The Jews for a Secular Democracy (JFASD) Constitutional Defender Award is presented to outstanding individuals who embody the JFASD mission by bringing Jewish values and experiences to defend the U.S. First Amendment Constitutional right to freedom of and from religion.
The following individuals are JFASD Constitutional Defender Award Recipients:
2026 – Randi Weingarten
President of the American Federation of Teachers
Randi Weingarten will receive the Constitutional Defender Award on Friday April 24, 2026, at the Congregation for Humanistic Judaism of Metro Detroit. To attend in person, register here. To watch live online, please visit CHJ-Detroit’s YouTube channel livestream here at 7:30pm that day.
About Randi Weingarten:
Dedicated to protecting public education in America free from religious coercion such as book banning, Randi Weingarten is president of the 1.8 million-member American Federation of Teachers (AFT), which represents teachers; paraprofessionals and school-related personnel; higher education faculty and staff; nurses and other healthcare professionals; local, state and federal government employees; and early childhood educators. The AFT is dedicated to the belief that every person in America deserves the freedom to thrive, fueled by opportunity, justice and a voice in our democracy. Prior to her election as AFT president in 2008, Weingarten served for 11 years as president of the United Federation of Teachers, AFT Local 2, representing approximately 200,000 educators in the New York City public school system. Weingarten is the recipient of many commendations; she was included in Washingtonian’s 2021 Washington’s Most Influential People, City & State New York’s 2021 New York City Labor Power 100, and in 2017 received the Roosevelt Institute’s FDR Distinguished Public Service Award. In 2013, the New York Observer named Weingarten one of the most influential New Yorkers of the past 25 years. Weingarten holds degrees from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations and the Cardozo School of Law.
2021 – Jamie Raskin
Congressman (MD-08), Co-Founder of the Congressional Freethought Caucus
Representative Jamie Raskin received the Constitutional Defender Award on December 5, 2021, in Silver Spring, Maryland, at a JFASD Hanukkah program co-sponsored by Machar, the Secular Humanistic Jewish Congregation of Greater Washington. Watch a video of the presentation and his acceptance speech here.
About Jamie Raskin:
A staunch defender of the Constitution, Rep. Raskin represents Maryland’s 8th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives and was sworn into his fifth Term at the start of the 119th Congress on January 6, 2025. He was chosen by the Democratic Caucus to be the Ranking Member of the House Committee on the Judiciary in the 119th Congress. After the violent insurrection at the Capitol in January 2021, then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed Rep. Raskin as the lead impeachment manager in the second impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump. Rep. Raskin was subsequently appointed to serve on the bipartisan Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol and led its legal and constitutional team.
Before being elected to Congress, Rep. Raskin was a three-term State Senator in Maryland, where he served as Majority Whip. Before entering Congress, Rep. Raskin was a professor of constitutional law at American University’s Washington College of Law for more than 25 years. He has authored several books, including the New York Times #1 best-seller Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth and the Trials of American Democracy. Rep. Raskin is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School and a former editor of the Harvard Law Review.
2019 – Rachel Laser
President and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State
Rachel Laser received the Constitutional Defender Award on April 26, 2019, at the 50th Anniversary Conference of the Society for Humanistic Judaism, held at the Congregation for Humanistic Judaism of Metro Detroit in Farmington Hills, Michigan. You can watch a video of the award ceremony here, and her keynote presentation here, “Why Maintaining the Wall Between Religion and Government is a Jewish and American Imperative.”
Rachel Laser (center) receives the Constitutional Defender Award from SHJ Board Member Sheila Sebor and SHJ Executive Director Paul Golin.
About Rachel Laser:
When Rachel Laser became President and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, she became the first non-Christian and female leader in the organization’s 78-year history. Laser is a lawyer, advocate and strategist who has dedicated her career to making our country more inclusive. She knows that we must shield our laws from any religion’s influence in order to be able to come together as equals and build a stronger democracy. Laser has a proven track record of uniting both faith and secular leaders and advocacy organizations to make real progress on some of the most important issues of our time. As a religious minority – she was raised as a Reform Jew – Laser personally understands how much it matters that our laws treat everyone fairly and equally. Before joining AU, Rachel Laser built bridges between disparate groups on a host of issues that connect to church-state separation. As the deputy director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (the RAC), she ran interfaith campaigns on LGBTQ+ equality, immigration reform, gun-violence prevention, and paid sick, family and medical leave. She directed the Culture Program at Third Way, a Washington, D.C., progressive think tank specializing in understanding and reaching moderates. As senior counsel at the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), Laser founded and ran the Pharmacy Refusal Project, which put protections in place to ensure that birth control prescriptions are filled – without delay or judgment. Laser is a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Chicago Law School.