Jews for Racial and Economic Justice Community (JFREJ) is an advocacy group that attempts to organize Jewish communities to advance far-left causes in New York City. ¹

Known for most of its existence simply as “Jews for Racial and Economic Justice,” it added “Community” in 2020 to distinguish it from its lobbying and electoral advocacy arm Jews for Racial and Economic Justice Action, which operates the controversial “The Jewish Vote” campaign. ²

Background

Jews for Racial and Economic Justice Community advocates far-left policy priorities such as the Medicare for All campaign for government-run health care, the Green New Deal, universal government-provided housing, “an end to mass incarceration and racist policing,” a “caring feminist economy,” redistribution of wealth, and opposition to “white nationalism.” ³

JFREJ Community’s advocacy is based in left-wing intersectional politics and supports the Black Lives Matter movement, “anti-fascist” activism, New York City’s Working Families Party, and other far-left sociopolitical organizations and movements. ^{4 5 6 7}

Leadership

The executive director of JFREJ Community is Audrey Sasson, a self-described socialist and Canadian immigrant from Quebec. ⁸ Before joining JFREJ, Sasson led the “Walmart-Free NYC” campaign at United Food and Commercial Workers Local 888, and also held roles at American Jewish World Service. ⁹

The chair of JFREJ Community is Alisa Solomon, a professor at Columbia University who directs the Arts and Culture concentration at Columbia Journalism School. Solomon was formerly a reporter at the Village Voice and writes regularly for The Nation. ¹⁰

Activism

Black Lives Matter Movement

Jews for Racial and Economic Justice Community identifies with and supports the Black Lives Matter movement. ^{4 5}

In 2014, JFREJ Community organized a march to protest a New York grand jury’s decision not to charge police officers in the death of Eric Garner. A reported 27 activists, including four rabbis, were arrested for non-violent protest actions. ^{11 12} JFREJ had originally planned to participate in a larger coalition-based protest that was reportedly planned long before the date or result of the grand jury’s decision was known, but pulled out when the scheduled protest conflicted with JFREJ’s annual fundraising dinner. ¹³

In July 2016, JFREJ Community organized a protest march down Brooklyn’s Atlantic Avenue to support the Black Lives Matter movement and advocate the passage of a city ordinance constraining police searches of suspected criminals. The march was coordinated with the radical-left National Lawyers Guild, which provided observers to oversee interactions between protestors and law enforcement. ⁵

In July 2020, JFREJ Community organized a march in Brooklyn in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. ⁴

Trump Administrations

JFREJ’s executive director Audrey Sasson uses extreme rhetoric to describe President Donald Trump and his administrations. She has claimed that there is a “white Christian nationalist movement that brought Trump to power” that is “antisemitic, in addition to being patriarchal, misogynist, racist, and xenophobic.” ⁶

The day after Donald Trump’s first inauguration in 2017, Sasson wrote that “it was nearly impossible to get out of bed.” “The grief, shock and rage immobilized me,” she wrote, saying, “the prospect we most dreaded had come to pass.” ¹⁴

Connections to Other Left-Wing Organizations

Jews for Racial and Economic Justice Community works closely with left-of-center and left-wing organizations. Most notably, it shares leadership and offices with its affiliated Jews for Racial and Economic Justice Action political arm, which is responsible for the salaries of their shared executive director and other key staff. ^{15 3}  In 2023, JFREJ Community paid JFREJ Action $780,000 under a “grant agreement” and another $190,925 for “timesheets.” In total, payments to JFREJ Action accounted for more than two-thirds of JFREJ Community’s $1,438,303 in 2023 expenses. ³  

JFREJ Community is part of the Communities United for Police Reform coalition in New York City. ¹³

In a 2022 case study, the left-of-center donor group Solidaire Network credited JFREJ with publicly defending the Movement for Black Lives’ “Vision for Black Lives” policy platform, which included support for Palestinian nationalism, against attacks by other Jewish organizations. ⁷

JFREJ Community is aligned with “anti-fascist” organizations such as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA), which is a radical-left advocacy group that claims inspiration from the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, a unit of American volunteers who fought for the Soviet Union-backed Republican faction of the Spanish Civil War against the Nazi Germany-backed Nationalist faction. In 2025, ALBA and the Puffin Foundation presented JFREJ with their “ALBA/Puffin Award for Human Rights Activism.” ⁶

Relationship with Other Jewish Organizations

Jews for Racial and Economic Justice Community is frequently at odds with other Jewish organizations for its decisions to prioritize far-left ‘intersectional’ activism over Jewish interests, going back to its founding in 1990 when it hosted then-South African dissident Nelson Mandela’s visit to New York City. ^{6 16} Other Jewish groups were unwilling to welcome Mandela at the time over his support for Palestinian nationalism. ⁶

In the current era, JFREJ Community and JFREJ Action have been criticized by groups such as the left-of-center Anti-Defamation League as being “consistently against both mainstream Jewish values and Interests” and not “representative in any way of the majority of the Jewish community.” ²

Unlike most other Jewish organizations, JFREJ largely supported pro-Palestinian protests and encampments at Columbia University. An April 2024 statement by its JFREJ Action affiliate 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.” ¹⁷ 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.” ¹⁸ 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.” ¹⁸

Funding

Jews for Racial and Economic Justice Community is funded through a combination of paying memberships, fundraising events, and grants from left-of-center foundations and other grantmakers. In 2023, its fundraising events generated a net $37,041. ³

In 2024, the Ford Foundation approved JFREJ Community for a grant totaling $200,000 over the next two years “to empower communities that face state violence, economic inequity, and structural oppression to govern the resources and systems that affect their lives.” ¹⁹

It has received regular funding from the left-of-center pass-through funder Tides Foundation, including $10,000 in 2023; $60,000 in 2021; $70,000 in 2020; $78,500 in 2019; and $60,000 in 2018. ²⁰

In 2018, Elluminate (formerly the Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York) made a $75,000 grant for leadership development. ²¹

The Nathan Cummings Foundation donated $150,000 in 2023. ²²

1. “JFREJ Community.” JFREJ Community. Accessed July 3, 2025. https://www.jfrejcommunity.org/.
2. 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.
3.  “Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, Full Filing .” ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer. Accessed July 2, 2025. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/133694790/202443209349314624/full.
4. McKynzie, Amber. “Jewish Community Holds Black Lives Matter Rally in New York.” Essence, October 27, 2020. https://www.essence.com/news/there-was-jewish-black-lives-matter-rally-new-york/.
5. Miller, Carly. “Jewish ‘black Lives Matter’ Rally Electrifies Atlantic Avenue.” Bklyner, August 1, 2016. https://bklyner.com/jewish-black-lives-matter-rally-electrifies-atlantic-avenue-parkslopestoop/.
6. “Anti-Fascist Always: Audrey Sasson’s Acceptance Speech on Behalf of JFREJ.” The Volunteer, May 18, 2025. https://albavolunteer.org/2025/05/anti-fascist-always-audrey-sassons-acceptance-speech-on-behalf-of-jfrej-community/.
7. “Philanthropy and the Palestinian Freedom Movement.” Solidaire Action, November 2022. https://solidaireaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Funding-Freedom_2022.pdf.
8. Sasson, Audrey. “Remembering Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz.” Remembering Melanie KayeKantrowitz. Accessed July 3, 2025. https://melaniekayekantrowitz.com/audrey-sasson/.
9.  Sasson, Audrey. “Audrey Sasson – New York, New York, United States.” LinkedIn. Accessed July 3, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/audrey-sasson-618834/.
10. “Alisa Solomon.” Columbia Journalism School. Accessed July 3, 2025. https://journalism.columbia.edu/faculty/alisa-solomon.
11. ^[1] 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/.
12. Cohen, Debra Nussbaum. “Leading New York Rabbis Arrested for Protesting Death of Eric Garner.” Haaretz, December 5, 2014. https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/2014-12-05/ty-article/.premium/nyc-rabbis-protest-garner-death/0000017f-dc25-df9c-a17f-fe3d8bd40000.
13. 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/.
14. Sasson, Audrey. “Jews Have a Critical Role in Resisting the Trump Administration.” Haaretz.com, January 21, 2017. https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2017-01-21/ty-article/.premium/jews-have-a-critical-role-in-resisting-trump/0000017f-e9bb-d62c-a1ff-fdfbdfee0000.
15. “Jews for Racial and Economic Justice Action Inc.” ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer. Accessed July 2, 2025. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/853906443.
16. Balthaser, Benjamin. “The Outcasts of Zion.” Boston Review, June 10, 2025. https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/the-outcasts-of-zion/.
17. “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.
18. 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/.
19. “151008 – Jews for Racial and Economic Justice Community, Inc..” Ford Foundation. Accessed July 3, 2025. https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/our-grants/awarded-grants/grants-database/jews-for-racial-and-economic-justice-community-inc-151008/.
20. “Tides Foundation.” ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer. Accessed July 3, 2025. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/510198509.
21. “Grants Bible.” Elluminate, October 2019. https://elluminatewomen.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Grants-Bible-Updated-10-2019-1-1.pdf.
22. “Our Partners.” Nathan Cummings Foundation, December 4, 2023. https://nathancummings.org/our-partners/.