The name T’ruah—one of the sounds of the shofar (ram’s horn)—calls them to take action to create a more just world and indicates their belief in the possibility of liberation.

Today,they associate the shofar primarily with Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, when they sound it during synagogue services. The shofar wakes them up, demands that they examine their past behavior, and calls them to action.

In the Torah, the sound of the shofar also heralds the beginning of the Jubilee Year, when debts are forgiven and indentured servants go free. Shofar blasts also announce the beginning of the revelation at Mount Sinai. The shofar, then, symbolizes liberation, as well as the presence of the divine.

The T’ruah blast consists of nine staccato notes. This halting sound reminds them of the brokenness of the world, while also calling them to be partners with God in healing this brokenness.

Their tag line, The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, speaks to their commitment to placing rabbis and cantors at the vanguard of the Jewish human rights movement. But their call—and their movement—is not for rabbis and cantors alone. Rather, they know that a powerful Jewish human rights movement must mobilize rabbis, cantors, rabbinical and cantorial students, educators, laypeople, and representatives of all parts of the Jewish community.

The word “rabbinic” also indicates that they ground their work deeply in Jewish text and tradition, including the writings of centuries of rabbis, their history, and their communal practices.

T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights is an organization of rabbis from all streams of Judaism that acts on the Jewish imperative to respect and protect the human rights of all people. Grounded in Torah and their Jewish historical experience and guided by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, they advocate for human rights in Israel and North America. T’ruah continues the historic work of Rabbis for Human Rights-North America, which was founded in 2002 and renamed T’ruah in January 2013.

T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights was founded in 2002 as Rabbis for Human Rights-North America (RHR-NA). From the beginning, they have mobilized a multi-denominational network of rabbis and Jewish communities to protect human rights in North America and Israel. They originally acted as a sister organization to the Israeli group Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR). In that capacity, they partnered with RHR on human rights campaigns in Israel and raised millions of dollars to support the RHR’s sacred work, even as they pursued their own campaigns on issues both in North America and in Israel and the occupied territories.