T'ruah Rally

About Us

Our Mission Our Strategies Our Name Our History Our Values Our Mission T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights brings the Torah’s ideals of human dignity, equality, and justice to life by empowering rabbis and cantors to be moral voices and to lead Jewish communities in advancing democracy and human rights for all people in...
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Slavery, Then and Now

In this moving sermon, Rabbi Gordon Tucker discusses the problem of modern slavery and describes his experience visiting sites from the African slave trade. SLAVERY THEN AND NOW Rabbi Gordon Tucker   The Torah, in Leviticus 25:55, has God saying “The children of Israel are My servants”, and the rabbinic tradition afterwards added the following...
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Our Positions & Policies

Two Sovereign States for Israelis and Palestinians The world is sustained by justice, truth and peace: דין אמת ושלום. As rabbis, cantors, and Jewish community members who love and care deeply about Israel, we believe that a just and secure future for Israelis and Palestinians will best be achieved by a negotiated resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict...
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The Rabbinic Human Rights Hero Award 

Is Your Rabbi or Cantor a Human Rights Hero?  Each year, T’ruah honors two extraordinary Jewish clergy members who demonstrate an unwavering commitment to living and working in accordance with a Torah of justice and human rights. And each year we turn to you, our supporters, to help us find these remarkable leaders. Does your...
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Holding Onto the Image in Every Human Being, Even One’s Adversary

In the militia headquarters in Odessa decades ago, I was surrounded by harsh interrogators who castigated my friend and me for visiting Russian Jews, who were aliens in their eyes. I felt anger and even hatred at these leaders and their many followers who had made Jewish life impossible for a large segment of our...
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Intimacy With God Requires Human Contact

Parshat Nitzavim, the first of this week’s double parshah, speaks powerfully to our fundamental human need for connection to each other and to Gd — and therefore to the isolation that is an anathema to it. The covenant of Torah that began with the distant and dramatic display of Gd’s power at Mount Sinai is...
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The Essential Human Right

“Sticks and stones,” the nursery rhyme says, “may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” The intent of this pithy statement is probably to help children solve disputes with words rather than physical violence. Its message does, however, raise serious doubts. Words can and do hurt us. Words can trivialize, words can insult,...
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Simple Acts of Dignity and Loving-Kindness

“If we do nothing more than be aware of the essential elements of dignity in our everyday lives and practice honoring dignity, we will be making an enormous contribution to the healing of shared injuries.”¹ Through my work as a chaplain, I have developed a deep appreciation for the healing power of loving-kindness and the...
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A Prayer for Human Rights

This prayer for human rights by Rabbi David Freidenreich incorporates traditional themes about the creation of every person b’tzelem elohim, in God’s image.
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