T'ruah is seeking a part-time Rabbinical Student Organizer to support our organizing team with expanding our Massachusetts organizing efforts to include rabbinical students. This is a temporary position, lasting 7-8 months, intended to be filled by a current rabbinical student at Hebrew College.

 

The ideal candidate has some experience with organizing, advocacy, or community work, and is passionate about the intersection of Jewish values with social justice work. 

 

Who We Are

 

T’ruah brings the Torah’s ideals of human dignity, equality, and justice to life by empowering rabbis and cantors to be moral voices and to lead Jewish communities in advancing democracy and human rights for all people in the United States, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories.

To learn more about our work, visit www.truah.org or find us @truahrabbis on Twitter and Facebook.

 

What You’ll Do

 

With mentorship, supervision, and guidance from T’ruah’s staff organizers, the Rabbinical Student Organizer’s responsibilities will include:

  • Represent T’ruah: Help Hebrew College rabbinical and cantorial students understand T’ruah and what we do. 

  • Base building and leadership development: Develop relationships with other rabbinical students, recruit them to participate in local and national campaign work, and develop their leadership and professional organizing skills in the structure of campaign work.

  • Community building: Support the strengthening of community and communication among rabbinical students and rabbi and cantor community members. 

  • Building out T’ruah’s campaigns: Support the development of T’ruah’s role in local campaigns — working with the local organizers to develop strategy and tactics for winning concrete change while building the power of the progressive rabbinic voice. 

  • Coalition participation/partnership: Support T’ruah’s presence on local campaigns, representing T’ruah and interfacing with partner organizations, developing T’ruah’s rabbinic student organizing strategy to advance a campaign that is led by those directly affected by the issues.

Who You Are & Keys to Success

Systemic inequities in hiring have caused many women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ people to apply to jobs only if they meet 100% of the qualifications. If you have some but not all of the qualifications listed above, and believe you would excel in this role, we encourage you to apply for this job. In your cover letter, be sure to explicitly highlight how your experience, skills, and personal qualities have set you up to succeed in the role.

 

To be successful in this role, you will be or have:

 

  • A rabbinical (or cantorial) student located in Massachusetts. You are currently enrolled in a program of rabbinic or cantorial study. 

  • An organizer. You have some organizing or advocacy experience – either professional or as a volunteer – and you are excited about building power to enact change. Other community experience– like volunteering with a congregation– is also helpful.

  • Ability to develop the organizing skills of your peers with a coaching and learning mentality: Experience or interest helping others grow. You use coaching, training, and feedback to develop others and support problem-solving. You see mistakes as learning opportunities. You seek and engage well with feedback. 

  • An attentive and empathetic leader and relationship builder: You're enthusiastic about meeting and engaging with people and are able to put people at ease, especially when there are lines of difference. You listen closely to understand needs or concerns and take steps based on that input. You get back to people in a timely manner and take pride in providing clear, helpful information. 

  • Creative and resourceful: You've overcome challenges and leveraged resources to creatively solve problems. You propose solutions to issues without much guidance (but are not afraid to ask questions). You proactively ask for help, anticipate problems, and course-correct where needed.

  • Clear, precise, compassionate communicator: You can speak clearly on behalf of the organization and advocate for/with community members. You communicate well with others, including sharing context and asking questions to understand others’ perspectives.

  • Alignment with T’ruah’s values: You are comfortable representing T’ruah’s mission, campaigns, and positions.

  • Racial equity and inclusion values and skills: You understand the historical context for racial inequity and its present-day implications. You recognize ways that race and other identities intersect in social justice work, especially with communities of rabbis and cantors. You are comfortable talking about identities such as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, class, ability, or gender in plain, specific terms. You identify decisions, policies, or practices that have disparate impacts based on identity, and you’re driven to make changes in systems and practices to operationalize equity.

 

The following are preferred but not required:

  • Experience with T’ruah’s campaign areas, including human rights for Israelis and Palestinians; worker justice; ending mass incarceration; democracy; immigration; anti-racism and countering antisemitism.

 

What Else You Should Know 

 

Status

This position is part-time; 5-10 hours a week. It is a temporary position, lasting 7-8 months.  

Salary: 

The Rabbinical Student Organizer will be paid a total of $15,000.

Location

The job location for this position is the Greater Boston area. The work itself will be hybrid, with working-from-home and in-person events and meetings. 

Benefits include:

Unlimited sick time

Commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)

T’ruah is committed to DEI at every level of our organization, including our Board of Directors. For the past several years we have been actively working on becoming an antiracist organization. We have recently created a set of organizational values that reflects this commitment. 

Equal opportunity employer

T’ruah isn’t just an equal opportunity employer. We are actively seeking to build a diverse and inclusive team with a wide range of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. T’ruah does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, race, color, national origin, sex, age, marital status, disability, personal appearance, family responsibility, political affiliation or any other status protected by applicable law. Women, transgender people, veterans and people of color are encouraged to apply. 

 

Compliance with eligibility verification law

In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification document form upon hire.

How to Apply 

Submit the form on this page. In your cover letter , please answer the following: what is your vision of a justice-informed rabbinate, and how would organizing skills support that vision? We’d also love to hear about: a particular issue you’re passionate about, any previous organizing experience you have, and what your relationship to justice initiatives has looked like while you’ve been in rabbinical school. Please write “Rabbinical Student Organizer” in the subject line. Resumes without a cover letter will not be considered.

 

Our Timeline

Applications will be accepted through January 10th. Interviews will be conducted on a rolling basis. Our ideal start date for this position is ASAP.