Resources

Over this past year, T’ruah has been publishing Torah 20/20, where each week a different author reflects on what the Torah portion teaches us about democracy.

It’s Rosh Hashanah, and those lifeless eyes stare at the collective of mingled families, a lot of kids – I’m among them – who sneak off to play cards.

Loving our neighbors is not merely feeling affection towards them; it is joining them when that which gives them life has collapsed and fallen and striving to raise it, and them, up. When our neighbors are harmed, we hurt too; we are interdependent.

More than a century ago, Martin Buber worried about a crisis in modern life: how would increased alienation and “social distance” of modern societies affect the well-being of humanity? Both in his writings on the notion of dialogue and his writings on Judaism, Buber speaks about the spiritual dimension of human relationships as the basis...

As COVID-19 spread, and people everywhere were forced into their homes, T’ruah organized weekly online virtual actions, gathering our community together to learn, engage in ritual, and push our representatives to hear the “call of justice” that the Torah demands we amplify.   July 2020 7/28 Call of Justice: Take action for Essential Workers 7/21...

When our methods are just, our system doesn’t grant privileges to the powerful and strip protections from the vulnerable. As the Torah formulates it this week, “You shall not judge unfairly: you shall show no partiality; you shall not take bribes.” The justice system ought to represent all equally...

"As an organizer who encourages people to march for justice and bring their activism to the streets, I often get asked if the signs and slogans of protests are unrealistic, or would turn people away with their seemingly out of reach demands and strong language."

“This crisis has illuminated the stark inequalities that have existed in this country long before this crisis but have now been brought to the forefront.”- Attorney General Letitia James Letitia “Tish” James, the first woman of color to be elected to the position of Attorney General in New York State, spoke with T’ruah about the ways...

...when we circumcise our hearts we can then turn our necks outward to the world, vulnerable, nakedly open to the experiences of others. The internal work cannot be separated from the work of changing the world, of standing shoulder to shoulder with those who are oppressed. We cannot have one without the other.

I believe, however, that antisemitism is not eternal or inevitable. It is something we can overcome, if we understand it properly. Common references to antisemitism as “the world’s oldest hatred” obscure the ways that it actually functions and who it benefits.