Jill Jacobs, the executive director of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, has pushed for Jews to take an active role in social justice, from supporting health care and environmental reform to condemning torture and human rights violations. Jacobs earned a BA in comparative literature from Columbia University in 1997. In 2003 she received rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary and an MS in urban affairs from Hunter College. From 2003–2005 she worked as director of outreach and education for the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, which combats racism and anti-Semitism. She then began working as rabbi in residence for Jewish Funds for Justice, writing extensively on Jewish responses to poverty, living wage, and health care issues in articles and books, including There Shall Be No Needy in 2009 and Where Justice Dwells in 2011. In 2011 she also became executive director of T’ruah, mobilizing Jewish leaders for Palestinian rights, the closing of Guantanamo Bay, and other human rights issues. In 2014 she was one of several rabbis arrested for protesting against police brutality in the deaths of black men, including Eric Garner. She has been honored often as one of the Forward 50 and Newsweek’s 50 influential rabbis.