Evan Serpick is a member of the Jews United for Justice Maryland leadership team, and on Sunday, Dec. 7, he was honored, along with two others, with a 2025 Heschel Vision Award.
That’s not why Serpick does what he does, though. In fact, he’s not even sure he wants an award at all.
“It’s a little bit, I don’t know, embarrassing,” he said. “There’s so many people, both in the organization and in the kind of activism and the movements we work with, that have been doing so much work for so long that it feels a little odd to be recognized like that.”
For Serpick, what matters most is helping others, as his Jewish values tell him to. Since his upbringing in a Conservative Jewish household, he has wanted to use what he has to give back to people who need a hand. JUFJ, an organization that advocates for economic, racial and social justice in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., areas through local Jewish communities, has helped him do that.
“Jewish life has been a thread throughout my life, and there’s certain concepts that have always resonated with me. [And it’s] not just the text; it’s the history of our people. I feel like there are heroes in Jewish history and culture. I just felt like this is our legacy, to really advocate on behalf of people, and I felt really connected to that. So doing this kind of work, being able to do it as part of that tradition and legacy, feels really important to me.”
While there are other people who may deserve an award for their advocacy, too, Serpick has definitely earned his. The award is, as its title says, given to those whose vision has helped further the organization’s mission.
Jill Rabbino, JUFJ’s senior director of development, said that Serpick is the right man for the award.
“Evan is a devout JUFJer. We established in Baltimore 11 years ago, … and he has been a champion of our work since day one. He’s really, really on the ground. He is one of those [people who] if he raises his hand — which he does often — he’s going to follow through and that’s a great thing.”
Serpick, as a member of the JUFJ Maryland leadership team, has helped directly advocate for policies that help bring justice to Marylanders at the state and local levels.
“The model is that we partner with impacted communities. For example, with immigration, we partner with CASA, which is the largest immigrant advocacy organization in Maryland,” Serpick said. “We work with them to identify the priorities in Annapolis every year. A lot of it is protecting local immigrants from really overzealous enforcement, like preventing local law enforcement from being forced to cooperate with ICE, for example.”
Serpick heard about the organization a little more than a decade ago, when it expanded into Baltimore. He was at Beth Am, his synagogue, when the then-director visited and spoke about the organization. Immediately, Serpick knew he wanted to take part.
“I just instantly felt connected to it. I had been involved in advocacy and activism, and to be able to do that in this Jewish context, which is really what drives my activism, this is one of those moments where you encounter an organization, you’re like, ‘Oh, this is exactly where I’m supposed to be,’” he said. “The fact that they were doing work around immigration support and economic justice and racial justice, and doing it all from a place of Jewish values, [I thought] ‘Oh, this is amazing. This is perfect.’ So, I sort of plugged in right away.”
The organization seeks honorees who reflect JUFJ’s values, are active leaders in making change and participate in JUFJ’s work, according to Rabbino, which is why Serpick was and is a good fit.
“We are really looking for people who consider themselves JUFJers, who really connect with us,” Rabbino said.
Serpick started out with Baltimore-centric advocacy, but he has moved to statewide work in the past few years, particularly around criminal justice and youth justice reform, as well as immigration. One of the things he is most proud of is helping catalyze the Baltimore Synagogue Social Justice Roundtable, a group of social justice chairs from various area shuls. That group has been able to “activate” their congregations, he said, and garner more volunteer work from within their walls.
For anyone who wants to help, JUFJ is there to give them an avenue to do so. Serpick said that, right now, maybe more than ever, that work is important.
“Given the state of affairs on the national level and just the feeling that impacted communities are under threat, I feel particularly important about this work now, because I feel like there’s a lot of helplessness and hopelessness you can feel in the world,” he said. “I encourage folks to get engaged.”
