As the executive director of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, Jill Jacobs has pushed for rabbis to act as social justice leaders in their communities on issues from environmental reform to condemning torture. Jacobs began taking leadership training while still an undergraduate at Columbia University. In 2003 she received rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary and an MS in urban affairs from Hunter College. She then worked for two years as director of outreach and education for the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, which combats racism and anti-Semitism. She served as rabbi in residence for Jewish Funds for Justice, writing extensively on Jewish responses to poverty, living wage, and health care issues, including her 2009 book There Shall Be No Needy. In 2011 she became executive director of T’ruah, mobilizing Jewish leaders for Palestinian rights, the closing of Guantanamo Bay, and other human rights issues. Regularly honored as one of the Forward 50, Jill Jacobs continues to work on the front lines of social justice movements. In 2014 she was one of several rabbis arrested for protesting against police brutality in the deaths of black men, including Eric Garner.