NEW YORK – T’ruah, a rabbinic human rights organization that represents over 2,300 rabbis and cantors in the U.S. and Canada, will honor former U.S. Representative Andy Levin with its prestigious Raphael Lemkin Human Rights Award at its annual gala this year. Levin’s political legacy includes steadfast devotion to justice and human rights for all.
Most notably, Levin introduced and passed the resolution that protects congressional staff’s right to organize and bargain collectively in the House of Representatives and introduced the Two-State Solution Act, which would have affirmed U.S. support for two states as the best means of ensuring the human rights and security of both Israelis and Palestinians. This act also would have moved to reverse steps taken by the Trump administration that impeded a two-state solution.
“T’ruah is proud to honor and recognize former Congressman Andy Levin for his commitment to justice and equity for all people,” said Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of T’ruah. “Congressman Levin took a bold risk by introducing the Two-State Solution Act, and as a result, right-wing political organizations that claim to be pro-Israel poured millions of dollars into defeating him. In fact, the vast majority of American Jews who care about the future of Israel support investing in the human rights of both Israelis and Palestinians, ending settlement growth, and building a sovereign state of Palestine next to the sovereign state of Israel.”
Other honorees for the evening include Rabbi Lauren Grabelle Herrmann and Rabbi Mira Rivera, who will receive the Rabbinic Human Rights Hero Award. Herrmann, the Rabbi of SAJ-Judaism that Stands for All in New York City, will be honored for her racial and economic justice efforts within and outside the congregation, including advocacy for unhoused people, immigrants, and LGBTQ+ youth, as well as her leadership on reproductive justice. In 2020, she organized interfaith clergy to stand with residents of the Lucerne Hotel, opened as a shelter during the pandemic, who were fighting for the right to remain there in the face of opposition from Upper West Side neighbors.
Rivera is the Rabbi-in-Residence of the Lunar Collective and the first rabbi to serve at Ammud: The Jews of Color Torah Academy. She will be recognized for her advocacy efforts promoting and elevating the voices of Jews of Color and fostering racially just and inclusive environments that affirm the spirituality and identity of all Jewish people. Rivera recently returned from a trip to the U.S. southern border as a part of T’ruah and HIAS joint delegation.
Rabbi Mordechai Liebling will receive the Founder’s Award for his prophetic vision in the co-founding of T’ruah and everlasting commitment to the Torah of justice. Liebling is the Senior Advisor at POWER Interfaith and the founder of the Social Justice Organizing Program at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. Prior to that, he was the Executive Vice-President of Jewish Funds for Justice (now Bend the Arc).
The Kemach Torah Award will be presented to writer, activist, and educator Anne Germanacos for her commitment to the Jewish movement for justice as one of the first lay leader board members at T’ruah. She is also the founder of Firehouse Fund: Cultivating Sparks, which provides philanthropic support to a variety of local and international justice organizations and individuals.
“Each of our honorees lives out their Judaism by taking risks for human rights, including when these positions are not popular or easy. All of our honorees have dedicated their lives and platforms to build a more compassionate world, where all people are treated with dignity and justice,” Jacobs said.
T’ruah will honor the above honorees during its annual gala, a celebration of human rights, on May 10, 2023.
The Raphael Lemkin Award is named for the Jewish refugee lawyer who coined the term genocide, and fought for the establishment of the Genocide Convention, just after most of his own family was murdered by Nazis. The award honors someone who has taken risks for human rights out of their Jewish commitments. Previous Raphael Lemkin Human Rights Award honorees include social justice leader and founder of JANE Heather Booth, Democracy Docket founder and democracy activist Marc Elias, American Federation of Teachers President and labor leader Randi Weingarten, and lawyer Debra Katz for her representation of survivors of sexual assault and harassment, among other prominent human rights leaders.
T’ruah’s gala is open to the public and the media. Media interested in speaking with Former Congressman Andy Levin and T’ruah CEO Rabbi Jill Jacobs, in addition to any of the other honorees, ahead of the gala please contact Audrey Carroll at acarroll@westendstrategy.com.
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights mobilizes a network of more than 2,300 rabbis and cantors from all streams of Judaism that, together with the Jewish community, act on the Jewish imperative to respect and advance the human rights of all people. Grounded in Torah and our Jewish historical experience and guided by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we call upon Jews to assert Jewish values by raising our voices and taking concrete steps to protect and expand human rights in North America, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories.