Rabbi Jill Jacobs is the CEO of T’ruah, a rabbinic human rights organization representing over 2,300 rabbis and cantors and their communities in North America.
Jill Jacobs
By Jill Jacobs
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Opinion Why Are Orthodox Organizations Embracing Christian Values?
There is a talmudic story in Tractate Avodah Zarah in which the Roman authorities arrest Rabbi Eliezer on suspicion of heresy. He is acquitted through a lucky misunderstanding: when the rabbi declares his trust in the “Judge” — meaning God — the judge understands this as a vote of confidence in his own authority. Nevertheless,…
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Opinion David Friedman, What Do Your Donations to Radical Jewish Settlements Pay For?
Dear David Friedman, Congratulations on your nomination to be U.S. Ambassador to Israel. I must say that I was alarmed to hear this news, as your rejection of decades of U.S. policy regarding a two-state solution and your smear of some liberal Jews as kapos should disqualify you from this position. T’ruah, the organization I…
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Opinion Why Andrew Cuomo’s BDS Law Should Worry All Israel Supporters
(JTA) — If you’re a supporter of Israel and of the Jewish community, you should be very worried about a new executive order issued by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on June 5. While billed as an initiative to prevent New York state from supporting the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, the law actually constitutes…
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Opinion Why Your JNF Donation Might Be Used for Settlements
Ask any American Jew what the Jewish National Fund does, and they will most likely answer, “It plants trees in Israel.” But the reality is much more complicated. Even a close reading of JNF-USA’s tax forms and website does not reveal how much of the $100 million dollars American Jews donate each year flows to…
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Opinion Social Justice Is Not Just for Americans
This year will witness the reintegration, at long last, of a Jewish vision for social justice in both the Diaspora and in Israel. At the Jewish Social Justice Roundtable, a recent gathering of Jewish social justice organization, Rabbi David Rosenn of the New Israel Fund and I co-led a conversation about how the situation in…
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Opinion Stamp Out Slavery for Good
Every day this week, the Forward is publishing pieces from opinion leaders in different fields about their prescription for policy in President Obama’s second term. One hundred and fifty years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slavery still exists in America. It takes place in just about every industry — agriculture, manufacturing, restaurants, domestic work and the…
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Opinion Jews Keep Head in Sand on ‘E1’ Settlements
Overwhelming silence. That’s been the public stance of the leaders of most major American Jewish institutions since the Israeli government announced that they were reactivating plans to construct a new settlement in the area of East Jerusalem known as E1. This absence of public response represents a missed opportunity for leadership on an issue that…
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Opinion ‘Lynching’ in Zion Square
On August 17, a mob of several dozen Israeli Jewish teenagers — some reports say as many as 50 — assaulted four Palestinian youths in the center of Jerusalem in an attack that the Jerusalem police have labeled an attempted “lynching.” The young people shouted “death to Arabs” as they chased down and beat the…
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Opinion I’m a UCLA professor. Why didn’t the administration stop last night’s egregious violence?
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Fast Forward Marjorie Taylor Greene says she opposed antisemitism bill because it rejects ‘Gospel’ that ‘the Jews’ handed Jesus to executioners
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News The great tent conspiracy theory: Are ‘outside agitators’ supplying protesters’ tents?
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Opinion I teach Israel studies at NYU. We are importing the worst of Israel and Palestine to our campuses
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Fast Forward 90 pro-Palestinian protesters arrested at Dartmouth, college that drew rare kudos for its Oct. 7 response
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Fast Forward 7 on antisemitism committee at Northwestern resign over deal to dismantle encampment
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Fast Forward Poll: 47% of US voters believe campuses should ban pro-Palestinian protests
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News At Binghamton U — known to attract Jews but not activists— an encampment for Gaza arises