T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights honors Alice Kuhn, others at Celebration of Human Rights attended by Mayor Mamdani, Manhattan Borough President Hoylman-Sigal, and NYC Comptroller Levine
NEW YORK – On Tuesday, T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, a rabbinic human rights organization that represents over 2,300 rabbis and cantors in the U.S. and Canada, honored five Jewish human rights heroes at its annual gala, A Celebration of Human Rights. Honorees included Alice Kuhn, Gili Getz, Rabbi Susan Goldberg, Rabbi Shawn Zevit, and Cantor Sheri Allen.
About 250 attendees gathered at B’nai Jeshurun synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side for an evening of dinner, speakers, and a panel conversation with the honorees. Notable attendees included several leading New York City elected officials: Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, and Comptroller Mark Levine.
Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of T’ruah, said: “Each of our honorees — and our over 2,300 rabbi and cantor members — are living out their Judaism by taking risks for human rights, including when these positions are not popular or easy. Whether they are standing against attacks on democracy and ICE’s brutality and cruelty, or working for an end to the occupation, against annexation and settler violence, and for a better future for Palestinians and Israelis, these clergy are building a more compassionate world, where all people are treated with dignity and justice.”
“We live in a time of immense division and mistrust, where too many are subjected to immense cruelty,” said New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who spoke at the gala. “Where violence is made to feel normal. Where suffering has become commonplace. For too many in New York City and across the country, liberation feels out of reach. Fear lurks around the corner. Never has the work that tonight’s honorees and this organization does ever been more important.”
Alice Kuhn received T’ruah’s prestigious Kemach Torah Award. The award recognizes Kuhn’s longtime investment in T’ruah’s programs to develop the moral leadership of rabbinical and cantorial students, thereby shaping generations of Jewish leaders who mobilize their communities to work for social justice. Alice and her late husband Michael founded The Michael and Alice Kuhn Foundation in 1996. Alice serves as President of the foundation which provides grants to support change-makers fighting for social and economic justice around the country. She has served on numerous boards, including JOIN for Justice, the Jewish Federation of Austin, the Jewish Family Service of Austin, the New Milestones Foundation, and the Capital Area Food Bank. As a longtime supporter of T’ruah, Alice has also invested in the transformative work to train, support, and develop the moral voices of rabbinical and cantorial students as they prepare to lead Jewish communities across the country.
Other honorees for the evening included Israeli-American peace activist and photographer Gili Getz. Getz received T’ruah’s illustrious Raphael Lemkin Human Rights Award, which honors someone who has taken risks for human rights out of their own Jewish commitment. The 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. Getz’s work focuses on opposing the occupation, bridge-building, transformation, and fostering open and honest dialogue within the American Jewish community. Getz is best known for his extensive documentation of Jewish American political activism and is a regular contributor to Jewish and Israeli media. Following October 7, he co-founded Israelis for Peace, advocating for the freedom, safety, and dignity of both Israelis and Palestinians. He serves as president of American Friends of Combatants for Peace, a binational Palestinian-Israeli movement committed to joint nonviolent resistance, reconciliation and collective liberation and as vice president of Partners for Progressive Israel.
Rabbi Susan Goldberg and Rabbi Shawn Zevit received the Rabbinic Human Rights Hero Award. Goldberg, the founder and rabbi of Nefesh, a spiritual community in Los Angeles, was honored for her long-term leadership in interfaith immigration solidarity in Los Angeles and for her commitment to standing with immigrants facing the Marines and National Guard in her city last year. Zevit, the rabbi of Mishkan Shalom, a Reconstructionist synagogue in Philadelphia, was honored for his embodiment of the Torah of justice as a rabbi, artist, community organizer, and trainer about the integration of activism and spiritual practice. Both Goldberg and Zevit were nominated for the award by members of their community and selected by a special committee.
Cantor Sheri Allen received the Action Under Fire Award, a special award given to individuals who have sustained their commitments to human rights under exceptionally difficult circumstances. Allen, the cantor and co-founder of Makom Shelanu in Fort Worth, Texas, was honored for her steadfast commitment to the struggle for LGBTQ+ protections in the face of dangerous political repression in her home state.
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T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights brings the Torah’s ideals of human dignity, equality, and justice to life by empowering our network of over 2,300 rabbis and cantors to be moral voices and to lead Jewish communities in advancing democracy and human rights for all people in the United States, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories.