NEW YORK – Following the death of Tyre Nichols at the hands of Memphis police, T’ruah, a rabbinic human rights organization representing over 2,300 rabbis and cantors in the US and Canada, mourned his death and called for justice.
In a statement, Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of T’ruah, said:
“T’ruah mourns the murder of Tyre Nichols by Memphis police officers. Tyre Nichols was a young Black father and photographer who was on his way home from taking pictures when police officers pulled him over in a traffic stop, minutes away from his home, and brutally beat him, causing fatal injuries. This latest incident of police violence is heartbreaking, yet not surprising, within an unjust system of policing that disproportionately targets Black people and other people of color, too often leading to serious injury or death. The abuse of power by the police officers involved shows a disturbing disregard for human dignity.
“Though some will suggest the race of the majority of officers in this case proves racism wasn’t a factor, the reality is that the institution of policing itself is rooted in white supremacy and has a long history of racism — from 18th century Southern slave patrols to the 20th century enforcement of Jim Crow laws, and through the targeting of Black and brown people for police stops in the 21st century.
“Despite promises from elected officials, police violence remains a major issue, especially in Black, brown, and poor communities. Just a week after Nichols died and a few hundred miles away, a Georgia state trooper murdered Manuel “Tortuguita” Teran, an environmental activist protesting the destruction of a public forest to make space for a massive police training facility. We mourn Manuel Teran’s death— yet more evidence of the need to reimagine public safety — alongside Tyre Nichols, and all victims of police violence.
“On the week of Tyre Nichols’s death, the Jewish community began reading the book of Exodus, which details both the cruelty of a government that targeted a minority population, including through violence and systemic discrimination, and the liberation that comes with breaking free of this system. Tyre Nichols’s murder reminds us of our moral duty to turn our grief into action. We stand with the protestors in Memphis and around the country who are honoring Tyre Nichols’s life by demanding accountability and change.”
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights mobilizes a network of more than 2,300 rabbis and cantors from all streams of Judaism that, together with the Jewish community, act on the Jewish imperative to respect and advance the human rights of all people. Grounded in Torah and our Jewish historical experience and guided by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we call upon Jews to assert Jewish values by raising our voices and taking concrete steps to protect and expand human rights in North America, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories.
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-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.
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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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-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.
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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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-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.
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-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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