Joel Freedman, of Silver Spring, MD, died at his home on Sat., Oct. 17, 2026, after more than two years of treatment for bladder cancer. He was 82 years old.

Joel was born in Queens, NY to Phyllis and Irving Freedman. He graduated from Cornell University in 1966 with a degree in Industrial & Labor Relations. There, he met Rita (Siegel) with whom he shared 59 years of marriage and parallel and intersecting careers fighting for civil rights, labor unions, and international democracy.

Joel spent over two decades serving as Assistant to the President of the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers, where, after being mentored by civil rights icon Bayard Rustin, he supported independent, free trade unions as the catalyst for workplace and national democracy throughout Eastern Europe, Africa, and Latin America. After peaceful democratic revolutions, he helped establish building trades training centers in South Africa, Nicaragua, and elsewhere.

After Cornell, Joel received his MBA from Columbia University and then pursued additional studies at University of Pennsylvania. He received his Juris Doctor from Seton Hall University. Joel taught business law at Suffolk County Community College (NY), where he served on the board of American Federation of Teachers Local 3038 before moving to Maryland to work for the Bricklayers in 1985.

He is survived by Rita, children Eugene Freedman (Rachel), Nancy Landis (Jeff), and Philip Freedman, grandchildren Camille and Simone Freedman and Ryan, Benjamin, and Scarlet Landis, and sister Cheryl Barend (Bert).

The family requests donations in Joel’s memory be made to the Jewish Labor Committee.