Search Resources

Why Listen to the “Goy”?

by Rabbi Mark Borovitz
This week’s Torah portion is Yitro, named for Moses’s father-in-law, a non-Jew. It is in this parashah that we receive the Ten Commandments and make our covenant with God. So, how could the Rabbis have decided to name such an important parashah after a gentile? In today’s climate of polarization, it is more important than...
more

How does it feel to be homeless in NYC?

by Rabbi Beni Wajnberg
“These are the names of the children of Israel, who came towards Mitzrayim.” (Shmot 1:1) I decided to experience firsthand what homelessness feels like. Having the privilege of serving a vibrant and amazing congregation in Manhattan’s prestigious Upper East Side, and living in that same neighborhood, I have never quite felt that my sense of...
more

Planting Two Trees: A Tale from the Field

by Nathan Roller
Nathan Roller, a T’ruah Israel Fellow and student at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, shares his experience planting two trees–one in the West Bank and one in Israel–as part of the T’ruah Year-in-Israel Program. Donate $36 or more to support this important tree-planting project in 2019.
more

Human Rights and Climate Change

by Rabbi Lev Meirowitz Nelson
Climate change is making climate disasters, such as floods and droughts, more frequent and intense, land and water more scarce and difficult to access, and increases in agricultural productivity even harder to achieve. How can we respond? A text study on Joseph, Ruth, midrash, and prayer.
more

“Good for the Jews”: Not a Zero-Sum Game

by Rabbi David Segal
The Israelites’ Egyptian bondage was Joseph’s fault. Ok, I admit, the Egyptians were directly to blame. But Joseph’s economic reforms laid the foundation for the enslavement. Let me explain. After Jacob and his sons relocated to Egypt, the famine worsened. Joseph oversaw the collection of funds from the people of Egypt in return for rations...
more

Let Us See Your Goodness

by Rabbi John S. Friedman
On the heels of the great sin of Israel–worshipping an oversized molten calf while Moses took “so long coming down from the mountain” (Exodus 32)–Moses implores God not to desert the Israelites. “See, You tell me, ‘lead this people forward’ but you have not told me whom You will send with me. If You Yourself...
more

The Voice of God

by Rabbi Lev Meirowitz Nelson
The image of God—tzelem Elohim—is often front and center in animating Jewish human rights work. The recent release of the movie Exodus: Gods and Kings (which, admittedly, I have not seen) gave me pause to contemplate the tzelem’s counterpart—the voice of God. Director Ridley Scott is taking some flak for casting 11-year-old Isaac Andrews as...
more

Resources from Our Allies: Right Now

by Right Now
T’ruah is the fiscal sponsor of Right Now, an organization of American and Israeli Jews that advocates for the rights of African asylum seekers in Israel.
more

Who Stands With You?

by Rabbi Barbara Penzner
Early one Friday morning in June, I stood with a group of hotel housekeepers who were about to do something very brave. Returning from a one-day strike, as a protest against unsafe working conditions, they feared retaliation. Juan Carlos was selected to be the first worker to punch the clock at 7 am, hoping that...
more

Yom Kippur at the Lincoln Memorial

by Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg
I was having lunch with a dear rabbinic colleague. After inquiring into each other’s health and family, I said “I just read the Pope’s Encyclical. It is fantastic. Have you read it?” My friend looked at me quizzically and said, “I never read the Popes’ encyclicals.“ “Well, I never have either, but this is really...
more

Sign up for updates and action alerts