Shabbat Gathering: T'ruah: One of the good guys.

Dear Chevra, as is our custom, we will gather tonight at 5.45p ct to welcome Shabbat. These are the coordinates:

Zoom
Meeting ID: 963 5113 1550
Password: 1989
Phone: +1 312 626 6799

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Here we go.

Last week, I received an email in my inbox with the subject line, “FW: This is an emergency.” Since I work hard to make sure my inbox is spam free, it was unusual to receive a message with such a spammy subject line. So I took a look at the sender and it was from T’ruah, a Jewish organization I support. That email was about the constitutional crisis in Israel and what Jews in the U.S. can do to support democracy. I consider T’ruah one of the “good guys” at the intersection of Jewish faith and politics and am going to tell you more about them.

T’ruah’s roots go back to 2002. Then, it was founded as Rabbis for Human Rights-North America and was affiliated with Rabbis for Human Rights in Israel. In 2013, it split from its Israel partner and renamed itself as T’ruah. If the word T’ruah sounds familiar to you, it might be because it is the word used during the High Holy Days for one of the shofar blasts.

On it’s website, T’ruah describes itself this way:

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 the United States, Canada, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories.

One of the first causes supported by T’ruah was supporting Palestinian rights in Israel. Rabbi Brian Walt was the founding executive director of T’ruah and might be familiar to some of us as he has been active in the series of presentations on the occupation of Palestinian that Shaarei Shamayim has sponsored. Just to let you know, T’ruah does not support the global movement of boycott, divestment, and sanction against Israel for its actions against the Palestinians.

T’ruah has also raised it’s voice against U.S. led torture at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, and Afghanistan. T’ruah has worked to end mass incarceration particularly of juveniles, the punitive use of solitary confinement, and it founded The Jewish Campaign to End Slavery and Human Trafficking. Most recently, T’ruah has been active in protesting Israeli right-wing efforts to undermine the power of the judiciary there.

About Rabbi Jill Jacobs.

Since 2011, T’ruah has been led by Rabbi Jill Jacobs, a Conservative rabbi who is the author of Where Justice Dwells: A Hands-On Guide to Doing Social Justice in Your Jewish Community and There Shall be No Needy: Pursuing Social Justice through Jewish Law and Tradition. Under her leadership, T’ruah has grown to 14 employees, 200 volunteers, and a budget of about $1,628,000. More than 2,300 rabbis and cantors belong to T’ruah. I don't know with certainty if Rabbi Laurie belongs to T'ruah, but my intuition tells me she does. (She's still on sabbatical so I can't check.)

As I said at the beginning of this email, I consider T’ruah to be one of the “good guys.” It isn’t a perfect fit for me because I prefer a more direct action approach to our oppressors, but it’s close enough.

And may it be for all of us a blessing.

See you tonight!
Gut Shabbes!

All my love,
brian.

PS

Hadar's reader on the High Holy Days.
Every year, Hadar publishes a free High Holy Day Reader and this year is no different. (I've written about Hadar before.) I always get a lot out of Hadar's attractive and engaging guides and have placed my order already. Here's a link you can use to place an order for your own free copy.

Jewish calendars for 5784 on sale now.

And, speaking of the High Holy Days, The Jewish Planner for 5784 is now available to order on the GoldHerring website. As I've written here before, I highly recommend this planner for being almost completely Jewish-centric with lots of prompts for introspective writing. It might seem a little pricey at $38 but it's a great value. I think it's beautiful and thoughtful. And, the convenient pocket size calendar I've recommended before is now on sale at Amazon. The size is is a perfect fit to put inside my weekly planner. (I ordered three because they are VERY inexpensive, $2.99, and I can gift two of them to friends while I'm in Madison for the High Holy Days.)

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