Find Your Fight

What drives you to fight for what matters most? 

Before you can become an effective activist or trusted ally, you first have to find your fight—to pinpoint the issue or issues that matter most to you. Once you figure this out, you can start moving what’s inside you to the outside, where change happens.

For more than three decades, Jay Ruderman, activist and president of the Ruderman Family Foundation, has been doing just that, working to change popular opinion and influence public policy on the issues that move him, from promoting disability inclusion and mental health advocacy to changing the culture of the entertainment industry. 

In this inspiring call to action, Ruderman offers aspiring activists and advocates hard-earned wisdom, sure-fire strategies, and actionable lessons for how to create controversy, speak up, and grab attention for the causes closest to their hearts, including how to: 

• Be persistent and be prepared
• Spark controversy 
• Leverage power
• Know your “no” 
• Fight forward 

With authenticity, purpose, and an inspiring call to action, Ruderman details his many successes (and more than a few setbacks) to illustrate these lessons in action. Complementing his stories are profiles of notable activists and advocates from the past and present, including Congressman John Lewis, Yippie iconoclast Abbie Hoffman, NBA star Kevin Love, and water rights activist and community organizer Amariyanna “Little Miss Flint” Copeny, among others.

Urgent and unapologetic, Find Your Fight teaches the next generation of activists and advocates how to step up, shout out, and start doing the hard work of bringing about lasting change through these proven rules for making what matters most matter even more. 

Jay Ruderman

Jay Ruderman is an activist and president of the Ruderman Family Foundation who has focused his life’s work on seeking social justice by advocating for people with disabilities worldwide. Prior to joining the Foundation, he was an assistant district attorney. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, as well as the Board of Directors at Brandeis University and the University of Haifa. He lives in Boston with his wife, Shira, and their four children.