[17][18][19] In 2014, Jacobs was arrested with Rabbis Sharon Kleinbaum and Shai Held, along with Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, for blocking traffic to protest a grand jury’s decision not to indict the New York police officer who choked Staten Island resident Eric Garner to death.
She earned an MS in Urban Affairs from Hunter College, CUNY, in 2003, and a BA in Comparative Literature from Columbia University in 1997.
Rather, Jewish sources should help us to see various sides of an issue, challenge our assumptions, and help us to formulate a response that takes multiple factors into account.
Rather than trade sound bites, we will continue the talmudic tradition of dialogue, in which various questioners and commentary engage in an often messy conversation that eventually leads to a fuller understanding of the situation at hand.
... We will witness the emergence of a Judaism that views ritual observance, study, and engagement in the world as an integrated whole, rather than as separate and distinct practices.
Jacobs frequently called out the Trump administration for what she saw as its disregard for democracy and human rights at home and abroad: “Now is the time for principled opposition, not accommodation.” [25] During Trump’s campaign for 2020 reelection, Jacobs opposed many of the president's actions, saying his campaign trafficked in anti-Semitism alongside racism, xenophobia, misogyny, homophobia, ableism and Islamophobia.
[26][27] Jacobs believes a more positive and productive relationship between American Jews and Israel will depend on ending the occupation, legislating the equality of all Israeli citizens, and committing to democracy.
She wrote an article for the JTS student bulletin in which she critiqued Israel's policies toward Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.