Advocacy & Action

This page was updated in 2020.

Fighting human trafficking requires educating your community about the issue, connecting with partners working with trafficking survivors, and committing to being part of the solutions that will prevent trafficking, both at home and abroad. Thankfully, today there are more ways than ever for synagogues to learn about modern day slavery and get involved. Here are some suggestions from the Rabbinical Assembly.

How to connect your community to the issue: 

• Work with your Kitchen or Facilities Committee to buy and serve Fair Trade foods, especially chocolate. Child labor and child slave labor have been well documented in the cocoa supply chain.

• Educate with your Social Action Committee to put this on their agenda. It is especially important to see how this issue intersects with other issues they may be working on (like immigration, worker rights, food justice, domestic violence) that are root causes for modern-day slavery..

• Make a commitment to teach regular classes or offer divrei Torah throughout the year:

  • Before Pesach, See Take Action For Pesach for more ideas.

  • For High Holidays, see Sermon Sparks.

  • For Hanukkah, see the Hanukkah Resources.

  • Deliver a d’var Torah for weekly Torah portions where slavery is highlighted or mentioned. This includes most of the Torah, so opportunities abound.

    • See Sermon Sparks for some examples.

    • See “Listing of Slavery-Related Verses by Torah Portion” on pages 90-92 of Next Year, Free! A Modern Slavery Curriculum

• Write a bulletin article on the topic.

• Lead a current events discussion or Torah Town Hall.

• When teaching Jewish values, such as pidyon shevuyim or ahavat hager, draw on

  • Next Year, Free! A Modern Slavery Curriculum

  • Truah’s Anti-Trafficking Guide, including text study

  • The Other Side of the Sea, T’ruah’s seder on fighting modern day slavery.

• Share Next Year, Free! A Modern Slavery Curriculum with your principal, teachers, and youth group director(s). It includes lesson plans for formal and informal education on teaching about Shemot, Jewish values, Jewish heroes, and Passover.

• Take part in T’ruah’s #TomatoRabbis campaign to end forced labor in American agriculture.

• Invite B’nai Mitzvah to choose this cause as a Mitzvah Project. Use the resource “Making the Mitzvah Your Own: Bar and Bat Mitzvah Anti-Slavery Projects” by Rabbi Debra Orenstein on page 74 of Next Year, Free! A Modern Slavery Curriculum.

Speak up! Advocacy matters.

• Meet with your members of Congress to tell them that your community is invested in the fight to end modern day slavery. Even if there is no pending legislation (such as the re-authorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act), letting Congress know you care about modern slavery makes a difference when laws are introduced. Fighting slavery is a bi-partisan issue! 

• To learn the latest about legislation and advocacy, follow resolutions and alerts from the RA and our Social Action Committee, or subscribe for updates from

  • T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights

  • Free The Slaves

  • Polaris, which also runs the National Human Trafficking Hotline.

  • The Jewish Coalition to End Trafficking

  • ATEST, the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking

  • or other organizations listed under “Articles & Links”

Publish articles or blogs for your local newspaper or favorite website(s) about modern slavery, the Jewish call to action, and steps individuals can take to make a difference.