Biden awards presidential medals to Jewish same-sex marriage activist, philanthropist

JTA — An activist for marriage equality and a philanthropist and photographer are among the Jewish recipients of the Presidential Citizens Medal, a civilian honor bestowed by US President Joe Biden on Thursday.

Biden is awarding the medal to 20 people in total, including former Republican representative Liz Cheney, who stood out in recent years — and drew ire from her own party — for her outspoken condemnation of the pro-Donald Trump January 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol. Biden will also give the honor to former Democratic senators Chris Dodd and Ted Kaufman. Kaufman’s father was Jewish but he was raised Catholic.

The other recipients include Bobby Sager, a Jewish photographer and philanthropist who focuses on education and creating opportunities for low-income people abroad, including Palestinian women artisans. In 2017, Sager also gave an address on Yom Kippur at the Vilna Shul in Boston, a historic synagogue that now serves as a Jewish cultural center. He spoke about how his son celebrated his bar mitzvah at the synagogue and about the institution’s “potential as an engine for Jewish tradition, Jewish thought and Jewish action.”

Another recipient is Evan Wolfson, a lawyer and leading activist for marriage equality. In a statement about Wolfson, the White House commended his decades of advocacy for same-sex marriage and said he “worked with singular focus and untiring optimism to change not just the law, but society — pioneering a political playbook for change and sharing its lessons, even now, with countless causes worldwide.”