Steven Goldstein

Steven Goldstein (born June 11, 1962) is an American activist.

Goldstein was co-campaign manager for Jon Corzine for U.S. Senate in New Jersey in 2000. He had previously worked for the U.S. Congress as press secretary to U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg, and as a counsel to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. before founding Garden State Equality in 2004.

Goldstein was CEO and chair of the group, New Jersey's statewide organization for LGBTQ equality, from 2004 until 2013, when he stepped down to take a post at Rutgers University–Newark. and when then-Governor Christie vetoed the marriage equality bill that both houses of the New Jersey Legislature passed, the organization filed the lawsuit, Garden State Equality v. Dow, that led to same-sex marriage in New Jersey.

At Rutgers he was Associate Chancellor for External Relations and associate professor at Rutgers Law School and in political science. He taught courses on social justice advocacy, American politics and political communication. He has also served on the faculty of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania as a lecturer in business communication.

He was played by Steve Carell in the 2015 movie Freeheld, based on the 2008 Academy Award-winning documentary of the same name, in which Goldstein himself appeared.

Goldstein was executive director of the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect in 2016–2017, during which time the organization, according to Liel Leibovitz in the Tablet "one of the loudest voices in the #resistance to Trump." However, Goldstein, a staunch Zionist, has been critical of the Democratic Party, particularly the Squad, for not being supportive enough of Israel. In an article for The Times of Israel, he criticized leaders in his own LGBTQ community for their opposition to Israel, which Goldstein said veered into anti-Semitism. Goldstein describes himself as a "centrist liberal" rather than as "progressive."

On July 4, 2025, Goldstein switched his party registration from Democrat to Independent. He later elaborated on his decision in another article for The Times of Israel, "This Zionist Democrat is Declaring Independence from My Party."

"With tears of anguish," Goldstein wrote, he changed his registration because "the Democratic Party has passed the tipping point in becoming an anti-Israel party." He reiterated he is "still a liberal — a mainstream centrist liberal opposed to the Squad and the AOC-Zohran Mamdani radical left." He noted his differences with the Republican Party on a wide range of issues, other than on Israel and fighting Antisemitism. where he studied for the year at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC). Upon returning to AJR, Goldstein cowrote an op-ed in The Forward critical of Anti-Zionism at RRC.

Goldstein is Director of the Jewish Community Relations Council in New Haven, Connecticut.