Every year, T’ruah honors several leaders for their commitment to and activism in advancing human rights. Our 2022 honorees will be presented with their awards at our annual gala on May 25, 2022.
Heather Booth
Raphael Lemkin Human Rights Award
Inspired by her first trip to Yad Vashem in 1964, Heather Booth has committed her life to bringing a Jewish lens to work for social justice. She has since become one of the country’s leading strategists about progressive issue campaigns and driving issues in elections. She began organizing in the civil rights, anti-Vietnam war, and women’s movements of the 1960s.
Booth was the founder of JANE, an underground abortion service predating Roe v. Wade. She was also the founding Director and now President of the Midwest Academy, training social change leaders and organizers. Just a few of her leadership roles during the last 50+ years include the Director of the NAACP National Voter Fund (2000), co-founder of AMOS: The National Jewish Partnership for Social Justice (2001), the lead consultant of the Campaign for Comprehensive Immigration Reform (2005), director of the Health Care Campaign for the AFL-CIO (2008), founding director of Americans for Financial Reform (2010), national coordinator for the coalition around marriage equality (2013), the field director for the campaign to stop the tax giveaways to millionaires and billionaires (2017) and director of the Progressive and Seniors Outreach for the Biden/Harris campaign. Most recently, she has been working to pass the Build Back Better proposal to lower costs, create jobs, and ensure the wealthiest pay a fair share in taxes.
Marc Gross and Susan Ochshorn
Kemach Torah Award
Marc Gross and Susan Ochshorn are visionaries and partners who bring their generosity, courage, and philanthropic leadership to the T’ruah table. As a leader on T’ruah’s Board of Directors, a member of the first lay cohort, Marc introduced us to our first pro bono representation. He brought a lawsuit on behalf of Wendy’s shareholders, arguing that by refusing to join the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ Fair Food Program, the company had flouted industry standards on human rights. Susan has been a stalwart friend of T’ruah, who is always engaged in conversations about our issues and campaigns. When they’re not lending their time to T’ruah, Marc works to hold corporate America accountable to investors and consumers in his role as Senior Partner at the law firm of Pomerantz LLP, and more recently, as President of the Institute of Law & Economic Policy. A long-time activist, Susan is a catalyst for social change, working to ensure the well-being and rights of young children and the health of our democracy. She is the author of Squandering America’s Future—Why ECE Policy Matters for Equality, Our Economy, and Our Children.
Rabbi Shira Stutman
Rabbinic Human Rights Hero Award
Rabbi Shira Stutman is a nationally known faith-based leader and change-maker with more than twenty years of experience motivating and inspiring groups large and small, most recently as the founding rabbi of Sixth & I in Washington DC. She teaches Torah and speaks nationally on topics including growing welcoming Jewish spiritual communities; building the connective tissues between different types of people; and the current American Jewish community zeitgeist. She currently is working on a variety of projects including writing a book on the blessing of interfaith couples; starting a new minyan in Aspen, Colorado; and helping synagogue communities have less reactive and more heart-centered conversations about Israel. In January, she and the actor Joshua Malina launched the PRX podcast “Chutzpod,” which aims to provide Jewish answers to life’s contemporary questions and help listeners build lives of meaning. She was named one of “America’s Most Inspiring Rabbis” by The Jewish Forward, among other awards. Rabbi Stutman graduated from Columbia University and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, where she was a Wexner Graduate Fellow.
Rabbi Mary L. Zamore
Rabbinic Human Rights Hero Award
Rabbi Mary L. Zamore is the Executive Director of the Women’s Rabbinic Network (WRN), supporting Reform women rabbis while advocating for safety and equity for all, and acting as a leading voice for accountability and change within the Reform Movement.
Rabbi Zamore co-founded the Reform Pay Equity Initiative to narrow the gender-based wage gap within the Reform Movement. As part of this equity work, WRN recently released Family and Medical Leave Policy Standards for the Jewish Community. She launched WRN’s Clergy: Safe Employees and Employers program, to provide training to Jewish seminaries, working in partnership to enrich the campuses and teach the next generation of Jewish leaders to create safer Jewish communities. WRN has supported eleven seminary campuses, training over 750 students, employees, faculty, and administrators.
Rabbi Zamore is also the editor of The Sacred Exchange: Creating a Jewish Money Ethic (CCAR Press, 2019) and The Sacred Table: Creating a Jewish Food Ethic (CCAR Press, 2011), designated a finalist by the National Jewish Book Awards. She also served congregations in Central New Jersey for eighteen years.
