2025 Jews For Racial & Economic Justice Community
On May 3rd, 2025, the ALBA/Puffin Award was presented to JFREJ Community. One of the largest monetary awards for human rights in the world, the ALBA/Puffin Award is a $100,000 cash prize granted annually by ALBA and The Puffin Foundation to honor the nearly 3,000 Americans who volunteered in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) to fight fascism under the banner of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.
Audrey Sasson, Executive Director of JFREJ Community, accepted the award. Her full acceptance speech can be read here.
Neal Rosenstein, Puffin Foundation President, presented the award. Highlights of his remarks are below:
“What a pleasure to be joining you here this afternoon to honor and recognize the ongoing and vitally powerful work of JFREJ Community. This award honors the sacrifices of, and pays tributes to, the men and women who volunteered to fight fascism in defense of the Spanish Republic. And so, each year we honor outstanding organizations and individuals who have excelled in promoting and protecting human and civil rights at home or abroad. And in all the years of the prize, I think this year is among the most important yet.
The first award of the prize went to crusading Spanish Magistrate Baltazar Garzon, who fought to bring Chilean Dictator Augusto Pinochet to justice and tirelessly worked to expose the past crimes and horrors of the Franco Regime at home. Since then we’ve recognized the work of human rights champions who have focused their work in a wide variety of fields and tactics. Health care providers like My Brother’s Keeper who reach out to the LGBTQ in Mississippi and beyond. Immigration activists and advocates like United We Dream, working and lobbying to protect Dreamers & others. Anti-racist heroes and healers like Bryan Stevenson & Indigenous Women Rising. Journalists Like Jeremy Scahill & Lydia Cacho exposing corruption and human rights violations. Crusading researchers, academics, and forensic anthropologists like Kate Doyle & Fredy Peccerelli, rooting out secrets of atrocities and US complicity in files and in graves. Lifeguards and lifesavers who rescue immigrants and refugees on the waters of the Mediterranean and the deserts of our southern border. Youth activists like Ava Mateo of 18 by Vote working to ensure students’ right to vote.
This year, the civil rights committee of ALBA and The Puffin Foundation had an especially difficult choice. In the face of the onslaught against civil and human rights here and abroad, we wanted to focus on a group that was committed and actively involved in the day to day fight against authoritarianism and fascism. One that was mobilizing in their own community and reaching out to all.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t disclose how important it was to me … to find out about JFREJ in the early 90’s. Like so many others, it fortified and validated my own value driven definition of what it meant to be Jewish. Indeed, they are fueled by a vision of Judaism rooted in justice and compassion, of radical diasporism and old world bundism that has helped them become the voice and conscience of the Jewish Left here in NYC and beyond. They’ve done it through deep canvassing, lobbying, educating, celebrating, protesting, marching and organizing as a truly grassroots and member driven organization. In a way, with today’s award we’re recognizing the volunteers and normal folks that are often the true heroes of the struggle against tyranny and for the basic human rights we all are entitled to.
With those rights under assault in our own country, the efforts of JFREJ Community to educate the public and speak out on behalf of populations targeted by immoral, illegal & unjust actions are more important than ever. JFREJ Community and its volunteers offer a profound example of an effective force dedicated to shining a light on the actions of those who would attack and demonize rather than protect or show compassion, on behalf of those whose voices are often unheard. We are honored by their actions and their acceptance of this award.”
About The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives
The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA) is an educational non-profit dedicated to promoting social activism and the defense of human rights. ALBA’s work is inspired by the American volunteers of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade who fought fascism in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). Drawing on the ALBA collections in New York University’s Tamiment Library, and working to expand such collections, ALBA works to preserve the legacy of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade as an inspiration for present and future generations.
Other recipients of the ALBA/ Puffin Award for Human Rights Activism include reproductive justice organization Indigenous Women Rising; public-interest lawyer Bryan Stevenson; No More Deaths, a humanitarian organization dedicated to ending the death and suffering in the Mexico–US borderlands; My Brother’s Keeper, an organization whose mission is to reduce health disparities; and Life After Hate, a leader in the violence intervention community helping individuals disengage from violent far-right hate groups.