Jews for Racial and Economic Justice Action (JFREJ Action) is a left-of-center political activist organization created in 2020 by the left-wing advocacy group Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (also known as JFREJ Community.) ¹ JFREJ Action promotes far-left policies and works to organize Jewish voters in New York to support socialist and far-left Democratic candidates at the municipal, state, and national levels. ²

As of 2023, almost two-thirds of JFREJ Action’s funding came from grants and expense reimbursements from its 501(c)(3) charitable parent organization JFREJ Community.  ^{3 4}

Overview

Jews for Racial and Economic Justice Action’s advocacy is based on left-wing identity politics and ‘intersectionality’ concepts, leading it to oppose “capitalism, ethnonationalism, antisemitism, xenophobia, racism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, and misogyny.” ⁵

The executive director of JFREJ Community is Audrey Sasson, a self-described socialist and Canadian immigrant from Quebec. ⁶  Before joining JFREJ, Sasson led the “Walmart-Free NYC” campaign with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 888 and also held roles at American Jewish World Service. ⁷

Activism

Jews for Racial and Economic Justice Action’s left-wing, intersectional principles frequently place it at odds with other Jewish organizations, which criticize it for prioritizing intersectional radical-left positions over Jewish interests. ^{8 9}

One prominent example of this is in 2024, when JFREJ broke with other Jewish organizations to largely support pro-Palestinian protests and encampments at Columbia University. An April 2024 statement by JFREJ Action noted “a handful of genuinely distressing antisemitic incidents” at Columbia, but dismissed them in favor of focusing on what it described as “the real war zone: Gaza.” ¹⁰ That same month, JFREJ action director of strategic action Leo Ferguson published a column in the left-of-center Jewish newspaper The Forward contending that pro-Palestinian protestors at Columbia and other universities were “fighting for our deepest values as Jews.” ¹¹  Ferguson dismissed the safety concerns of Jewish students and faculty, writing “there is simply no evidence that anyone at Columbia or NYU is unsafe because of the protests.” ¹¹

On October 7, 2023, JFREJ Action released a statement by its executive director Audrey Sasson that characterized Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel as “neither justifiable nor unprovoked.” ¹²

JFREJ Action is part of the Reject AIPAC coalition of left-of-center organizations that oppose the bipartisan American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobbying organization. ^{2 13}

The Jewish Vote

The Jewish Vote is the ‘electoral arm’ of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice Action. Its purpose is to organize Jewish voters in New York in support of far-left candidates at the municipal, state and national level. It works closely with and is a voting member of the far-left Working Families Party, which U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) described in 2016 as “the closest thing there is to a political party that believes in my vision of democratic socialism.” ^{14 15}

The Jewish Vote’s endorsement and support are credited with helping former Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) defeat 16-term incumbent then-Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) for the Democratic nomination in New York’s 16th Congressional District in 2020. ^{16 17}  Bowman, who also ran as the nominee of the Working Families Party, was censured by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2023 for setting off a fire alarm in a House office building that delayed a vote on budget legislation, and was defeated in the 2024 Democratic primary. ^{18 19}

During the 2025 New York City mayoral elections, The Jewish Vote operated a “Jews for Zohran” campaign in support of self-described socialist New York Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani (D-Queens) in the Democratic primary and general election. Mamdani was also the candidate of the Working Families Party. ²⁰

Other Campaigns

Jews for Racial and Economic Justice Action operates campaigns promoting left-of-center and radical-left policies on issues such as economic policy, criminal justice, welfare and social programs, housing, immigration, antisemitism, and the Israel-Palestine conflict. ¹

These campaigns are grounded in JFREJ Action’s left-wing, intersectional politics, and include broad left-wing priorities such as the Medicare for All campaign for government-run health care and a Green New Deal. ¹

JFREJ Action’s campaign against antisemitism is targeted almost entirely at right-wing antisemitism, which it frames as “fueled by the growing power of far-right white Christian nationalist movements.” ²¹

On immigration, JFREJ Action supports the creation of “sanctuary cities,” the abolition of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency under the “#JewsAgainstICE” hashtag, and the decriminalization of undocumented immigration. ²²

Its criminal justice reform proposals include “ultimately organizing to abolish the NYPD.” ²³  It is part of the Communities United for Police Reform coalition in New York City and endorses Black Lives Matter movement police reform principles. ^{24 23}

JFREJ Action operates a “Care and Caregiving” campaign that supports a number of labor union policy priorities such as the Fight for $15 minimum wage campaign and associated campaign to raise the New York City minimum wage to $30/hour by 2030; New York state’s Fair Pay for Home Care Act, which would raise the state minimum hourly wage from $12.50 to $22.50 for home care workers; universal government-subsidized child care; and universal government-subsidized home care for elderly and disabled people. ²⁵

Criticism

In July 2022, Jonathan Greenblatt of the left-leaning Anti-Defamation League (ADL) shared a Twitter thread that called JFREJ Action a “pro-dystopian organization” that is “consistently against both mainstream Jewish values and Interests.” ⁸  An ADL spokesperson told the New York Jewish Week that Greenblatt’s repost “reflected ‘agreement with the larger view that a group calling itself The Jewish Vote isn’t representative in any way of the majority of the Jewish community.’”  ⁸

Funding

A significant component of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice Action’s funding comes from its charitable 501(c)(3) parent organization Jews for Racial and Economic Justice Community. In 2023, JFREJ Community paid JFREJ Action $780,000 under a “grant agreement” and another $190,925 for “timesheets.”  ⁴ This accounted for slightly less than two-thirds of JFREJ Action’s $1,504,370 in funding that year. ³

1. “Home.” Jews For Racial & Economic Justice. Accessed July 2, 2025. https://www.jfrej.org/.
2. “The Jewish Vote.” Jews For Racial & Economic Justice. Accessed July 2, 2025. https://www.jfrej.org/campaigns/jewishvote.
3. “Jews for Racial and Economic Justice Action Inc.” ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer. Accessed July 2, 2025. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/853906443.
4. “Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, Full Filing .” ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer. Accessed July 2, 2025. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/133694790/202443209349314624/full.
5. “Who We Are.” Jews For Racial & Economic Justice. Accessed July 2, 2025. https://www.jfrej.org/about.
6. Sasson, Audrey. “Remembering Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz.” Remembering Melanie KayeKantrowitz. Accessed July 3, 2025. https://melaniekayekantrowitz.com/audrey-sasson/.
7. Sasson, Audrey. “Audrey Sasson – New York, New York, United States.” LinkedIn. Accessed July 3, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/audrey-sasson-618834/.
8. Henry, Jacob. “ADL Condemns NY Progressive Group Jews for Racial & Economic Justice as ‘Out of Touch.’” Jewish Telegraphic Agency. July 29, 2022. https://www.jta.org/2022/07/29/ny/adl-condemns-ny-progressive-group-jews-for-racial-and-economic-justice-as-out-of-touch.
9. Balthaser, Benjamin. “The Outcasts of Zion.” Boston Review, June 10, 2025. https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/the-outcasts-of-zion/.
10. “Jews for Racial & Economic Justice Comments on Response to Columbia…” Jews For Racial & Economic Justice. Accessed July 3, 2025. https://www.jfrej.org/news/2024/04/jews-for-racial-economic-justice-comments-on-response-to-columbia-university-student-protests.
11. Ferguson, Leo. “Protesters at Columbia Are Fighting for Our Deepest Values as Jews.” The Forward, April 25, 2024. https://forward.com/opinion/606253/columbia-protest-gaza-israel-jewish-values-passover/.
12. “Statement on Escalating Violence in Israel-Palestine (Oct 7, 2023).” Jews For Racial & Economic Justice. Accessed July 3, 2025. https://www.jfrej.org/news/2023/10/statement-on-escalating-violence-in-israel-palestine-10-7-23.
13. REJECT AIPAC. Accessed July 2, 2025. https://www.rejectaipac.org/.
14. Bredderman, Will. “Bernie Sanders Calls the Working Families Party ‘the Closest Thing’ to Socialism.” Observer. November 05, 2016. http://observer.com/2016/11/bernie-sanders-calls-the-working-families-party-the-closest-thing-to-socialism/
15. “Freedom to Thrive.” Jews For Racial & Economic Justice. Accessed July 3, 2025. https://www.jfrej.org/campaigns/freedom-to-thrive.
16. De la Cretaz, Britni. “How the Jewish Group That Helped Elect Jamaal Bowman Is Disrupting the Establishment.” Refinery29, July 23, 2020. https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/07/9929442/the-jewish-vote-jamaal-bowman-election-progressive-jews.
17. Marans, Daniel. “How Jamaal Bowman Beat Rep. Eliot Engel in the Bronx.” HuffPost, July 2, 2020. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/how-jamaal-bowman-beat-eliot-engel-new-york-democratic-primary-congressional-seat_n_5efa4cf9c5b6ca970913947d.
18. Guo, Kayla. “House Censures Jamaal Bowman for False Fire Alarm (Published 2023).” The New York Times, December 7, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/07/us/politics/jamaal-bowman-censure-fire-alarm.html.
19. “Jamaal Bowman.” Ballotpedia. Accessed June 27, 2025. https://ballotpedia.org/Jamaal_Bowman.
20. “Jews for Zohran – Sign Up!” Jews For Racial & Economic Justice. Accessed July 3, 2025. https://www.jfrej.org/news/2025/06/jews4zohran.
21. “Organizing against Antisemitism.” Jews For Racial & Economic Justice. Accessed July 3, 2025. https://www.jfrej.org/campaigns/antisemitism.
22. “Migrant & Housing Justice.” Jews For Racial & Economic Justice. Accessed July 3, 2025. https://www.jfrej.org/campaigns/migrant-housing-justice.
23. “Ending NYPD Violence.” Jews For Racial & Economic Justice. Accessed July 3, 2025. https://www.jfrej.org/campaigns/freedom-to-thrive/holding-police-accountable.
24. Cassano, Jay. “Taking Action on Racial Injustice Is the ‘Responsibility of All New Yorkers.’” Waging Nonviolence, February 22, 2019. https://wagingnonviolence.org/2014/12/taking-action-responsibility-new-yorkers/.
25. “Care & Caregiving.” Jews For Racial & Economic Justice. Accessed July 3, 2025. https://www.jfrej.org/campaigns/caring-majority.