“How were the Ten Commandments arranged? Five on one tablet and five on the other. On one tablet it was written: I am the Eternal your God, and opposite to it, on the other tablet, was written: You shall not murder. This means that one who sheds blood is considered as having diminished the divine image.”
Mechilta d’Rabbi Yishmael, Tractate Bachodesh
T’ruah has been dedicated to our campaign to end police brutality and mass incarceration since 2014. Below are resources compiled from the launch of our campaign to the present, offering prayers, text studies, divrei Torah, and general advice to the Jewish community, particularly white Jews, about how to be effective allies in this essential cause.
Resources
- Statement on the murder of George Floyd and Violence Against Protestors
- Law and Order? Or: How We Keep People Safe
- Webinar: Protests, Police Brutality, and Where We Go From Here, with Rabbi Michael Latz and Rabbi Susan Talve
- Btzelem Elohim – Black Lives Matter placard
- Handbook on Ending Mass Incarceration, published 2015. Includes detailed sections on:
- Why Jews should care about mass incarceration
- Overview, basic statistics, and an introduction to the language of mass incarceration
- Background on policing and on the militarization of police
- Overview and text study on police in Jewish law
- Organizations to get involved with
- Recommendations to continue advocacy within your community and with your elected officials
- Jewish language for protest signs
- Recommended reading
- Anti-racism resources (published in 2019, for Human Rights Shabbat)
- Reflections on our visit to EJI in 2020
- Why ending mass incarceration is a Jewish issue (2015)
- Haggadah supplement: crying out against mass incarceration (2014)
Advice
Prayers
- A prayer for Black Lives Matter (2014)
- A prayer for Ferguson (2014)
- A prayer to end mass incarceration
- Tefillat HaDerech from the delegation to EJI in Montgomery (2020)
Divrei Torah
- Behar: Fostering an Equitable Urban Landscape (Rabbi Michal Woll, (M)oral Torah, 2022)
- Terumah: How to Make Jewish Sanctuaries Truly Safe (Rachel Faulkner, (M)oral Torah, 2022)
- Vayetze: Dream Until Its Your Reality (Rabbi Alex Kress, (M)oral Torah, 2021)
- Sukkot: The Pathway to Joy Begins in Discomfort (Rabbi Micah Geurin Weiss, (M)oral Torah, 2021)
- Rosh Hashanah: How to Make Our Racial Equity Commitments Endure (Dora Chen, (M)oral Torah, 2021)
- Chukat: Freedom as an Ongoing Struggle (Kelly Whitehead, (M)oral Torah, 2021)
- Mishpatim: confronting slavery in our founding texts (Judith Plaskow, Torah 20/20)
- Bo: Teshuvah and Reparations (R’ Ari Lev Fornari, Torah 20/20)
- Lech Lecha: the journey of Jews of Color (R’. Sandra Lawson, Torah 20/20)
- Shabbat Nachamu: Those who served their time deserve a second chance (Rabbi Edward Bernstein, 2018)
- VaEra: Hearing the cries of the enslaved (Rabbi Malkah Binah Klein, 2018)
- Behar/Behukotai: Private prisons and God’s people (Rabbi Judith Hauptman, PhD, 2017)
- High Holidays: the work of teshuvah (Philip Gibbs, 2016)
- Solitary confinement: Balak (Rabbi Rachel Gartner, 2016) and Joseph/Vayeshev (Rabbi Corey Helfand, 2012)
- Pesach: At Our Season of Liberation, Black Lives Matter (Rabbi Judith Edelstein, 2016)
