Rajani Adhikary (Jemmari)'s Obituary
Rajani Adhikary (Jemmari) passed away on February 5th, 2026. She was born in Toronto, Canada, on May 10th, 1979. As a child, Rajani and her family left Toronto and settled in Littleton, Colorado, where Rajani went to Arapahoe High School. There, Rajani became student body president and excelled in creative writing. Throughout her life, Rajani had a fearless sense of justice that was rooted in her dedicated love for her fellow human beings, particularly those who had been subject to unfairness and oppression. As a high school student, she built a relationship with the Arapaho tribe, working with them to revamp the outdated and racist school mascot, and forged a relationship between the students and the tribal community that culminated in her receiving a Certificate of Recognition from the Wind River Indian Reservation on February 5, 1997. As a student activist in college, she organized and led demonstrations to advocate for issues on and off campus, including the rights and inclusion of students of color and Native American students, immigrant justice, and opposition to police violence. While in New York City for a decade, her passion for the rights of workers was ignited. She was an organizer for a restaurant workers' collective founded by survivors of the 9/11/2001 attack on the World Trade Center, as well as helping start a cooperatively owned restaurant drawing on her skills and experience in the hospitality industry. She was also instrumental in launching Adhikaar, the first social justice organization dedicated to supporting the Nepali-speaking communities in New York City. She then moved to Hawaii for many years where she continued her dedication to workers’ rights as an organizer for one of the largest unions in the state, the Hawaii Government Employees Association. She also continued to work in hospitality, co-owning a restaurant in Honolulu, Hawaii, while continuing to build bonds with and connections to people and communities from many walks of life. In 2011, she lost her beloved older sister Aparajita. In 2016, she moved to Upstate New York where she settled into a quiet life near her family, and with her dog and cherished companion Winston. Rajani became an active Buddhist, joining the Thekchen Choling Buddhist Temple and taking two pilgrimages to Sri Lanka. She worked in the Human Resources department at Syracuse University before completing a Master's in Restorative Justice, a final culmination of her lifelong dedication to imagining and striving for a more just world.
Rajani is survived by her parents, Rama and Rita Adhikary; her brother, Ravi Adhikary and his partner, Megan Masters; her beloved nephews, Moksha and Soham, and her partner, Corey Zeller, and his son, Malcom.
There will be no funeral services.
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