Rabbi Jill Jacobs is the Executive Director of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights. 

She is the author of Where Justice Dwells: A Hands-On Guide to Doing Social Justice in Your Jewish Community (Jewish Lights, 2011) and There Shall Be No Needy: Pursuing Social Justice through Jewish Law and Tradition (Jewish Lights, 2009). Widely regarded as a leading voice on Jewish social justice, she regularly lectures at synagogues, Jewish community centers, and conferences and has written about Jewish perspectives on social justice and human rights for more than two dozen publications.

Rabbi Jacobs has been named to the Forward’s list of 50 influential American Jews (2006, 2008, and 2011), to The Jewish Week’s first list of “36 under 36” (2008), and to Newsweek’s list of the 50 Most Influential Rabbis in America every year since 2009 (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013). She holds rabbinic ordination and an MA in Talmud from the Jewish Theological Seminary, an MS in Urban Affairs from Hunter College, and a BA in Comparative Literature from Columbia University. She lives in New York with her husband, Guy Austrian, and their daughter Lior.

Invite Rabbi Jacobs to speak in your community.

Joshua Bloom is the Director of Israel Programs for T'ruah. Before coming to the organization in 2010, he served as a consultant to Rabbis for Human Rights in Israel. As a human rights and international development specialist, he has worked in the US and in over a dozen countries around the world for organizations and institutions such as Mercy Corps, American Jewish World Service, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Conflict and Health Programme at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the Health and Human Rights Programme at the University of Cape Town, UNICEF, and Amnesty International USA. Joshua is married to Jodie Gordon, a fourth-year rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College.

Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster is the Director of North American Programs for T'ruah. Ordained in 2008 from the Jewish Theological Seminary, where she was a student activist and leader, she is a noted speaker and writer on Judaism and human rights, including speaking internationally on behalf of the U.S. State Department on the issue of human trafficking. Her writing has appeared on CNN.com, the Forward, the New York Daily News, the Huffington Post, and many other publications. Rabbi Kahn-Troster was named to the Jewish Week's 2011 "36 under 36" for her human rights activism. She serves on the board of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture and lives in Teaneck, New Jersey, with her husband, Dr. Paul Pelavin, and their daughters Liora and Aliza.

Rabbi Lev Meirowitz Nelson is the Director of Education for T'ruah. Lev was ordained in 2013 from Hebrew College. Before coming to rabbinical school, he taught fifth grade at the Solomon Schechter School of Manhattan for three years and worked for many summers at URJ Eisner Camp. Lev holds an AB in Geology from Brown University and spent a post-baccalaureate semester at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, where conservation and sustainable development are approached in the context of Arab-Israeli peace efforts. Lev, his wife Eliana, and their new son Barzilai are excited to be moving back to the Big Apple.

Ilana Clay is the incoming Director of Operations for T'ruah. Ilana is returning to the non-profit world after working for more than five years as a marketing professional.  She previously served as the Director of USY on Wheels, a program of the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism Youth Department.  She graduated from Rutgers University with a double major in Jewish Studies and Psychology. Ilana is very enthusiastic about focusing her educational and professional knowledge to support the mission of T'ruah.

Brauna Doidge is the outgoing Director of Operations for T'ruah and is a graduate of the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto, where she also completed a collaborative program with the Center for Jewish Studies. She lives in Riverdale with her husband, Paul Nahme, and their son, Eli.

Ronit Schlam is the Events Manager for T'ruah. She has produced fundraising and performing arts events within the non-profit industry for the last ten years. Ronit has worked for such prestigious organizations as the Lincoln Center Festival, the Chateauville Foundation, Friends of Israel Disabled Veterans, and the launch of the Castleton Festival, an annual international opera festival under the artistic direction of Maestro Lorin Maazel. She is motivated by the great potential for communication and understanding by way of artistic expression.

Marisa Elana James is the Rabbinical Student Fellow in Israel for T'ruah. After three years of living in Jerusalem, Marisa began her studies in 2010 at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. During those years, she primarily studied at the Conservative Yeshiva and worked for Encounter Programs. Previously, Marisa taught college writing and literature courses at the University of Connecticut and Rutgers, managed a bookstore, and worked as an insurance broker in New Jersey and New York. Marisa regularly teaches Introduction to Judaism classes for internationals in Bethlehem, acts as cantor for communities in Israel and America, and often assists her partner with translations from Hebrew and German to English.