Created in God’s Image: Intersections of Judaism, Gender, and Human Rights

In this year’s Rennert Forum lecture, Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster ’01 will reflect on her work as a human rights activist, mobilizing the Jewish community on campaigns against US-sponsored torture and modern slavery. Rabbi Kahn-Troster has worked tirelessly to bring about change in US foreign and domestic policy and to educate the public about the reality of torture and detainee treatment as a moral issue. In organizing across lines of faith and politics, she explores questions of how Judaism reacts to extreme violations of human dignity, what it means to recognize the sacredness of the Other, and the imperative to remember the real faces lost behind headlines.

Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster is Director of Education and Outreach for Rabbis for Human Rights-North America, where she directs campaigns against state-sponsored torture and modern slavery. She was ordained in 2008 as a rabbi from the Jewish Theological Seminary, where she was a student activist and leader. She is a noted speaker, teacher, and writer on Judaism and human rights. Her writing has appeared in Sh’ma; Conservative Judaism; several anthologies, including the recent Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices: Social Justice, and on the web. Rabbi Kahn-Troster was also a 2009-2010 writing fellow for the American Jewish World Service. She serves on the boards of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture and Hazon, a Jewish environmental organization.