-sanctuary-movement
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[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
T’ruah’s sanctuary network, Mikdash, is made up of over 70 member communities. We work as part of an interfaith network to mobilize synagogues and other Jewish communities to protect those facing deportation or other immigration challenges. By becoming part of the Mikdash network, communities pledge to take concrete actions, which may include legal support, housing, financial help, and other assistance for our friends and neighbors.
The New Sanctuary Movement — a coalition of hundreds of immigrant and faith-based organizations — works to protect and defend immigrants in the United States, especially those at risk for arrest and deportation. At T'ruah, we believe we have a moral obligation to join in their struggle, honoring the biblical injunction to "welcome the stranger" as well as the memory of Jewish refugees around the world.
With our help, Jewish communities across the United States are joining with others to take action to support and protect the vulnerable.
If your congregation is interested in learning more about becoming a sanctuary community, please contact us at office@truah.org.
[parent] => 213
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[name] => Modern Day Slavery and Human Trafficking
[slug] => slavery-and-trafficking
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[description] =>
"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, focusing on the issue of slavery in supply chains. Our work includes
- Partnering with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to expand the Fair Food Program, the most effective slavery prevention program in U.S. agriculture.
- We are the only Jewish organization that is a member of ATEST, the Alliance to End Slavery &Trafficking, the premier U.S. coalition dedicated to supporting those vulnerable to trafficking.
- Supporting federal legislation to help survivors of trafficking.
- Training more than 70 rabbis in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC to engage their communities in addressing slavery and trafficking locally.
- Co-leading the Jewish Coalition Against Trafficking, together with the National Council of Jewish Women.
- Partnering with Equal Exchange and Divine Chocolate, to encourage Jewish communities to purchase kosher Fair Trade Chanukah gelt, kosher-for-Passover chocolate, coffee, and other products.
Three thousand years after the Jewish people are said to have been liberated from slavery, and 150 years after the Civil War,
more people are enslaved today than at any other point in history.
According to the most conservative estimates of the International Labor Organization, nearly 21 million people are held in situations of forced labor today: three out of every 1,000 people in the world.
Human trafficking does not occur in a vacuum but represents the extreme end of a continuum of worker exploitation and vulnerability. We therefore support worker-led campaigns to raise wages, combat abuses, and create meaningful enforcement mechanisms to implement hard-won rights.
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[name] => North American Campaigns
[slug] => north-american-campaigns
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[parent] => 0
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[term_id] => 237
[name] => Plant Justice Not Settlements
[slug] => plant-justice-not-settlements
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 237
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => In 2016, T’ruah
won an important victory for transparency when we persuaded the Jewish National Fund-USA to publish a list of its projects on its publicly-available tax forms for the first time.
That’s the good news. But the bad news is that we now know that JNF-USA doesn’t just plant trees in Israel, but also invests in settlements s over the Green Line, beyond Israel’s internationally recognized borders.
JNF-USA once had a
policy of not funding over the Green Line.
Please join us in demanding it return to this policy.
By supporting settlements, JNF-USA contributes to the violation of the human rights of Palestinians, and to blocking a long-term agreement that will be the only way to protect the human rights and security of both Israelis and Palestinians. Settlements limit Palestinians’ freedom of movement, take their land and destroy all hopes for a viable, sovereign and territorially contiguous Palestinian state.
The JNF-USA needs to hear from you.
Please ask JNF-USA CEO Russell Robinson today to pledge not to spend one more dollar over the Green Line.
By treating illegal settlements as if they were merely another part of Israel, JNF-USA is committing the sin of
genevat da’at, misleading people. And it is contributing to the human rights abuses and land theft the settlements cause.
As the Torah proclaims, “Damned be he who moves back the territory-marker of his neighbor!” (Deut. 37:17)
Write to JNF-USA CEO Russell Robinson
Learn more
Watch our video
Look at our map of JNF-USA projects over the Green Line
[parent] => 212
[count] => 41
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[name] => Racial Justice
[slug] => racial-justice
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[description] =>
"When the community is immersed in suffering, a person may not say: I will go to my home and I will eat and drink, and be at peace with myself."
-Taanit 11a
Racial justice is a Jewish value, and Black lives matter. Period.
Unlike the other issues T'ruah works on, the pursuit of racial justice is not a single isolated campaign, but rather a value that permeates every single one of our campaigns.
Our statement of
Commitment to Racial Justice is a manifesto intended to hold us accountable in all aspects of our work.
Some campaigns in which our commitment to racial justice is most visible are our campaigns to
end mass incarceration and
solitary confinement, which disproportionately target Black Americans and other people of color.
As we advocate for
immigrants' rights and
workers' rights, we call out the racism that brings more media attention to one group of refugees over another and which allows Americans to ignore the dangerous and degrading conditions in which workers grow the food we eat.
In our work on
antisemitism, we seek to elevate the experiences of Jews of Color, who are exposed not only to the threat of antisemitism but simultaneously face racism and other forms of bigotry.
Finally, we practice what we preach. T'ruah seeks to redress racial injustice
internally, through our ongoing Diversity Equity Inclusion and Justice initiative. In our hiring practices, compensation philosophy, harassment policy, and other workplace policies, we aspire to equity and just treatment of our employees.
Our work includes:
- Resources: We offer a variety of resources for the Jewish community – particularly white Jews – about how to most effectively be in solidarity with our Black and brown friends, family, and neighbors.
- Human rights delegations: We have brought two delegations of rabbis, cantors, and other Jewish communal leaders to the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. Through sophisticated training and experiential learning with T’ruah, Jewish clergy have learned about how the legacy of slavery and racialized violence continues to reverberate through every part of our society, and have gone home dedicated to taking action against racism.
- Educational programs: From 2021-23 we guided two cohorts through Synagogue Teams for Equity and Partnerships (STEP), a program that brought together New York-area synagogues with non-Jewish communities of color to build new relationships or deepen existing ones. Additionally, we have hosted Antiracism Communities of Practice for chaverim, and have offered multipart courses on the intersections of Antisemitism and Race for national groups.
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[term_id] => 193
[name] => Worker Justice
[slug] => worker-justice
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 193
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"Great is work, as it gives honor
to the one who does it."
—Nedarim 49b
Our tradition tells us that it is a Jewish moral imperative to treat workers fairly. But we know that in this country and around the world, the workplace is often ground zero for forced labor, exploitation, wage theft, and violence – especially for members of Black, brown, and undocumented communities, as well as those with temporary work visas. From the tomato fields of Immokalee, FL, to construction sites in Brooklyn, to undocumented workers excluded from COVID benefits, T’ruah rabbis and cantors across the country are in solidarity with workers standing up for dignity, equity, and safety in their workplaces.
Our work includes:
- Solidarity with farmworkers: Since 2011, T’ruah has brought more than 100 rabbis, cantors, and lay leaders to visit the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a farmworker-led organization that is transforming the Florida tomato fields from places of modern day slavery to some of the best workplaces in U.S. agriculture. The #tomatorabbis, as members of the rabbinic delegations call themselves, have gone home to involve members of their own communities in asking major corporations to join the coalition’s Fair Food Program, which raises the wages of tomato workers and ensures fair, regulated working conditions in the fields to end the conditions that have led to widespread labor trafficking and slavery.T’ruah has worked with the coalition to bring Trader Joe’s, Ahold (Stop & Shop/Giant), and Chipotle into the Fair Food Program. We are currently organizing Jewish communities to ask Wendy’s to join 14 major corporations in doing the same, and are partnering with the coalition to expand the Fair Food Program into additional states and crops.
- Building the faith-rooted movement for worker justice: Along with organizations and networks like the Interreligious Network for Worker Solidarity, T'ruah works to bolster national advocacy and organizing that builds up the worker justice movement and aims to stop the attacks on workers coming from both legislatures and individual companies.
- Selling fairly traded chocolate for Jewish holiday celebrations: T’ruah partners with Equal Exchange and Divine Chocolate, to encourage Jewish communities to purchase kosher fairly traded Chanukah gelt, kosher-for-Passover chocolate, coffee, and other products.
Local campaigns:
T'ruah's New York City cluster is partnering with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) and the Laundry Workers Center on their Cabricanecos campaign, standing in solidarity with migrant and indigenous workers who are seeking access to safer and more equitable working conditions at job sites across Brooklyn.
Partners:
Internally, T'ruah strives to live our values around worker justice. Whenever possible, our products, including paper materials and t-shirts, are union printed, and we use a union cleaning company for our office. We aspire to equity, transparency, and dignity in all aspects of our hiring process and in how we treat our employees.
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1
North American Campaigns
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[0] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 266
[name] => Democracy and Voting Rights
[slug] => democracy-and-voting-rights
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 266
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => “A ruler is not to be appointed unless the community is first consulted.”
-Babylonian Talmud Berachot 55a
Since right-wing politicians in many states are working to undermine the basic process of voting and the people’s trust in our election institutions, the work we do is crucial to securing our rights to vote and participate in the democratic process. We work to support rabbis, cantors, and the wider Jewish community in learning and taking action to protect voting rights and the integrity of the democratic process.
We also work hard to protect the values of freedom of speech. This includes the right to boycott. Regardless of whether we support the choice of whom is being boycotted, the power to speak, not just with words, but with money, is an essential right under the First Amendment.
Our work includes:
Recruiting poll chaplains to support election sites through de-escalation.
Collaborating with A More Perfect Union to support rabbis and cantors in building relationships with their local election officials, and build trust in election processes.
Creating Jewish teachings and thought leadership on democracy through Emor.
Joining interfaith partners to advocate and build support for legislation that would support, protect, and expand the right to vote.
Partners:
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights is a 501(c)(3) and does not conduct partisan political activities in support or in opposition to any political candidate.
Learn about our related work on Free Speech and the Right to Boycott.
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[term_id] => 217
[name] => Ending the Occupation
[slug] => ending-the-occupation
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 217
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => "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 cantors, we care deeply about Israel’s future as a Jewish, democratic state, and as a safe haven for the Jewish people, who have suffered generations of persecution with no country of our own.
At the same time, we recognize the impact and consequences of Israel’s creation for the Palestinian people, and the many decades of suffering incurred by leaders prioritizing power over people. Since 1967, Israel has maintained a violent military occupation of Palestinian land, violating the human rights of millions each day. To ensure the long-term security, dignity, and prosperity of both Israelis and Palestinians, the occupation must end.
With T’ruah’s support, courageous Jewish clergy draw attention to the injustices done in our name.
Our work includes:
Training and educating current and future American rabbis and cantors to be the moral leaders we need. Over 80% of rabbinical and cantorial students spending their required year in Israel participate in our Year-in-Israel Program, which takes students to see human rights issues with their own eyes and meet the activists working to address them
Running trips to the West Bank for ordained Jewish clergy
Providing educational programming on specific issues and bringing the voices of Israeli and Palestinian activists and human rights experts to our community
Organizing rabbis, cantors, and their communities to take action to protect democracy in Israel and to support the human rights of both Israelis and Palestinians
Partners:
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[count] => 192
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[2] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 253
[name] => Fighting Antisemitism
[slug] => fighting-antisemitism
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 253
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => "Love your neighbor as yourself."
-Leviticus 19:18
T'ruah is committed to standing against antisemitism in all its manifestations. As antisemitic incidents increase at an alarming rate, rabbis and cantors are often on the front lines, facing antisemitic flyering, graffiti, and vandalism; harassment and threats; and in some cases, violence. Those who wear identifiably Jewish clothing have become targets for antisemitic attacks, and the result is that Jews are increasingly concerned for their safety on the street and in the synagogue.
Education
Our approach to combatting antisemitism begins with education. It is increasingly clear that there are widespread misperceptions about antisemitism, and even about Jews and Judaism. Even among Jews, not everyone agrees on what constitutes antisemitism. Our educational resources and trainings aim to fill that gap, so that both Jews and non-Jews feel confident they can identify, name, and effectively respond to antisemitic incidents.
Fighting antisemitism in public and private
There is no one-size-fits-all response to antisemitism. While public officials must be called out for antisemitic speech, T'ruah also works privately within our coalitions and partnerships to address antisemitism — and other forms of bigotry — through conversation and education.
Valid criticism of Israel or antisemitism?
Our expertise includes defining the sometimes muddy boundary between criticism of Israel and antisemitism, which we explore in depth in our A Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism. While it is certainly true that not all criticism of Israel is antisemitic — we criticize Israel's policies every day — it is also true that criticism of Israel can sometimes devolve into antisemitism.
That said, we refuse to allow fear of antisemitism to lead us to become xenophobic or closed-off. Our approach to addressing antisemitism is deeper and broader relationships with other groups that have been marginalized, striving together towards collective liberation.
Our work includes:
- Creating educational resources for rabbis and cantors and for the public, such as our A Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism, so that Jews and non-Jews have the tools they need to better understand and recognize antisemitism when it happens.
- Delivering staff-led trainings in antisemitism for Jewish and non-Jewish organizations, as well as to elected officials.
- Developing a training in "Bystander Intervention to Stop Antisemitism" with Right To Be, so that ordinary people know how to intervene if they witness antisemitic harassment or violence. More than 700 people have completed this training.
- Advocating for sound policies that combat antisemitism and against policies that equate fighting antisemitism with suppressing criticism of Israel — policies that only make it harder to identify and stop actual antisemitism. For more on this topic, read about our campaign for Free Speech and the Right to Boycott.
- Supporting our rabbis and cantors as they encounter antisemitism in the course of their work, including through Communities of Practice, one-on-one coaching, and by creating opportunities to gain support from others in our network who have experienced similar incidents.
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[count] => 35
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[term_id] => 274
[name] => Free Speech and The Right to Boycott
[slug] => free-speech-boycott-rights
[term_group] => 0
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[description] =>
"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 is committed to fighting against concerted efforts to suppress free speech in the United States, including the right to boycott.
Currently,
about 35 states have passed or enacted laws or executive orders targeting boycotts of Israel and/or West Bank settlements. T’ruah does not endorse or participate in the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement; at the same time, we maintain committed to our country’s bedrock principle of free speech, including the right to economic boycott.
These anti-boycott laws are often passed under the guise of fighting antisemitism, but criticism of Israel — including in the form of a targeted boycott — is not inherently antisemitic. [For more on this, read our
Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism.]
Anti-BDS laws set a dangerous precedent. Lawmakers in several states have already begun proposing and passing copycat laws restricting the state from doing business with companies that ‘discriminate’ against firearms or ammunition manufacturers or fossil fuel companies.
The threat of these laws is only growing, and we are sounding the alarm.
Our work includes:
- T’ruah opposes legislation that seeks to prohibit the boycott of Israel and/or settlements. T’ruah – together with J Street and other partners in the Progressive Israel Network – has filed amicus briefs in cases in Texas, Georgia, and Arkansas, in which we affirm that boycotts must remain a protected form of free speech for all of us, and not be restricted by political whims, even when we personally or collectively disagree with the motivations behind those boycotts.
- In 2023, T’ruah will release a new resource for the general public laying out the harms of anti-BDS legislation. This brief guide will provide clarity around a contentious and confusing issue. We hope it will help Jewish clergy, elected officials, students, and everyone else in our community engage in critical conversations about our constitutional freedoms and efforts to limit free speech in the United States.
- We educate and empower rabbis and cantors to oppose legislation that seeks to codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism into domestic law or policy. The core IHRA definition itself is not problematic. However, the full definition includes a series of contemporary examples of antisemitism that wrongly equate what may be legitimate expressions of free speech with antisemitism — with real consequences for Palestinian rights activists, educators, human rights organizations, and others — while making it harder to fight actual antisemitism.As an organization committed to holding Israel accountable for its human rights abuses as well as to stopping antisemitism wherever it occurs, the codification of IHRA and the spread of anti-BDS laws directly endanger our work and that of our partners.
Partners
[parent] => 266
[count] => 14
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[4] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 273
[name] => Funding Transparency
[slug] => funding-transparency
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 273
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[description] =>
"These are the records of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle of the Pact, which were drawn up at Moses’ bidding..."
-Exodus 38:21
According to Midrash, after the Mishkan (Tabernacle) was completed, some Israelites accused Moses of misusing their donations. Moses’ response was a full accounting of every piece of jewelry, gold, and precious stone that the people had offered.
We should ask no less of our communal leaders today.
T’ruah seeks transparency and accountability in how U.S. donor funds are spent in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. A "follow the money" approach not only brings transparency to the foreign actors shaping realities on the ground, but has the potential to reduce the funding these groups receive and meaningfully reduce their ability to do harm.
Our work includes:
Ending tax benefits for terrorists.
T'ruah shines light on far-right American Jewish charities that fund Israeli terrorist groups — in direct violation of U.S. law, which forbids tax-exempt dollars from going to terrorist organizations.
Since 2016, T'ruah has filed a series of complaints with the IRS about the Central Fund of Israel (CFI), the Charity of Light Fund, and others.
T’ruah achieved a major victory in 2016, after exposing that Honenu — a group that was giving cash payments to Israelis convicted of terrorism and to their families — was receiving tax exempt donations through the Central Fund of Israel, a U.S. foundation. The IRS investigated, and Central Fund of Israel cut off funding to Honenu until the latter ended this practice.
In 2022, we organized a letter from 19 prominent New York City rabbis to the donor-advised Jewish Communal Fund, warning them that some of their donors' money is making its way to Lehava via CFI. In the past 20 years, JCF has sent over $23 million to the Central Fund of Israel, which in turn funds groups that funnel money to Lehava, a militant offshoot of Kahane Chai, led by Kahanist Rabbi Bentzi Gopstein. As of today, the Jewish Communal Fund has not taken action to ensure their donors' money does not fund terrorism.
Bringing attention to the far-right donors in the U.S. eroding democracy in Israel
From the American billionaires behind the Kohelet Policy Forum — originator of some of Israel's most undemocratic legislation — to the powerful Miami-based Falic family, which funnels cash to Lehava, funds from individual American donors have helped to drive the current attack on Israeli democracy, including the ongoing occupation and the chipping away of basic civil rights. Read our CEO Rabbi Jill Jacobs's op-ed in The Forward:
"How did Israeli democracy come under threat? Follow the money."
Monitoring and exposing how American Jewish charities spend U.S. donor funds to promote settlement expansion and occupation.
The American arm of the Jewish National Fund, JNF-USA, is well known for planting trees in Israel. In 2015 and 2016, as part of T'ruah's successful “Transparency in Funding” (also known as “Eifo George,” after the campaign video) campaign, we produced two videos calling on the JNF-USA to be transparent about the fact that a portion of the money it raised went over the Green Line to Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
As a result of our campaign, which was covered in the
Forward,
Haaretz and elsewhere, JNF-USA began listing its funding in Israel and the West Bank in greater (although not complete) detail on
its 990 tax forms.
[parent] => 212
[count] => 21
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[5] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 267
[name] => Immigration Justice
[slug] => immigration-justice
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 267
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"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 immigrants remain far from our shared vision. While the Trump Administration’s dangerous policies were blatantly rooted in racism, xenophobia, and white supremacy, President Biden has not made the improvements our communities have demanded.
The United States must follow international human rights law when it comes to asylum seekers, refugees, and immigrants. Our government must also recognize and redress the systemic racism that permeates our immigration system, discriminating against immigrants of color.
In the fight for true immigrant justice and relief, we need all hands on deck.
Our work includes:
- Organizing clergy through our BIMA Campaign (Building Immigration Momentum & Action), encouraging rabbis and cantors to recognize how they can use their platform to change the narrative around immigration for the better
- Human rights delegations to the southern border for clergy, with our partners at HIAS
- Coalition work through the Interfaith Immigration Coalition
- Working with the All In For Registry campaign to update our immigration laws to allow millions of longtime undocumented US residents a path to permanent legal status
- Advocating to Congress and the federal government for a more humane immigration system that welcomes asylum seekers and refugees with dignity, provides legitimate pathways to citizenship for more of our neighbors, and reduces reliance on detention and deportation.
*In the Torah, the word "ger" refers to a person who came from elsewhere, but is now a long-term or permanent resident of their new community.
Partners:
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[term_id] => 212
[name] => Israel Campaigns
[slug] => israel-campaigns
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 212
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
[parent] => 0
[count] => 353
[filter] => raw
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[term_id] => 9
[name] => Mass Incarceration
[slug] => mass-incarceration
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 9
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"Exalted and High, Mighty and Awesome, You bring low the proud and lift up the fallen; You free the imprisoned, redeem the humble, and help the poor."
-Blessing after the Shema, Morning service
Mass incarceration is a racial justice issue.
We cannot achieve real change unless we recognize and name that racism is at the root of this disaster. As Bryan Stevenson puts it: "Slavery didn't end in 1865, it just evolved." Though just 5% of the world's population lives in the United States, our country imprisons 25% of the world's incarcerated people, and people of color are disproportionately targeted.
T’ruah’s campaign to end mass incarceration engages rabbis, cantors, and their communities in making concrete change locally and nationally to our broken criminal justice system. We believe that the goal of our criminal justice system should be
teshuvah, not simply punishment. We draw inspiration from Jewish legal writings that aim to create a criminal justice system rooted in dignity and justice for both perpetrator and victim.
Our work includes:
- Organizing to end prolonged solitary confinement, which international law experts have classified as torture.
- Advocating for an end to police practices that result in disproportionate stops, arrests, and deaths of people of color.
- Organizing rabbis and their communities to protest police violence and to demand full investigations in cases of killings by police officers.
- Advocating for more just sentencing policies.
- Helping Jewish communities to volunteer with incarcerated individuals and their families, employ the formerly incarcerated, and engage in local campaigns to change state criminal justice laws.
- Educating the Jewish community about why our current system of mass incarceration benefits none of us.
- Educating our communities about the intersection between the U.S.’s prison industrial complex and the detention of immigrants. See our immigration campaign for more.
Local organizing:
- In New York City, chaverim are engaged in ending all solitary confinement in city jails, and working toward the closure of Rikers Island. In Westchester, we are part of the #CommunitiesNotCages coalition to overhaul New York State’s racist and draconian sentencing laws.
- The Massachusetts T’ruah cluster is working in coalition with formerly incarcerated women and their families, who are leading the fight to pass a moratorium on new prison and jail construction in the state — stopping a $50 million proposed women’s prison and re-allocating taxpayer money to communities most affected by mass incarceration.
Partners:
[parent] => 213
[count] => 94
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[name] => Mikdash: The Jewish Sanctuary Movement
[slug] => mikdash-the-jewish-sanctuary-movement
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[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
T’ruah’s sanctuary network, Mikdash, is made up of over 70 member communities. We work as part of an interfaith network to mobilize synagogues and other Jewish communities to protect those facing deportation or other immigration challenges. By becoming part of the Mikdash network, communities pledge to take concrete actions, which may include legal support, housing, financial help, and other assistance for our friends and neighbors.
The New Sanctuary Movement — a coalition of hundreds of immigrant and faith-based organizations — works to protect and defend immigrants in the United States, especially those at risk for arrest and deportation. At T'ruah, we believe we have a moral obligation to join in their struggle, honoring the biblical injunction to "welcome the stranger" as well as the memory of Jewish refugees around the world.
With our help, Jewish communities across the United States are joining with others to take action to support and protect the vulnerable.
If your congregation is interested in learning more about becoming a sanctuary community, please contact us at office@truah.org.
[parent] => 213
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[name] => Modern Day Slavery and Human Trafficking
[slug] => slavery-and-trafficking
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[description] =>
"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, focusing on the issue of slavery in supply chains. Our work includes
- Partnering with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to expand the Fair Food Program, the most effective slavery prevention program in U.S. agriculture.
- We are the only Jewish organization that is a member of ATEST, the Alliance to End Slavery &Trafficking, the premier U.S. coalition dedicated to supporting those vulnerable to trafficking.
- Supporting federal legislation to help survivors of trafficking.
- Training more than 70 rabbis in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC to engage their communities in addressing slavery and trafficking locally.
- Co-leading the Jewish Coalition Against Trafficking, together with the National Council of Jewish Women.
- Partnering with Equal Exchange and Divine Chocolate, to encourage Jewish communities to purchase kosher Fair Trade Chanukah gelt, kosher-for-Passover chocolate, coffee, and other products.
Three thousand years after the Jewish people are said to have been liberated from slavery, and 150 years after the Civil War,
more people are enslaved today than at any other point in history.
According to the most conservative estimates of the International Labor Organization, nearly 21 million people are held in situations of forced labor today: three out of every 1,000 people in the world.
Human trafficking does not occur in a vacuum but represents the extreme end of a continuum of worker exploitation and vulnerability. We therefore support worker-led campaigns to raise wages, combat abuses, and create meaningful enforcement mechanisms to implement hard-won rights.
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[name] => North American Campaigns
[slug] => north-american-campaigns
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[parent] => 0
[count] => 384
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[name] => Plant Justice Not Settlements
[slug] => plant-justice-not-settlements
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 237
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[description] => In 2016, T’ruah
won an important victory for transparency when we persuaded the Jewish National Fund-USA to publish a list of its projects on its publicly-available tax forms for the first time.
That’s the good news. But the bad news is that we now know that JNF-USA doesn’t just plant trees in Israel, but also invests in settlements s over the Green Line, beyond Israel’s internationally recognized borders.
JNF-USA once had a
policy of not funding over the Green Line.
Please join us in demanding it return to this policy.
By supporting settlements, JNF-USA contributes to the violation of the human rights of Palestinians, and to blocking a long-term agreement that will be the only way to protect the human rights and security of both Israelis and Palestinians. Settlements limit Palestinians’ freedom of movement, take their land and destroy all hopes for a viable, sovereign and territorially contiguous Palestinian state.
The JNF-USA needs to hear from you.
Please ask JNF-USA CEO Russell Robinson today to pledge not to spend one more dollar over the Green Line.
By treating illegal settlements as if they were merely another part of Israel, JNF-USA is committing the sin of
genevat da’at, misleading people. And it is contributing to the human rights abuses and land theft the settlements cause.
As the Torah proclaims, “Damned be he who moves back the territory-marker of his neighbor!” (Deut. 37:17)
Write to JNF-USA CEO Russell Robinson
Learn more
Watch our video
Look at our map of JNF-USA projects over the Green Line
[parent] => 212
[count] => 41
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[name] => Racial Justice
[slug] => racial-justice
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[description] =>
"When the community is immersed in suffering, a person may not say: I will go to my home and I will eat and drink, and be at peace with myself."
-Taanit 11a
Racial justice is a Jewish value, and Black lives matter. Period.
Unlike the other issues T'ruah works on, the pursuit of racial justice is not a single isolated campaign, but rather a value that permeates every single one of our campaigns.
Our statement of
Commitment to Racial Justice is a manifesto intended to hold us accountable in all aspects of our work.
Some campaigns in which our commitment to racial justice is most visible are our campaigns to
end mass incarceration and
solitary confinement, which disproportionately target Black Americans and other people of color.
As we advocate for
immigrants' rights and
workers' rights, we call out the racism that brings more media attention to one group of refugees over another and which allows Americans to ignore the dangerous and degrading conditions in which workers grow the food we eat.
In our work on
antisemitism, we seek to elevate the experiences of Jews of Color, who are exposed not only to the threat of antisemitism but simultaneously face racism and other forms of bigotry.
Finally, we practice what we preach. T'ruah seeks to redress racial injustice
internally, through our ongoing Diversity Equity Inclusion and Justice initiative. In our hiring practices, compensation philosophy, harassment policy, and other workplace policies, we aspire to equity and just treatment of our employees.
Our work includes:
- Resources: We offer a variety of resources for the Jewish community – particularly white Jews – about how to most effectively be in solidarity with our Black and brown friends, family, and neighbors.
- Human rights delegations: We have brought two delegations of rabbis, cantors, and other Jewish communal leaders to the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. Through sophisticated training and experiential learning with T’ruah, Jewish clergy have learned about how the legacy of slavery and racialized violence continues to reverberate through every part of our society, and have gone home dedicated to taking action against racism.
- Educational programs: From 2021-23 we guided two cohorts through Synagogue Teams for Equity and Partnerships (STEP), a program that brought together New York-area synagogues with non-Jewish communities of color to build new relationships or deepen existing ones. Additionally, we have hosted Antiracism Communities of Practice for chaverim, and have offered multipart courses on the intersections of Antisemitism and Race for national groups.
[parent] => 213
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[term_id] => 193
[name] => Worker Justice
[slug] => worker-justice
[term_group] => 0
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[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"Great is work, as it gives honor
to the one who does it."
—Nedarim 49b
Our tradition tells us that it is a Jewish moral imperative to treat workers fairly. But we know that in this country and around the world, the workplace is often ground zero for forced labor, exploitation, wage theft, and violence – especially for members of Black, brown, and undocumented communities, as well as those with temporary work visas. From the tomato fields of Immokalee, FL, to construction sites in Brooklyn, to undocumented workers excluded from COVID benefits, T’ruah rabbis and cantors across the country are in solidarity with workers standing up for dignity, equity, and safety in their workplaces.
Our work includes:
- Solidarity with farmworkers: Since 2011, T’ruah has brought more than 100 rabbis, cantors, and lay leaders to visit the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a farmworker-led organization that is transforming the Florida tomato fields from places of modern day slavery to some of the best workplaces in U.S. agriculture. The #tomatorabbis, as members of the rabbinic delegations call themselves, have gone home to involve members of their own communities in asking major corporations to join the coalition’s Fair Food Program, which raises the wages of tomato workers and ensures fair, regulated working conditions in the fields to end the conditions that have led to widespread labor trafficking and slavery.T’ruah has worked with the coalition to bring Trader Joe’s, Ahold (Stop & Shop/Giant), and Chipotle into the Fair Food Program. We are currently organizing Jewish communities to ask Wendy’s to join 14 major corporations in doing the same, and are partnering with the coalition to expand the Fair Food Program into additional states and crops.
- Building the faith-rooted movement for worker justice: Along with organizations and networks like the Interreligious Network for Worker Solidarity, T'ruah works to bolster national advocacy and organizing that builds up the worker justice movement and aims to stop the attacks on workers coming from both legislatures and individual companies.
- Selling fairly traded chocolate for Jewish holiday celebrations: T’ruah partners with Equal Exchange and Divine Chocolate, to encourage Jewish communities to purchase kosher fairly traded Chanukah gelt, kosher-for-Passover chocolate, coffee, and other products.
Local campaigns:
T'ruah's New York City cluster is partnering with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) and the Laundry Workers Center on their Cabricanecos campaign, standing in solidarity with migrant and indigenous workers who are seeking access to safer and more equitable working conditions at job sites across Brooklyn.
Partners:
Internally, T'ruah strives to live our values around worker justice. Whenever possible, our products, including paper materials and t-shirts, are union printed, and we use a union cleaning company for our office. We aspire to equity, transparency, and dignity in all aspects of our hiring process and in how we treat our employees.
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Plant Justice Not Settlements
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[0] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 266
[name] => Democracy and Voting Rights
[slug] => democracy-and-voting-rights
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 266
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => “A ruler is not to be appointed unless the community is first consulted.”
-Babylonian Talmud Berachot 55a
Since right-wing politicians in many states are working to undermine the basic process of voting and the people’s trust in our election institutions, the work we do is crucial to securing our rights to vote and participate in the democratic process. We work to support rabbis, cantors, and the wider Jewish community in learning and taking action to protect voting rights and the integrity of the democratic process.
We also work hard to protect the values of freedom of speech. This includes the right to boycott. Regardless of whether we support the choice of whom is being boycotted, the power to speak, not just with words, but with money, is an essential right under the First Amendment.
Our work includes:
Recruiting poll chaplains to support election sites through de-escalation.
Collaborating with A More Perfect Union to support rabbis and cantors in building relationships with their local election officials, and build trust in election processes.
Creating Jewish teachings and thought leadership on democracy through Emor.
Joining interfaith partners to advocate and build support for legislation that would support, protect, and expand the right to vote.
Partners:
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights is a 501(c)(3) and does not conduct partisan political activities in support or in opposition to any political candidate.
Learn about our related work on Free Speech and the Right to Boycott.
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[1] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 217
[name] => Ending the Occupation
[slug] => ending-the-occupation
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 217
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => "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 cantors, we care deeply about Israel’s future as a Jewish, democratic state, and as a safe haven for the Jewish people, who have suffered generations of persecution with no country of our own.
At the same time, we recognize the impact and consequences of Israel’s creation for the Palestinian people, and the many decades of suffering incurred by leaders prioritizing power over people. Since 1967, Israel has maintained a violent military occupation of Palestinian land, violating the human rights of millions each day. To ensure the long-term security, dignity, and prosperity of both Israelis and Palestinians, the occupation must end.
With T’ruah’s support, courageous Jewish clergy draw attention to the injustices done in our name.
Our work includes:
Training and educating current and future American rabbis and cantors to be the moral leaders we need. Over 80% of rabbinical and cantorial students spending their required year in Israel participate in our Year-in-Israel Program, which takes students to see human rights issues with their own eyes and meet the activists working to address them
Running trips to the West Bank for ordained Jewish clergy
Providing educational programming on specific issues and bringing the voices of Israeli and Palestinian activists and human rights experts to our community
Organizing rabbis, cantors, and their communities to take action to protect democracy in Israel and to support the human rights of both Israelis and Palestinians
Partners:
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[count] => 192
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[term_order] => 7
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[2] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 253
[name] => Fighting Antisemitism
[slug] => fighting-antisemitism
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 253
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => "Love your neighbor as yourself."
-Leviticus 19:18
T'ruah is committed to standing against antisemitism in all its manifestations. As antisemitic incidents increase at an alarming rate, rabbis and cantors are often on the front lines, facing antisemitic flyering, graffiti, and vandalism; harassment and threats; and in some cases, violence. Those who wear identifiably Jewish clothing have become targets for antisemitic attacks, and the result is that Jews are increasingly concerned for their safety on the street and in the synagogue.
Education
Our approach to combatting antisemitism begins with education. It is increasingly clear that there are widespread misperceptions about antisemitism, and even about Jews and Judaism. Even among Jews, not everyone agrees on what constitutes antisemitism. Our educational resources and trainings aim to fill that gap, so that both Jews and non-Jews feel confident they can identify, name, and effectively respond to antisemitic incidents.
Fighting antisemitism in public and private
There is no one-size-fits-all response to antisemitism. While public officials must be called out for antisemitic speech, T'ruah also works privately within our coalitions and partnerships to address antisemitism — and other forms of bigotry — through conversation and education.
Valid criticism of Israel or antisemitism?
Our expertise includes defining the sometimes muddy boundary between criticism of Israel and antisemitism, which we explore in depth in our A Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism. While it is certainly true that not all criticism of Israel is antisemitic — we criticize Israel's policies every day — it is also true that criticism of Israel can sometimes devolve into antisemitism.
That said, we refuse to allow fear of antisemitism to lead us to become xenophobic or closed-off. Our approach to addressing antisemitism is deeper and broader relationships with other groups that have been marginalized, striving together towards collective liberation.
Our work includes:
- Creating educational resources for rabbis and cantors and for the public, such as our A Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism, so that Jews and non-Jews have the tools they need to better understand and recognize antisemitism when it happens.
- Delivering staff-led trainings in antisemitism for Jewish and non-Jewish organizations, as well as to elected officials.
- Developing a training in "Bystander Intervention to Stop Antisemitism" with Right To Be, so that ordinary people know how to intervene if they witness antisemitic harassment or violence. More than 700 people have completed this training.
- Advocating for sound policies that combat antisemitism and against policies that equate fighting antisemitism with suppressing criticism of Israel — policies that only make it harder to identify and stop actual antisemitism. For more on this topic, read about our campaign for Free Speech and the Right to Boycott.
- Supporting our rabbis and cantors as they encounter antisemitism in the course of their work, including through Communities of Practice, one-on-one coaching, and by creating opportunities to gain support from others in our network who have experienced similar incidents.
[parent] => 213
[count] => 35
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[term_id] => 274
[name] => Free Speech and The Right to Boycott
[slug] => free-speech-boycott-rights
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[description] =>
"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 is committed to fighting against concerted efforts to suppress free speech in the United States, including the right to boycott.
Currently,
about 35 states have passed or enacted laws or executive orders targeting boycotts of Israel and/or West Bank settlements. T’ruah does not endorse or participate in the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement; at the same time, we maintain committed to our country’s bedrock principle of free speech, including the right to economic boycott.
These anti-boycott laws are often passed under the guise of fighting antisemitism, but criticism of Israel — including in the form of a targeted boycott — is not inherently antisemitic. [For more on this, read our
Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism.]
Anti-BDS laws set a dangerous precedent. Lawmakers in several states have already begun proposing and passing copycat laws restricting the state from doing business with companies that ‘discriminate’ against firearms or ammunition manufacturers or fossil fuel companies.
The threat of these laws is only growing, and we are sounding the alarm.
Our work includes:
- T’ruah opposes legislation that seeks to prohibit the boycott of Israel and/or settlements. T’ruah – together with J Street and other partners in the Progressive Israel Network – has filed amicus briefs in cases in Texas, Georgia, and Arkansas, in which we affirm that boycotts must remain a protected form of free speech for all of us, and not be restricted by political whims, even when we personally or collectively disagree with the motivations behind those boycotts.
- In 2023, T’ruah will release a new resource for the general public laying out the harms of anti-BDS legislation. This brief guide will provide clarity around a contentious and confusing issue. We hope it will help Jewish clergy, elected officials, students, and everyone else in our community engage in critical conversations about our constitutional freedoms and efforts to limit free speech in the United States.
- We educate and empower rabbis and cantors to oppose legislation that seeks to codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism into domestic law or policy. The core IHRA definition itself is not problematic. However, the full definition includes a series of contemporary examples of antisemitism that wrongly equate what may be legitimate expressions of free speech with antisemitism — with real consequences for Palestinian rights activists, educators, human rights organizations, and others — while making it harder to fight actual antisemitism.As an organization committed to holding Israel accountable for its human rights abuses as well as to stopping antisemitism wherever it occurs, the codification of IHRA and the spread of anti-BDS laws directly endanger our work and that of our partners.
Partners
[parent] => 266
[count] => 14
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[4] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 273
[name] => Funding Transparency
[slug] => funding-transparency
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 273
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[description] =>
"These are the records of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle of the Pact, which were drawn up at Moses’ bidding..."
-Exodus 38:21
According to Midrash, after the Mishkan (Tabernacle) was completed, some Israelites accused Moses of misusing their donations. Moses’ response was a full accounting of every piece of jewelry, gold, and precious stone that the people had offered.
We should ask no less of our communal leaders today.
T’ruah seeks transparency and accountability in how U.S. donor funds are spent in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. A "follow the money" approach not only brings transparency to the foreign actors shaping realities on the ground, but has the potential to reduce the funding these groups receive and meaningfully reduce their ability to do harm.
Our work includes:
Ending tax benefits for terrorists.
T'ruah shines light on far-right American Jewish charities that fund Israeli terrorist groups — in direct violation of U.S. law, which forbids tax-exempt dollars from going to terrorist organizations.
Since 2016, T'ruah has filed a series of complaints with the IRS about the Central Fund of Israel (CFI), the Charity of Light Fund, and others.
T’ruah achieved a major victory in 2016, after exposing that Honenu — a group that was giving cash payments to Israelis convicted of terrorism and to their families — was receiving tax exempt donations through the Central Fund of Israel, a U.S. foundation. The IRS investigated, and Central Fund of Israel cut off funding to Honenu until the latter ended this practice.
In 2022, we organized a letter from 19 prominent New York City rabbis to the donor-advised Jewish Communal Fund, warning them that some of their donors' money is making its way to Lehava via CFI. In the past 20 years, JCF has sent over $23 million to the Central Fund of Israel, which in turn funds groups that funnel money to Lehava, a militant offshoot of Kahane Chai, led by Kahanist Rabbi Bentzi Gopstein. As of today, the Jewish Communal Fund has not taken action to ensure their donors' money does not fund terrorism.
Bringing attention to the far-right donors in the U.S. eroding democracy in Israel
From the American billionaires behind the Kohelet Policy Forum — originator of some of Israel's most undemocratic legislation — to the powerful Miami-based Falic family, which funnels cash to Lehava, funds from individual American donors have helped to drive the current attack on Israeli democracy, including the ongoing occupation and the chipping away of basic civil rights. Read our CEO Rabbi Jill Jacobs's op-ed in The Forward:
"How did Israeli democracy come under threat? Follow the money."
Monitoring and exposing how American Jewish charities spend U.S. donor funds to promote settlement expansion and occupation.
The American arm of the Jewish National Fund, JNF-USA, is well known for planting trees in Israel. In 2015 and 2016, as part of T'ruah's successful “Transparency in Funding” (also known as “Eifo George,” after the campaign video) campaign, we produced two videos calling on the JNF-USA to be transparent about the fact that a portion of the money it raised went over the Green Line to Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
As a result of our campaign, which was covered in the
Forward,
Haaretz and elsewhere, JNF-USA began listing its funding in Israel and the West Bank in greater (although not complete) detail on
its 990 tax forms.
[parent] => 212
[count] => 21
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[5] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 267
[name] => Immigration Justice
[slug] => immigration-justice
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 267
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"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 immigrants remain far from our shared vision. While the Trump Administration’s dangerous policies were blatantly rooted in racism, xenophobia, and white supremacy, President Biden has not made the improvements our communities have demanded.
The United States must follow international human rights law when it comes to asylum seekers, refugees, and immigrants. Our government must also recognize and redress the systemic racism that permeates our immigration system, discriminating against immigrants of color.
In the fight for true immigrant justice and relief, we need all hands on deck.
Our work includes:
- Organizing clergy through our BIMA Campaign (Building Immigration Momentum & Action), encouraging rabbis and cantors to recognize how they can use their platform to change the narrative around immigration for the better
- Human rights delegations to the southern border for clergy, with our partners at HIAS
- Coalition work through the Interfaith Immigration Coalition
- Working with the All In For Registry campaign to update our immigration laws to allow millions of longtime undocumented US residents a path to permanent legal status
- Advocating to Congress and the federal government for a more humane immigration system that welcomes asylum seekers and refugees with dignity, provides legitimate pathways to citizenship for more of our neighbors, and reduces reliance on detention and deportation.
*In the Torah, the word "ger" refers to a person who came from elsewhere, but is now a long-term or permanent resident of their new community.
Partners:
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[term_id] => 212
[name] => Israel Campaigns
[slug] => israel-campaigns
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 212
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
[parent] => 0
[count] => 353
[filter] => raw
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[7] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 9
[name] => Mass Incarceration
[slug] => mass-incarceration
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 9
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[description] =>
"Exalted and High, Mighty and Awesome, You bring low the proud and lift up the fallen; You free the imprisoned, redeem the humble, and help the poor."
-Blessing after the Shema, Morning service
Mass incarceration is a racial justice issue.
We cannot achieve real change unless we recognize and name that racism is at the root of this disaster. As Bryan Stevenson puts it: "Slavery didn't end in 1865, it just evolved." Though just 5% of the world's population lives in the United States, our country imprisons 25% of the world's incarcerated people, and people of color are disproportionately targeted.
T’ruah’s campaign to end mass incarceration engages rabbis, cantors, and their communities in making concrete change locally and nationally to our broken criminal justice system. We believe that the goal of our criminal justice system should be
teshuvah, not simply punishment. We draw inspiration from Jewish legal writings that aim to create a criminal justice system rooted in dignity and justice for both perpetrator and victim.
Our work includes:
- Organizing to end prolonged solitary confinement, which international law experts have classified as torture.
- Advocating for an end to police practices that result in disproportionate stops, arrests, and deaths of people of color.
- Organizing rabbis and their communities to protest police violence and to demand full investigations in cases of killings by police officers.
- Advocating for more just sentencing policies.
- Helping Jewish communities to volunteer with incarcerated individuals and their families, employ the formerly incarcerated, and engage in local campaigns to change state criminal justice laws.
- Educating the Jewish community about why our current system of mass incarceration benefits none of us.
- Educating our communities about the intersection between the U.S.’s prison industrial complex and the detention of immigrants. See our immigration campaign for more.
Local organizing:
- In New York City, chaverim are engaged in ending all solitary confinement in city jails, and working toward the closure of Rikers Island. In Westchester, we are part of the #CommunitiesNotCages coalition to overhaul New York State’s racist and draconian sentencing laws.
- The Massachusetts T’ruah cluster is working in coalition with formerly incarcerated women and their families, who are leading the fight to pass a moratorium on new prison and jail construction in the state — stopping a $50 million proposed women’s prison and re-allocating taxpayer money to communities most affected by mass incarceration.
Partners:
[parent] => 213
[count] => 94
[filter] => raw
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[8] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 214
[name] => Mikdash: The Jewish Sanctuary Movement
[slug] => mikdash-the-jewish-sanctuary-movement
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 214
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
T’ruah’s sanctuary network, Mikdash, is made up of over 70 member communities. We work as part of an interfaith network to mobilize synagogues and other Jewish communities to protect those facing deportation or other immigration challenges. By becoming part of the Mikdash network, communities pledge to take concrete actions, which may include legal support, housing, financial help, and other assistance for our friends and neighbors.
The New Sanctuary Movement — a coalition of hundreds of immigrant and faith-based organizations — works to protect and defend immigrants in the United States, especially those at risk for arrest and deportation. At T'ruah, we believe we have a moral obligation to join in their struggle, honoring the biblical injunction to "welcome the stranger" as well as the memory of Jewish refugees around the world.
With our help, Jewish communities across the United States are joining with others to take action to support and protect the vulnerable.
If your congregation is interested in learning more about becoming a sanctuary community, please contact us at office@truah.org.
[parent] => 213
[count] => 179
[filter] => raw
[term_order] => 9
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[9] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 10
[name] => Modern Day Slavery and Human Trafficking
[slug] => slavery-and-trafficking
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 10
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"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, focusing on the issue of slavery in supply chains. Our work includes
- Partnering with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to expand the Fair Food Program, the most effective slavery prevention program in U.S. agriculture.
- We are the only Jewish organization that is a member of ATEST, the Alliance to End Slavery &Trafficking, the premier U.S. coalition dedicated to supporting those vulnerable to trafficking.
- Supporting federal legislation to help survivors of trafficking.
- Training more than 70 rabbis in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC to engage their communities in addressing slavery and trafficking locally.
- Co-leading the Jewish Coalition Against Trafficking, together with the National Council of Jewish Women.
- Partnering with Equal Exchange and Divine Chocolate, to encourage Jewish communities to purchase kosher Fair Trade Chanukah gelt, kosher-for-Passover chocolate, coffee, and other products.
Three thousand years after the Jewish people are said to have been liberated from slavery, and 150 years after the Civil War,
more people are enslaved today than at any other point in history.
According to the most conservative estimates of the International Labor Organization, nearly 21 million people are held in situations of forced labor today: three out of every 1,000 people in the world.
Human trafficking does not occur in a vacuum but represents the extreme end of a continuum of worker exploitation and vulnerability. We therefore support worker-led campaigns to raise wages, combat abuses, and create meaningful enforcement mechanisms to implement hard-won rights.
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[name] => North American Campaigns
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[name] => Plant Justice Not Settlements
[slug] => plant-justice-not-settlements
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 237
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[description] => In 2016, T’ruah
won an important victory for transparency when we persuaded the Jewish National Fund-USA to publish a list of its projects on its publicly-available tax forms for the first time.
That’s the good news. But the bad news is that we now know that JNF-USA doesn’t just plant trees in Israel, but also invests in settlements s over the Green Line, beyond Israel’s internationally recognized borders.
JNF-USA once had a
policy of not funding over the Green Line.
Please join us in demanding it return to this policy.
By supporting settlements, JNF-USA contributes to the violation of the human rights of Palestinians, and to blocking a long-term agreement that will be the only way to protect the human rights and security of both Israelis and Palestinians. Settlements limit Palestinians’ freedom of movement, take their land and destroy all hopes for a viable, sovereign and territorially contiguous Palestinian state.
The JNF-USA needs to hear from you.
Please ask JNF-USA CEO Russell Robinson today to pledge not to spend one more dollar over the Green Line.
By treating illegal settlements as if they were merely another part of Israel, JNF-USA is committing the sin of
genevat da’at, misleading people. And it is contributing to the human rights abuses and land theft the settlements cause.
As the Torah proclaims, “Damned be he who moves back the territory-marker of his neighbor!” (Deut. 37:17)
Write to JNF-USA CEO Russell Robinson
Learn more
Watch our video
Look at our map of JNF-USA projects over the Green Line
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[name] => Racial Justice
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"When the community is immersed in suffering, a person may not say: I will go to my home and I will eat and drink, and be at peace with myself."
-Taanit 11a
Racial justice is a Jewish value, and Black lives matter. Period.
Unlike the other issues T'ruah works on, the pursuit of racial justice is not a single isolated campaign, but rather a value that permeates every single one of our campaigns.
Our statement of
Commitment to Racial Justice is a manifesto intended to hold us accountable in all aspects of our work.
Some campaigns in which our commitment to racial justice is most visible are our campaigns to
end mass incarceration and
solitary confinement, which disproportionately target Black Americans and other people of color.
As we advocate for
immigrants' rights and
workers' rights, we call out the racism that brings more media attention to one group of refugees over another and which allows Americans to ignore the dangerous and degrading conditions in which workers grow the food we eat.
In our work on
antisemitism, we seek to elevate the experiences of Jews of Color, who are exposed not only to the threat of antisemitism but simultaneously face racism and other forms of bigotry.
Finally, we practice what we preach. T'ruah seeks to redress racial injustice
internally, through our ongoing Diversity Equity Inclusion and Justice initiative. In our hiring practices, compensation philosophy, harassment policy, and other workplace policies, we aspire to equity and just treatment of our employees.
Our work includes:
- Resources: We offer a variety of resources for the Jewish community – particularly white Jews – about how to most effectively be in solidarity with our Black and brown friends, family, and neighbors.
- Human rights delegations: We have brought two delegations of rabbis, cantors, and other Jewish communal leaders to the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. Through sophisticated training and experiential learning with T’ruah, Jewish clergy have learned about how the legacy of slavery and racialized violence continues to reverberate through every part of our society, and have gone home dedicated to taking action against racism.
- Educational programs: From 2021-23 we guided two cohorts through Synagogue Teams for Equity and Partnerships (STEP), a program that brought together New York-area synagogues with non-Jewish communities of color to build new relationships or deepen existing ones. Additionally, we have hosted Antiracism Communities of Practice for chaverim, and have offered multipart courses on the intersections of Antisemitism and Race for national groups.
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[name] => Worker Justice
[slug] => worker-justice
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[description] =>
"Great is work, as it gives honor
to the one who does it."
—Nedarim 49b
Our tradition tells us that it is a Jewish moral imperative to treat workers fairly. But we know that in this country and around the world, the workplace is often ground zero for forced labor, exploitation, wage theft, and violence – especially for members of Black, brown, and undocumented communities, as well as those with temporary work visas. From the tomato fields of Immokalee, FL, to construction sites in Brooklyn, to undocumented workers excluded from COVID benefits, T’ruah rabbis and cantors across the country are in solidarity with workers standing up for dignity, equity, and safety in their workplaces.
Our work includes:
- Solidarity with farmworkers: Since 2011, T’ruah has brought more than 100 rabbis, cantors, and lay leaders to visit the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a farmworker-led organization that is transforming the Florida tomato fields from places of modern day slavery to some of the best workplaces in U.S. agriculture. The #tomatorabbis, as members of the rabbinic delegations call themselves, have gone home to involve members of their own communities in asking major corporations to join the coalition’s Fair Food Program, which raises the wages of tomato workers and ensures fair, regulated working conditions in the fields to end the conditions that have led to widespread labor trafficking and slavery.T’ruah has worked with the coalition to bring Trader Joe’s, Ahold (Stop & Shop/Giant), and Chipotle into the Fair Food Program. We are currently organizing Jewish communities to ask Wendy’s to join 14 major corporations in doing the same, and are partnering with the coalition to expand the Fair Food Program into additional states and crops.
- Building the faith-rooted movement for worker justice: Along with organizations and networks like the Interreligious Network for Worker Solidarity, T'ruah works to bolster national advocacy and organizing that builds up the worker justice movement and aims to stop the attacks on workers coming from both legislatures and individual companies.
- Selling fairly traded chocolate for Jewish holiday celebrations: T’ruah partners with Equal Exchange and Divine Chocolate, to encourage Jewish communities to purchase kosher fairly traded Chanukah gelt, kosher-for-Passover chocolate, coffee, and other products.
Local campaigns:
T'ruah's New York City cluster is partnering with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) and the Laundry Workers Center on their Cabricanecos campaign, standing in solidarity with migrant and indigenous workers who are seeking access to safer and more equitable working conditions at job sites across Brooklyn.
Partners:
Internally, T'ruah strives to live our values around worker justice. Whenever possible, our products, including paper materials and t-shirts, are union printed, and we use a union cleaning company for our office. We aspire to equity, transparency, and dignity in all aspects of our hiring process and in how we treat our employees.
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[term_id] => 266
[name] => Democracy and Voting Rights
[slug] => democracy-and-voting-rights
[term_group] => 0
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[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => “A ruler is not to be appointed unless the community is first consulted.”
-Babylonian Talmud Berachot 55a
Since right-wing politicians in many states are working to undermine the basic process of voting and the people’s trust in our election institutions, the work we do is crucial to securing our rights to vote and participate in the democratic process. We work to support rabbis, cantors, and the wider Jewish community in learning and taking action to protect voting rights and the integrity of the democratic process.
We also work hard to protect the values of freedom of speech. This includes the right to boycott. Regardless of whether we support the choice of whom is being boycotted, the power to speak, not just with words, but with money, is an essential right under the First Amendment.
Our work includes:
Recruiting poll chaplains to support election sites through de-escalation.
Collaborating with A More Perfect Union to support rabbis and cantors in building relationships with their local election officials, and build trust in election processes.
Creating Jewish teachings and thought leadership on democracy through Emor.
Joining interfaith partners to advocate and build support for legislation that would support, protect, and expand the right to vote.
Partners:
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights is a 501(c)(3) and does not conduct partisan political activities in support or in opposition to any political candidate.
Learn about our related work on Free Speech and the Right to Boycott.
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[name] => Ending the Occupation
[slug] => ending-the-occupation
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 217
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => "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 cantors, we care deeply about Israel’s future as a Jewish, democratic state, and as a safe haven for the Jewish people, who have suffered generations of persecution with no country of our own.
At the same time, we recognize the impact and consequences of Israel’s creation for the Palestinian people, and the many decades of suffering incurred by leaders prioritizing power over people. Since 1967, Israel has maintained a violent military occupation of Palestinian land, violating the human rights of millions each day. To ensure the long-term security, dignity, and prosperity of both Israelis and Palestinians, the occupation must end.
With T’ruah’s support, courageous Jewish clergy draw attention to the injustices done in our name.
Our work includes:
Training and educating current and future American rabbis and cantors to be the moral leaders we need. Over 80% of rabbinical and cantorial students spending their required year in Israel participate in our Year-in-Israel Program, which takes students to see human rights issues with their own eyes and meet the activists working to address them
Running trips to the West Bank for ordained Jewish clergy
Providing educational programming on specific issues and bringing the voices of Israeli and Palestinian activists and human rights experts to our community
Organizing rabbis, cantors, and their communities to take action to protect democracy in Israel and to support the human rights of both Israelis and Palestinians
Partners:
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[term_id] => 253
[name] => Fighting Antisemitism
[slug] => fighting-antisemitism
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[term_taxonomy_id] => 253
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[description] => "Love your neighbor as yourself."
-Leviticus 19:18
T'ruah is committed to standing against antisemitism in all its manifestations. As antisemitic incidents increase at an alarming rate, rabbis and cantors are often on the front lines, facing antisemitic flyering, graffiti, and vandalism; harassment and threats; and in some cases, violence. Those who wear identifiably Jewish clothing have become targets for antisemitic attacks, and the result is that Jews are increasingly concerned for their safety on the street and in the synagogue.
Education
Our approach to combatting antisemitism begins with education. It is increasingly clear that there are widespread misperceptions about antisemitism, and even about Jews and Judaism. Even among Jews, not everyone agrees on what constitutes antisemitism. Our educational resources and trainings aim to fill that gap, so that both Jews and non-Jews feel confident they can identify, name, and effectively respond to antisemitic incidents.
Fighting antisemitism in public and private
There is no one-size-fits-all response to antisemitism. While public officials must be called out for antisemitic speech, T'ruah also works privately within our coalitions and partnerships to address antisemitism — and other forms of bigotry — through conversation and education.
Valid criticism of Israel or antisemitism?
Our expertise includes defining the sometimes muddy boundary between criticism of Israel and antisemitism, which we explore in depth in our A Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism. While it is certainly true that not all criticism of Israel is antisemitic — we criticize Israel's policies every day — it is also true that criticism of Israel can sometimes devolve into antisemitism.
That said, we refuse to allow fear of antisemitism to lead us to become xenophobic or closed-off. Our approach to addressing antisemitism is deeper and broader relationships with other groups that have been marginalized, striving together towards collective liberation.
Our work includes:
- Creating educational resources for rabbis and cantors and for the public, such as our A Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism, so that Jews and non-Jews have the tools they need to better understand and recognize antisemitism when it happens.
- Delivering staff-led trainings in antisemitism for Jewish and non-Jewish organizations, as well as to elected officials.
- Developing a training in "Bystander Intervention to Stop Antisemitism" with Right To Be, so that ordinary people know how to intervene if they witness antisemitic harassment or violence. More than 700 people have completed this training.
- Advocating for sound policies that combat antisemitism and against policies that equate fighting antisemitism with suppressing criticism of Israel — policies that only make it harder to identify and stop actual antisemitism. For more on this topic, read about our campaign for Free Speech and the Right to Boycott.
- Supporting our rabbis and cantors as they encounter antisemitism in the course of their work, including through Communities of Practice, one-on-one coaching, and by creating opportunities to gain support from others in our network who have experienced similar incidents.
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[term_id] => 274
[name] => Free Speech and The Right to Boycott
[slug] => free-speech-boycott-rights
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"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 is committed to fighting against concerted efforts to suppress free speech in the United States, including the right to boycott.
Currently,
about 35 states have passed or enacted laws or executive orders targeting boycotts of Israel and/or West Bank settlements. T’ruah does not endorse or participate in the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement; at the same time, we maintain committed to our country’s bedrock principle of free speech, including the right to economic boycott.
These anti-boycott laws are often passed under the guise of fighting antisemitism, but criticism of Israel — including in the form of a targeted boycott — is not inherently antisemitic. [For more on this, read our
Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism.]
Anti-BDS laws set a dangerous precedent. Lawmakers in several states have already begun proposing and passing copycat laws restricting the state from doing business with companies that ‘discriminate’ against firearms or ammunition manufacturers or fossil fuel companies.
The threat of these laws is only growing, and we are sounding the alarm.
Our work includes:
- T’ruah opposes legislation that seeks to prohibit the boycott of Israel and/or settlements. T’ruah – together with J Street and other partners in the Progressive Israel Network – has filed amicus briefs in cases in Texas, Georgia, and Arkansas, in which we affirm that boycotts must remain a protected form of free speech for all of us, and not be restricted by political whims, even when we personally or collectively disagree with the motivations behind those boycotts.
- In 2023, T’ruah will release a new resource for the general public laying out the harms of anti-BDS legislation. This brief guide will provide clarity around a contentious and confusing issue. We hope it will help Jewish clergy, elected officials, students, and everyone else in our community engage in critical conversations about our constitutional freedoms and efforts to limit free speech in the United States.
- We educate and empower rabbis and cantors to oppose legislation that seeks to codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism into domestic law or policy. The core IHRA definition itself is not problematic. However, the full definition includes a series of contemporary examples of antisemitism that wrongly equate what may be legitimate expressions of free speech with antisemitism — with real consequences for Palestinian rights activists, educators, human rights organizations, and others — while making it harder to fight actual antisemitism.As an organization committed to holding Israel accountable for its human rights abuses as well as to stopping antisemitism wherever it occurs, the codification of IHRA and the spread of anti-BDS laws directly endanger our work and that of our partners.
Partners
[parent] => 266
[count] => 14
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[4] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 273
[name] => Funding Transparency
[slug] => funding-transparency
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[description] =>
"These are the records of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle of the Pact, which were drawn up at Moses’ bidding..."
-Exodus 38:21
According to Midrash, after the Mishkan (Tabernacle) was completed, some Israelites accused Moses of misusing their donations. Moses’ response was a full accounting of every piece of jewelry, gold, and precious stone that the people had offered.
We should ask no less of our communal leaders today.
T’ruah seeks transparency and accountability in how U.S. donor funds are spent in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. A "follow the money" approach not only brings transparency to the foreign actors shaping realities on the ground, but has the potential to reduce the funding these groups receive and meaningfully reduce their ability to do harm.
Our work includes:
Ending tax benefits for terrorists.
T'ruah shines light on far-right American Jewish charities that fund Israeli terrorist groups — in direct violation of U.S. law, which forbids tax-exempt dollars from going to terrorist organizations.
Since 2016, T'ruah has filed a series of complaints with the IRS about the Central Fund of Israel (CFI), the Charity of Light Fund, and others.
T’ruah achieved a major victory in 2016, after exposing that Honenu — a group that was giving cash payments to Israelis convicted of terrorism and to their families — was receiving tax exempt donations through the Central Fund of Israel, a U.S. foundation. The IRS investigated, and Central Fund of Israel cut off funding to Honenu until the latter ended this practice.
In 2022, we organized a letter from 19 prominent New York City rabbis to the donor-advised Jewish Communal Fund, warning them that some of their donors' money is making its way to Lehava via CFI. In the past 20 years, JCF has sent over $23 million to the Central Fund of Israel, which in turn funds groups that funnel money to Lehava, a militant offshoot of Kahane Chai, led by Kahanist Rabbi Bentzi Gopstein. As of today, the Jewish Communal Fund has not taken action to ensure their donors' money does not fund terrorism.
Bringing attention to the far-right donors in the U.S. eroding democracy in Israel
From the American billionaires behind the Kohelet Policy Forum — originator of some of Israel's most undemocratic legislation — to the powerful Miami-based Falic family, which funnels cash to Lehava, funds from individual American donors have helped to drive the current attack on Israeli democracy, including the ongoing occupation and the chipping away of basic civil rights. Read our CEO Rabbi Jill Jacobs's op-ed in The Forward:
"How did Israeli democracy come under threat? Follow the money."
Monitoring and exposing how American Jewish charities spend U.S. donor funds to promote settlement expansion and occupation.
The American arm of the Jewish National Fund, JNF-USA, is well known for planting trees in Israel. In 2015 and 2016, as part of T'ruah's successful “Transparency in Funding” (also known as “Eifo George,” after the campaign video) campaign, we produced two videos calling on the JNF-USA to be transparent about the fact that a portion of the money it raised went over the Green Line to Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
As a result of our campaign, which was covered in the
Forward,
Haaretz and elsewhere, JNF-USA began listing its funding in Israel and the West Bank in greater (although not complete) detail on
its 990 tax forms.
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[count] => 21
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[5] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 267
[name] => Immigration Justice
[slug] => immigration-justice
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[description] =>
"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 immigrants remain far from our shared vision. While the Trump Administration’s dangerous policies were blatantly rooted in racism, xenophobia, and white supremacy, President Biden has not made the improvements our communities have demanded.
The United States must follow international human rights law when it comes to asylum seekers, refugees, and immigrants. Our government must also recognize and redress the systemic racism that permeates our immigration system, discriminating against immigrants of color.
In the fight for true immigrant justice and relief, we need all hands on deck.
Our work includes:
- Organizing clergy through our BIMA Campaign (Building Immigration Momentum & Action), encouraging rabbis and cantors to recognize how they can use their platform to change the narrative around immigration for the better
- Human rights delegations to the southern border for clergy, with our partners at HIAS
- Coalition work through the Interfaith Immigration Coalition
- Working with the All In For Registry campaign to update our immigration laws to allow millions of longtime undocumented US residents a path to permanent legal status
- Advocating to Congress and the federal government for a more humane immigration system that welcomes asylum seekers and refugees with dignity, provides legitimate pathways to citizenship for more of our neighbors, and reduces reliance on detention and deportation.
*In the Torah, the word "ger" refers to a person who came from elsewhere, but is now a long-term or permanent resident of their new community.
Partners:
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[name] => Israel Campaigns
[slug] => israel-campaigns
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[parent] => 0
[count] => 353
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[term_id] => 9
[name] => Mass Incarceration
[slug] => mass-incarceration
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 9
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[description] =>
"Exalted and High, Mighty and Awesome, You bring low the proud and lift up the fallen; You free the imprisoned, redeem the humble, and help the poor."
-Blessing after the Shema, Morning service
Mass incarceration is a racial justice issue.
We cannot achieve real change unless we recognize and name that racism is at the root of this disaster. As Bryan Stevenson puts it: "Slavery didn't end in 1865, it just evolved." Though just 5% of the world's population lives in the United States, our country imprisons 25% of the world's incarcerated people, and people of color are disproportionately targeted.
T’ruah’s campaign to end mass incarceration engages rabbis, cantors, and their communities in making concrete change locally and nationally to our broken criminal justice system. We believe that the goal of our criminal justice system should be
teshuvah, not simply punishment. We draw inspiration from Jewish legal writings that aim to create a criminal justice system rooted in dignity and justice for both perpetrator and victim.
Our work includes:
- Organizing to end prolonged solitary confinement, which international law experts have classified as torture.
- Advocating for an end to police practices that result in disproportionate stops, arrests, and deaths of people of color.
- Organizing rabbis and their communities to protest police violence and to demand full investigations in cases of killings by police officers.
- Advocating for more just sentencing policies.
- Helping Jewish communities to volunteer with incarcerated individuals and their families, employ the formerly incarcerated, and engage in local campaigns to change state criminal justice laws.
- Educating the Jewish community about why our current system of mass incarceration benefits none of us.
- Educating our communities about the intersection between the U.S.’s prison industrial complex and the detention of immigrants. See our immigration campaign for more.
Local organizing:
- In New York City, chaverim are engaged in ending all solitary confinement in city jails, and working toward the closure of Rikers Island. In Westchester, we are part of the #CommunitiesNotCages coalition to overhaul New York State’s racist and draconian sentencing laws.
- The Massachusetts T’ruah cluster is working in coalition with formerly incarcerated women and their families, who are leading the fight to pass a moratorium on new prison and jail construction in the state — stopping a $50 million proposed women’s prison and re-allocating taxpayer money to communities most affected by mass incarceration.
Partners:
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[name] => Mikdash: The Jewish Sanctuary Movement
[slug] => mikdash-the-jewish-sanctuary-movement
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[description] =>
T’ruah’s sanctuary network, Mikdash, is made up of over 70 member communities. We work as part of an interfaith network to mobilize synagogues and other Jewish communities to protect those facing deportation or other immigration challenges. By becoming part of the Mikdash network, communities pledge to take concrete actions, which may include legal support, housing, financial help, and other assistance for our friends and neighbors.
The New Sanctuary Movement — a coalition of hundreds of immigrant and faith-based organizations — works to protect and defend immigrants in the United States, especially those at risk for arrest and deportation. At T'ruah, we believe we have a moral obligation to join in their struggle, honoring the biblical injunction to "welcome the stranger" as well as the memory of Jewish refugees around the world.
With our help, Jewish communities across the United States are joining with others to take action to support and protect the vulnerable.
If your congregation is interested in learning more about becoming a sanctuary community, please contact us at office@truah.org.
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[term_id] => 10
[name] => Modern Day Slavery and Human Trafficking
[slug] => slavery-and-trafficking
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[description] =>
"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, focusing on the issue of slavery in supply chains. Our work includes
- Partnering with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to expand the Fair Food Program, the most effective slavery prevention program in U.S. agriculture.
- We are the only Jewish organization that is a member of ATEST, the Alliance to End Slavery &Trafficking, the premier U.S. coalition dedicated to supporting those vulnerable to trafficking.
- Supporting federal legislation to help survivors of trafficking.
- Training more than 70 rabbis in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC to engage their communities in addressing slavery and trafficking locally.
- Co-leading the Jewish Coalition Against Trafficking, together with the National Council of Jewish Women.
- Partnering with Equal Exchange and Divine Chocolate, to encourage Jewish communities to purchase kosher Fair Trade Chanukah gelt, kosher-for-Passover chocolate, coffee, and other products.
Three thousand years after the Jewish people are said to have been liberated from slavery, and 150 years after the Civil War,
more people are enslaved today than at any other point in history.
According to the most conservative estimates of the International Labor Organization, nearly 21 million people are held in situations of forced labor today: three out of every 1,000 people in the world.
Human trafficking does not occur in a vacuum but represents the extreme end of a continuum of worker exploitation and vulnerability. We therefore support worker-led campaigns to raise wages, combat abuses, and create meaningful enforcement mechanisms to implement hard-won rights.
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[name] => North American Campaigns
[slug] => north-american-campaigns
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[term_id] => 237
[name] => Plant Justice Not Settlements
[slug] => plant-justice-not-settlements
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 237
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] => In 2016, T’ruah
won an important victory for transparency when we persuaded the Jewish National Fund-USA to publish a list of its projects on its publicly-available tax forms for the first time.
That’s the good news. But the bad news is that we now know that JNF-USA doesn’t just plant trees in Israel, but also invests in settlements s over the Green Line, beyond Israel’s internationally recognized borders.
JNF-USA once had a
policy of not funding over the Green Line.
Please join us in demanding it return to this policy.
By supporting settlements, JNF-USA contributes to the violation of the human rights of Palestinians, and to blocking a long-term agreement that will be the only way to protect the human rights and security of both Israelis and Palestinians. Settlements limit Palestinians’ freedom of movement, take their land and destroy all hopes for a viable, sovereign and territorially contiguous Palestinian state.
The JNF-USA needs to hear from you.
Please ask JNF-USA CEO Russell Robinson today to pledge not to spend one more dollar over the Green Line.
By treating illegal settlements as if they were merely another part of Israel, JNF-USA is committing the sin of
genevat da’at, misleading people. And it is contributing to the human rights abuses and land theft the settlements cause.
As the Torah proclaims, “Damned be he who moves back the territory-marker of his neighbor!” (Deut. 37:17)
Write to JNF-USA CEO Russell Robinson
Learn more
Watch our video
Look at our map of JNF-USA projects over the Green Line
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[12] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 263
[name] => Racial Justice
[slug] => racial-justice
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 263
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"When the community is immersed in suffering, a person may not say: I will go to my home and I will eat and drink, and be at peace with myself."
-Taanit 11a
Racial justice is a Jewish value, and Black lives matter. Period.
Unlike the other issues T'ruah works on, the pursuit of racial justice is not a single isolated campaign, but rather a value that permeates every single one of our campaigns.
Our statement of
Commitment to Racial Justice is a manifesto intended to hold us accountable in all aspects of our work.
Some campaigns in which our commitment to racial justice is most visible are our campaigns to
end mass incarceration and
solitary confinement, which disproportionately target Black Americans and other people of color.
As we advocate for
immigrants' rights and
workers' rights, we call out the racism that brings more media attention to one group of refugees over another and which allows Americans to ignore the dangerous and degrading conditions in which workers grow the food we eat.
In our work on
antisemitism, we seek to elevate the experiences of Jews of Color, who are exposed not only to the threat of antisemitism but simultaneously face racism and other forms of bigotry.
Finally, we practice what we preach. T'ruah seeks to redress racial injustice
internally, through our ongoing Diversity Equity Inclusion and Justice initiative. In our hiring practices, compensation philosophy, harassment policy, and other workplace policies, we aspire to equity and just treatment of our employees.
Our work includes:
- Resources: We offer a variety of resources for the Jewish community – particularly white Jews – about how to most effectively be in solidarity with our Black and brown friends, family, and neighbors.
- Human rights delegations: We have brought two delegations of rabbis, cantors, and other Jewish communal leaders to the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. Through sophisticated training and experiential learning with T’ruah, Jewish clergy have learned about how the legacy of slavery and racialized violence continues to reverberate through every part of our society, and have gone home dedicated to taking action against racism.
- Educational programs: From 2021-23 we guided two cohorts through Synagogue Teams for Equity and Partnerships (STEP), a program that brought together New York-area synagogues with non-Jewish communities of color to build new relationships or deepen existing ones. Additionally, we have hosted Antiracism Communities of Practice for chaverim, and have offered multipart courses on the intersections of Antisemitism and Race for national groups.
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[13] => WP_Term Object
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[term_id] => 193
[name] => Worker Justice
[slug] => worker-justice
[term_group] => 0
[term_taxonomy_id] => 193
[taxonomy] => campaign
[description] =>
"Great is work, as it gives honor
to the one who does it."
—Nedarim 49b
Our tradition tells us that it is a Jewish moral imperative to treat workers fairly. But we know that in this country and around the world, the workplace is often ground zero for forced labor, exploitation, wage theft, and violence – especially for members of Black, brown, and undocumented communities, as well as those with temporary work visas. From the tomato fields of Immokalee, FL, to construction sites in Brooklyn, to undocumented workers excluded from COVID benefits, T’ruah rabbis and cantors across the country are in solidarity with workers standing up for dignity, equity, and safety in their workplaces.
Our work includes:
- Solidarity with farmworkers: Since 2011, T’ruah has brought more than 100 rabbis, cantors, and lay leaders to visit the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a farmworker-led organization that is transforming the Florida tomato fields from places of modern day slavery to some of the best workplaces in U.S. agriculture. The #tomatorabbis, as members of the rabbinic delegations call themselves, have gone home to involve members of their own communities in asking major corporations to join the coalition’s Fair Food Program, which raises the wages of tomato workers and ensures fair, regulated working conditions in the fields to end the conditions that have led to widespread labor trafficking and slavery.T’ruah has worked with the coalition to bring Trader Joe’s, Ahold (Stop & Shop/Giant), and Chipotle into the Fair Food Program. We are currently organizing Jewish communities to ask Wendy’s to join 14 major corporations in doing the same, and are partnering with the coalition to expand the Fair Food Program into additional states and crops.
- Building the faith-rooted movement for worker justice: Along with organizations and networks like the Interreligious Network for Worker Solidarity, T'ruah works to bolster national advocacy and organizing that builds up the worker justice movement and aims to stop the attacks on workers coming from both legislatures and individual companies.
- Selling fairly traded chocolate for Jewish holiday celebrations: T’ruah partners with Equal Exchange and Divine Chocolate, to encourage Jewish communities to purchase kosher fairly traded Chanukah gelt, kosher-for-Passover chocolate, coffee, and other products.
Local campaigns:
T'ruah's New York City cluster is partnering with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) and the Laundry Workers Center on their Cabricanecos campaign, standing in solidarity with migrant and indigenous workers who are seeking access to safer and more equitable working conditions at job sites across Brooklyn.
Partners:
Internally, T'ruah strives to live our values around worker justice. Whenever possible, our products, including paper materials and t-shirts, are union printed, and we use a union cleaning company for our office. We aspire to equity, transparency, and dignity in all aspects of our hiring process and in how we treat our employees.
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1
Worker Justice