Audrey Sasson. Photo Kat St. Martin.

On May 3, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice Community received the ALBA/Puffin Award for Human Rights Activism at a ceremony in New York City. Executive Director Audrey Sasson delivered the following acceptance speech.

Good afternoon. On behalf of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice Community, I want to start by expressing my sincerest gratitude to both ALBA and the Puffin Foundation for this incredibly generous and distinguished award. When Mark called, I was floored. I was deeply moved to learn about the award itself, never mind that we were being honored with it.

As a lifelong organizer and a student of history, I knew enough about the Abraham Lincoln Brigade to know that JFREJ at least aspires to organize within the tradition that they so distinctly represent. But I’ve taken the last month—as the nerd that I am—to do a deeper dive into that history. And I have been profoundly inspired by it, incredibly touched, in addition to being overwhelmed with how resonant it all feels. Thank you for all you do to preserve their memory and honor their legacy.

The courage and fortitude the Lincoln Brigade exemplified is desperately needed today. They saw the writing on the wall and didn’t wait until the powers that be caught up with them to take what J. Edgar Hoover preposterously described as premature anti-fascist action. They dedicated their lives, their literal lives, to wake the world up. Their clarity and commitment are a beacon for us today as we do everything in our power to push back the forces of fascism in our backyard.

They knew—as we are currently and frighteningly experiencing—that the best antidote to fascism is to be perennially premature in staving it off. As we’ve already discussed, at least a third of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade members were Jewish and a third hailed from New York City, I believe. The fact is that Jewish New Yorkers have helped power social movements for over a century, from local labor fights to Freedom Riders; from the Abraham Lincoln Brigade to Jews for Racial and Economic Justice. We are honored to be in that legacy.

JFREJ Community is the home of the Jewish left in New York. From day one, our project has been both rooted locally in New York and tied to a vision of global solidarity. Our first public event in 1990—raise your hand if you were there!—was to welcome Nelson Mandela to New York City. When establishment Jewish organizations shamefully refused, citing his solidarity with Palestine as a threat to our community, JFREJ’s founders in this room had the moral clarity to reject that cowardice and to carve out a political home for Jewish New Yorkers who understand that none of us are free until all of us are free.

And so, 35 years later, we continue to do what we see as our part in a much bigger project. We organize Jewish New Yorkers alongside our neighbors and allies for a New York where all communities have the freedom to truly thrive. We aim to transform New York from a playground for the wealthy few to a real democracy for all. We believe it is possible for everyone to have the care we need; a roof over our heads; healthy food on our tables; dignity in our workplaces; and space in our lives, importantly, for art and culture and joy and community.

Rally to Protect Our Futures. Nov. 9, 2024. Photo JFREJ.

The world we’re building is one in which there is no justice just for Jews, and there’s also no justice that would erase us. We’re part of a long history of Jews who reject supremacy and nationalism of all kinds. And we refuse to hide, make ourselves small, or apologize for any part of who we are.

We also know that the only way to achieve that vision of Jewish life is to organize for human rights and democracy, shared prosperity, and pluralism—wherever we live. In New York, it means we work on the issues that affect all New Yorkers—housing, healthcare, police, violence, immigrant and worker justice—always in coalition with other organizations across the city. Because for us, the idea of collective liberation is not just a slogan. It’s a daily, embodied practice of solidarity, rooted not in charity, but in authentic mutual interest first.

We are also clear that dismantling antisemitism needs to be part of any serious project of the left. It just does. And we understand how it functions, how dangerous it is, and how it interacts with other oppressions to keep us all down. And so we are committed to fighting it. The white Christian nationalist movement that brought Trump to power is itself antisemitic, in addition to being patriarchal, misogynist, racist, and xenophobic. We all know this. That is why this administration’s brutal crushing of dissent, under the false flag of Jewish safety, fills me and my fellow JFERJers with shame and rage. It’s why we organize to interrupt the bad faith and often patently false accusations of antisemitism being deployed to dismantle our universities, detain and deport student leaders, and tear apart our movements.

We have organized since October 2023 for a permanent ceasefire in Israel and Palestine. We have also organized in the horrific and unspeakable months since then for an arms embargo and an end to the genocide in Gaza. Rising fascism here and the ongoing genocide there are connected. The forces that pave the way for the cruel wreckage of our conditions did not begin on November 5th or October 7th respectively.

In these times, we are called to make the same choice the Lincolns made. It is up to us to act. We must refuse to comply with forces that seek to dominate and destroy. We must protect the frontline of the struggle against repression with all of our might. Right now, the front lines are trans youth fighting for their right to simply exist. Our immigrant neighbors, including the thousands languishing in ICE detention or being tortured in a concentration camp in El Salvador; professors and students, victims of the new McCarthyism, especially immigrants like Mahmoud Khalil, Rümeysa Öztürk, and Mohsen Mahdawi, who’ve been targeted for speaking out for Palestine. As their courage has shown us, it is never too early to stand for what’s right, and it is also, to all of you, never too late, as we know, to join the fight.

This generous award is both an honor and a call to action to face the time ahead with courage and conviction. To remain in principled struggle together; to learn from the past; and to meet the deadly onslaughts of the authoritarian, billionaire, techno-fascist, racist, fear-mongering front with more democracy, more internationalism, more organizing, more solidarity, more humanity, more art and culture and joy and community, and more commitment to the world we need and deserve. Anti-fascist always! See you in the streets!