Rabbis For Human Rights - North America

History

“Open the gates of justice for me that I may enter them and praise God. This is the gateway to God – the just shall enter through it.” (Psalms 118:19-20)

History & Accomplishments

Rabbis for Human Rights – North America (RHR-NA) was founded in 2002 to harness the power of rabbis to protect human rights in North America and Israel. From the beginning, we have worked with our partner organization, Rabbis for Human Rights-Israel, to ensure that Palestinian farmers can harvest their fields, to oppose evictions and home demolitions in East Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories, to protect the rights of foreign workers in Israel, and to create economic opportunity for Israelis, Palestinians, and others.

 

In North America, we are one of the lead organizations in the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. Through our campaign against torture, more than 800 rabbis signed a rabbinic letter on torture. More than 200 rabbis engaged their congregations in advocating to end U.S.-sponsored torture. In 2009, President Barack Obama signed an Executive Order ending state-sponsored torture. Along with our interfaith partners, we continue to monitor U.S. activities to ensure that torture does not continue.

 

Each Passover, hundreds of RHR-NA supporters speak out behalf of victims of modern-day slavery by asking their elected representatives to support legislation to end human trafficking. RHR-NA rabbis have testified to their state legislatures on behalf of state anti-trafficking bills, and communities led by RHR-NA rabbis have raised thousands of dollars to support survivors of trafficking.

 

RHR-NA's biennial North American Rabbinic Conference on Judaism and Human Rights has educated more than 1000 rabbis, cantors, rabbinical and cantorial students, and other Jews about Jewish human rights values, and about ways to engage in contemporary human rights struggles. These conferences have taken place in 2006, 2008, and 2010.

 

Since December 2007, RHR-NA has engaged more than 100 synagogues a year in Human Rights Shabbat. On this Shabbat, which coincides with Human Rights Day (the yearly celebration of the passage of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights), adults and children study Jewish values, learn about current human rights struggles, and think together about how to involve their own communities in action.