To mark five years since the death of Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz — JFREJ's first Executive Director — Leslie Cagan, Barbara Smith, Esther Kaplan, Aurora Levins Morales, Jenny Romaine, Kathy Engel, Roni Natov, Alisa Solomon, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Helena Lipstadt and Megan Madison gathered to hold a reading of her work. Watch the video below.

A prolific writer, over the course of a lifetime of activism, artistic work and teaching Melanie wrote poetry, fiction and analytical material. Her fervent, lifelong anti-racist activism grounded all of her work, and her articulation of Diasporism as a conscious alternative to Zionism has had a deep impact in the Jewish left. Melanie's work on gender and sexuality has touched the lives of women since the early 1970s.