Category Archives: Advocacy

Bringing the Torah of Human Rights to the Field

RHR Begins Its Palestinian Shepard Accompaniment Project in the Jordan Valley with a Fact Finding Tour, led by RHR’s Human Rights in the OPT Department Director, Rabbi Elhanan Miller.

In a new project for RHR we will now regularly bring teams of rabbis to the northern Jordan Valley to work with Palestinian shepherds regularly under threat of harassment and violence by settlers and the security forces as they eke out their traditional livelihood of tending to theirflocks.

In order to engage with our growing membership and to learn more about the increasingly untenable situation for Palestinians in the Jordan Valley we conducted this fact finding tour and look forward to contributing to the protection of Palestinian human rights in Area C via activism in the field and through advocacy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you would like to donate to BFRHR, you can find more information on the Donations page

 

 

Olive Harvest 2020: Support the Harvest

Rabbi Yehiel Grenimann, member of Rabbis for Human Rights Board of Directors, speaks from the olive groves in the West Bank Village of Burin to remind us that the Palestinians’ struggle for human rights is also out struggle as Jews who live by the sacred commandment, “love your neighbour as you love yourself”.

My Dear Friends and Supporters, Continue reading →

Olive Harvest 2020: A Volunteer Report

The Olive Harvest is a unique opportunity for Israeli and overseas volunteers to learn about human rights in the occupied West Bank and stand/act in solidarity with Palestinian farmers who are under constant threats of violence and harassment by nearby settlers. Rabbis for Human Rights is now organizing the annual Olive Harvest for the 18th time. Continue reading →

Letter to the Israeli Ambassador to the UK

Led by Rabbis Sylvia Rothschild and Alexandra Wright, Co-Chairs of the British Friends of Rabbis for Human RIghts, over 30 British Rabbis have sent a letter to the Israeli chargé d’affaires, Sharon Bar-Li, urging the Israeli Government to abandon its plans unilaterally to annex West Bank territory as a “travesty of Jewish teachings”.  Read the full letter here.

Rabbis for Human Rights Newsletter: Be a part of the struggle for Human Rights and Social Justice

Participants with sings that read "A Jewish Voice Against Annexation". Click here for more pictures

Participants with signs that read “A Jewish Voice Against Annexation”. Click here for more pictures

This week:

Rabbis for Human Rights and Oz VeShalom Hold Public Protest Vigil and Prayer for Peace: A Religious Jewish Voice Against Annexation. At the Vigil Rabbis for Human Rights Releases Rabbinic Letter Against the Annexation with 140 Signatures of Israeli Rabbis from a Variety of Denominations. Continue reading →

The Emergency Social Justice Hotline in the Shadow of the Covid-19 Crisis

Many places around the world are in various stages of dealing with horrific consequences of the Covid-19 health crisis. Far too many people got sick and far too many people died. Our hearts go out to those who lost their fight and we mourn with the families.

We are in awe of the people who were and are on the front line of this terrible struggle: Continue reading →

Rabbi Michael Marmur at BFRHR AGM

At the British Friends of Rabbis for Human Rights’ AGM on 9 December 2019, Rabbi Michael Marmur delivered the below speech, reproduced here with his permission.

At this time of year we read the Torah passage relating Jacob’s dream and try to interpret what it means. There are three clues as to what it is about:-

  1. A psychological reason for the wrestling. It takes place at the Ford Yabbok, which is a word play on the consonants in Jacob’s name. It is a struggle with himself as he tries to work out how we are meant to live in this world.
  2. A struggle with God in the guise of an angel. Jacob is trying to work out a theology and a religious response. There is an element of modernity in the struggle of the human with the divine.
  3. Another possibility is that he is wrestling with the spirit of his brother, Esau, of whom he is afraid. It is a drama of not only encountering ourselves and God but what happens in the struggle with the other – our brother.

Continue reading →

Call on Ambassador Taub: Halt the demolition of Susiya

Dear Ambassador Taub

We are writing to you out of deep commitment to Israel and to Judaism.

The Torah teaches us that ‘the stranger who lives with you shall be as a native from among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt’ (Vayikra 19:34).

Today, the Palestinian residents of Susiya face the imminent destruction of their village, the place they call home. This is scheduled to take place between now and August 3rd. The courts have ruled that 37 structures in the village are due for demolition because they were built without permits, despite the fact the land on which they stand belongs to the Palestinian villagers of Susiya.

Continue reading →

Susiya FAQs

Where is Susiya?

Susiya is a Palestinian village in the South Hebron Hills of the West Bank. The majority of the village is in Area C which means it is under full Israeli control and any decisions about building and civilian infrastructure have to be dealt with by the Civil Administration which is a department of the IDF.

Continue reading →