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Stacy Burdett, Public Policy Strategist and Advocate Countering Antisemitism; 2025 Recipient of the Roger E. Joseph Prize Andrew Rehfeld, President, Hebrew Union College

For many American Jews, the threat of antisemitism has never felt more real and immediate. Traditional strategies to fight it are profoundly challenged by political turbulence, social polarization and the role of Jewish community issues in the culture war. What action matters most at this moment? What does courageous leadership and strategic advocacy look like? When and how should we exercise our Jewish voice, as individuals, as leaders or as institutions?

Stacy Burdett  works with policymakers, philanthropies, Universities and other nonprofits on strategies to prevent and respond to antisemitism and to ensure a welcoming culture for Jews and all communities. She has testified in Congress about antisemitism at the invitation of both parties, including in the immediate aftermath of the October 7, 2023 Hamas terror attacks.

She served as Vice President for Government Relations, Advocacy and Community Engagement at the Anti-Defamation League, where she worked for 24 years, directing national issue campaigns and coalition advocacy and lobbied in Washington on Jewish as well as civil and human rights issues. In 2017, she joined the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum as its first Director of Government and External Relations to support the rollout of a new exhibit on America’s response to the rise of Nazism.  Against the backdrop of day to day debates on immigration policy, the use of terms like “America First,” she worked with Congressional and administration leaders to explore Holocaust history and its relevance to their decision making.

Stacy got her start in professional advocacy in the Soviet Jewry movement as a public affairs officer at the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews. She holds a B.A. in Middle East Studies from Barnard College, has studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and has lived and worked in Israel. Stacy has served on advisory boards for the William S. Cohen Institute for Leadership & Public Service at the University of Maine and the Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence Project. She is on the board of directors of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), the Lillian & Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, and Tivnu: Building Justice, the nation’s only Jewish gap year program.