Exactly one week ago, on December 15th, our community came together to ground ourselves in our shared purpose and feel the love, joy, and spirit of our peoples in one place at The Mazals 2020: The Breakthrough Party. And, thanks to all of you, we reached our goal of raising $154,000 to keep building the Jewish left of our wildest imaginations.
Although I greatly missed seeing you in person, more people than ever attended this year's Mazals. Over 1,000 people purchased tickets, and we reached over 100k people through our livestream.
At our Cocktail Hour we heard from Rep. Rashida Tlaib, and Tony Kushner spoke in conversation with JFREJ member, Sivan Battat, about the importance of art in our movements and about JFREJ’s long history of fighting for racial and economic justice in NYC. JFREJ member and SVARA leader, Laynie Solomon, held space to hold the immense grief that this year has brought. And incoming board chair, Megan Madison, led us in a virtual Chanukah candle-lighting blessing.
You can find the recording of the Cocktail hour here.
Our honorees, Jews For Jamaal, Let My People Go, Anthonine Pierre and the Brooklyn Movement Center, and the Nurses of NYSNA shared their wisdom, vision, and calls to action.
If you missed it or just want to relive it, you can watch the main program here.
Our captivating, elevating, and deeply moving Mazals band knitted the evening together and nurtured the necessary intimacy and joy that’s so hard to foster at a virtual event. Laura Lassy Townsend, Ira Khonen Temple, and April Centrone, took us to another level. And I am thrilled to announce that you can buy two of the songs they performed at The Mazals on Bandcamp starting at $1 or more! And they're generously giving a percentage of the proceeds to The Jewish Vote. Listen and buy the songs here!
A true highlight was Morgan Bassichis, our magnificent emcee, who led us through the miracle that was this year’s Mazals.
A big thank you to our ASL interpreters Brandon Kazen-Maddox & Jessica Ames as well as to our Spanish interpreters Luis López & Edward Garcia.
We’re so lucky to be able to honor our honorees (and one lucky raffle winner) with custom art (below) by the inimitable Molly Crabapple depicting Miriam leading the way.
Lastly, check out these amazing selfies that attendees sent to Mazals@jfrej.org during the event.
I hope you had as much fun and felt as nourished as I did last week.
In gratitude for what we are building,
Audrey Sasson
Executive Director, JFREJ & TJV