Sometimes an activist’s role is to organize or attend a rally, and other times, it’s making soup for those who attended the rally.
“You don’t always have to be front and center … but you’re doing something,” said Jill Rabbino, Jews United for Justice’s senior director of development.
That’s the idea that sums up the social justice organization’s annual Heschel Vision Awards, named for leading activist Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. This year’s honorees all play different roles, united by a “shared commitment to social justice,” Rabbino said.
Washington residents Ann Hoffman and Joe Sandler and Baltimore leader Evan Serpick received their awards from JUFJ on Dec. 7.
“All three of them are activists to their core,” Rabbino said. “They’re all expressing it in different ways and doing different work, but these are people who have been changemakers and devoted to doing their part to make our world a better place for decades.”
Hoffman, a longtime JUFJ volunteer who lives in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, D.C., was recognized for her “trailblazing work and advocacy” for labor rights, housing justice and women’s rights with JUFJ.
She worked as a union lawyer for 13 years, after which Hoffman realized she would rather be a community organizer.
“One of the things about Ann that’s so cool is she’s had so many different lives,” Rabbino said, speaking to Hoffman’s work as a lawyer, adjunct professor, activist and lobbyist. “She really is one of those people who has adapted her tactics to address inequity in our world.”
“When I see something wrong, I want to fix it,” Hoffman said. “You can’t do that by yourself, so you have to be part of a group that’s doing it.”
Hoffman has been with JUFJ since its start, attending the first meeting on the ground floor of the Edlavitch DCJCC in April 1998. She’s practiced labor law since 1972 and taught fellow lawyers about employment discrimination and collective bargaining.
“Ann has been a stalwart changemaker in the D.C. region for eons,” Rabbino said. “She’s been involved in numerous cases in front of the National Labor Relations Board — she’s just a real powerhouse.”
Hoffman is active in JUFJ’s housing justice working group, where she educates members about issues affecting D.C. residents, such as the rent control and public housing systems. She also worked on a campaign to secure paid family and medical leave for workers in the District: “We’ve been successful in that fight.”
Jewish values inform much of Hoffman’s advocacy and desire to get involved: “It’s the basis. I think it’s just in my bones.”
The longtime volunteer is glad to receive an accolade for her community work.
“I’m absolutely thrilled,” Hoffman said. “It’s a recognition of the time I put in and I’m very honored.”
Sandler is also a D.C.-based expert in law. A lawyer for nearly half a century and JUFJ volunteer of more than a decade, he was recognized for his legal work “winning grassroots victories that improve people’s lives,” according to JUFJ’s website.
Sandler works with nonprofit organizations through JUFJ’s 501(c)4 sister organization, the JUFJ Campaign Fund. “He set us up for success in this way,” Rabbino said.
“He just really protects democracy in his work,” Rabbino added. “He is regularly an advisor and consultant and a lawyer for Democrats, for states, for progressive organizations, and he’s helping these organizations be more impactful, navigate legal challenges and come out the other side.”
Sandler serves on the board of the Campaign Fund, of which he is a founding member. Before that, Sandler served as general counsel at the Democratic National Committee for 15 years and as the president of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington.
“He’s just been here forever,” Rabbino said of Sandler. “He has really deep roots in the community and he’s well known and trusted by so many leaders.”
The longtime lawyer is most proud of his role in upholding the Maryland Dream Act, making Maryland one of the first states to grant in-state college tuition to so-called Dreamers — children brought to the United States without documentation.
He also worked toward raising the minimum wage in D.C. and supported Initiative 82, a voter-approved law that eliminates the lower minimum wage for tipped workers in Washington, making their pay equal to the standard minimum wage by 2027.
“It’s gratifying to feel I’ve been part of an effort to make people’s lives better and to advance policies that affect a lot of people, consistent with our Jewish values,” Sandler said.
Though he works with national organizations, Sandler said he enjoys the opportunity to effect change on a local level through JUFJ.
“I’m thrilled to be honored for this work,” Sandler said. “It’s work that I love, that I care about, and to be recognized [for] it by a group I’m involved with is definitely a special moment.”
