The NYS Tenant Bloc is organizing tenants from our homes to the ballot box to take power from the real estate industry. Tenants are half the state: united we could take control over our homes and democracy. Their advocacy helps all New Yorkers, up-and-down the state, winning victories such as good cause eviction protections, eviction moratoria, and statewide rent stabilization. At this moment, the number one issue New Yorkers are facing is the affordability crisis and housing insecurity. We celebrate the work of NYS Tenant Bloc and their commitment to building a New York for ALL. 

We are honoring M. Gessen in recognition of their scholarship and activism dedicated to combatting fascism, in this current political climate where totalitarianism is on the rise we wish to celebrate and learn from their work within the anti-fascist field. M. Gessen is an opinion columnist for The New York Times. They are the author of 11 books of nonfiction, most recently Surviving Autocracy, as well as The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia, which won the National Book Award in 2017. In December 2023, The New Yorker published an essay by Gessen titled "In the Shadow of the Holocaust," which won the author a George Polk Award for Commentary and nearly cost them the Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought.

Most recently, M. Gessen authored a must-read NYT op-ed entitled “The Attacks on Zohran Mamdani Show That We Need a New Understanding of Antisemitism.” If you have not already, give it a read! 

Brad Lander and Zohran Mamdani are each incredible leaders in their own right. But at this year’s Mazals, we honor their partnership and the hope and optimism they’ve inspired.

Brad Lander: Brad Lander is a dad, a Brooklynite, and a lifelong public servant who has spent his career solving New Yorkers problems — first as an affordable housing leader, then in the City Council, and now as NYC Comptroller. For years, Brad ran housing organizations like the Fifth Avenue Committee and the Pratt Center for Community Development, building and saving thousands of affordable homes. On the City Council, Brad passed groundbreaking legislation to protect workers. In Gowanus, he led the largest redevelopment effort in the city that created thousands of units of affordable housing. As Comptroller, Brad was the first public official to stand up to Donald Trump and Elon Musk when they stole $80 million in taxpayer money from our city, and he rejected Eric Adams’s no-bid contract that wasted $432 million in taxpayer money. From his days in City Council to his current role as Comptroller, Brad has been JFREJ’s staunchest ally in office for over a decade, including organizing with us to pass landmark legislation to end Stop & Frisk in NYC, and most recently, putting his body on the line between new New Yorkers and the ICE Gestapo who have invaded our city. 

Zohran Mamdani: Zohran Kwame Mamdani is a New York State Assemblymember, democratic socialist, and the Democratic nominee for Mayor of New York City. Born in Uganda and raised in NYC, he has fought for the working class in and outside the legislature: hunger striking alongside taxi drivers to achieve more than $450 million in transformative debt relief, winning over $100 million in the state budget for increased subway service and a successful fare-free bus pilot, and organizing New Yorkers to defeat a proposed dirty power plant. JFREJ has been proud to organize alongside him for a ceasefire and full hostage deal, for Fair Pay for Home Care, and for the Not On Our Dime Act, and to have endorsed him for mayor. 

Together, Brad and Zohran – a progressive Jew and a Muslim socialist – teamed up, refusing to attack one another, and stayed focused on preventing Cuomo’s comeback. Their ongoing collaboration has been a model of true solidarity and leadership dedicated to the public good, offering a new kind of politics altogether. Instead of vicious infighting, we got joyful collaboration. We got to see what happens when we join forces as progressives and Leftists, have each others’ backs, and maximize our collective power. We are delighted to honor them.