Works Cited

WORKS CITED

INTERVIEWS

  • Balka, Christie. Interview by author. Personal interview. Philadelphia, PA, August 23, 2004.
  • Bernards, Reena. Interview by author. Personal interview. Silver Springs, MD, July 8, 2004.
  • Dekro, Jeffrey. Interview by author. Phone interview. July 9, 2004.
  • Fellman, Gordon. Interview by author. Phone interview. July 8, 2004.
  • Kinberg, Clare. Interview by author. Phone interview. July 9, 2004.
  • Rose, Avi. Interview by author. Phone interview. January 18, 2006.
  • Serotta, Gerry. Interview by author. Personal interview. Silver Springs, MD, July 7 and 11, 2004.
  • —. Interview by author. Email interview. November 2, 2005.

ORIGINAL SOURCE DOCUMENTS

FOUNDING CONVENTION

Mark, Jonathan. “Toward a New Jewish Agenda: The Left’s Last Chance,” New Jewish Times, 23-26.

Moroze, Lewis. “New Jewish Agenda: A Welcome Voice” POLITICAL AFFAIRS 60, no. 4 (April, 1981): 30-36.

New Jewish Agenda, “National Platform,” published memo, 1982.

—. “Conference Survey Results,” Newsletter #8, Fall 1981.

—. “Some Examples of Our Work”, 1982. (PDF)

Perlstein, Donny with Gerry Serotta. “Jewish Renewal: The birth of an organization whose time has come,” Genesis 2, Sept/Oct 1980 / Tishri 5741.

Solomonow, Allan. “A New Agenda for American Jews” WIN Feb 15 1981 (PDF)

BREIRA

Rosenblit, Avi Daniel. “The New Jewish Agenda and the Lebanon War: Negotiating a discourse in pro-Israel American Jewish identity, 1980-1983” Undergraduate Honors Thesis, Northwestern University, 2003. (7) [in the quote referenced, Rosenblit cites: “Newsweek Poll: Israel Loses Ground.” Newsweek. 10.4.1982.]

Staub, Michael E. “If We Really Care About Israel: Breira and the Limits of Dissent.” In Torn at the roots the crisis of Jewish liberalism in postwar America. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. 280-308.

Further Reading:

Brettschneider, Marla.Cornerstones of Peace: Jewish Identity Politics and Democratic Theory. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ Press, 1996.

Oppenheim, Carolyn Toll. “The Road To Middle East Peace.” Open House Ramle.  (accessed October 12, 2011). [originally published in Polner, Murray, and Naomi Goodman, eds. The Challenge of Shalom: the Jewish tradition of peace and justice. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers, 1994.]

CHALLENGES

Rudd, Mark. “Mark Rudd — Why were there so many Jews in SDS? (or, The Ordeal of Civility).” Mark Rudd — Home.  (accessed October 12, 2011).

Note: The impact of Re-Evaluation Counseling on NJA was and continues to be a very controversial and emotional topic, one that came up in every interview I conducted and all of the informal conversations I had with NJA members– much more often than the infiltration of NJA by the crypto-fascist New Alliance Party. The NJA members that I interviewed are all people who were not members of RC or who have left RC, not a representative sampling. Nevertheless, I hope that I have offered a relatively objective perspective on this piece of NJA’s organizational history. I found the Wikipedia pages about RC and especially RC-founder Harvey Jackins to be a good source of information, including critiques. For more info, see also the official RC website and the critical website Re-evaluation Counseling Resources Site .

SHUTTING DOWN

“New Jewish Agenda Folds its Tent.” Bridges Journal.4:1 (Winter/Spring 1994): 8

Bloch, Ethan D. “ONE VOICE LESS FOR THE JEWISH LEFT: NEW JEWISH AGENDA 1981 — 1993” Essay shared with author on May 9, 2008.

GRANN, DAVID. “Newman and Fulani: The Infiltrators.” LYNDON LAROUCHE WATCH – LYNDON LAROUCHE – LENORA FULANI – FRED NEWMAN UNMASKED.  (accessed October 12, 2011).

“Fulani and Newman, meanwhile, were becoming experts in that lost Communist art: infiltrating and taking over unsuspecting organizations. In the mid-’80s, for example, the NAP set its sights on the New Jewish Agenda (NJA), a nationwide peace coalition headquartered in New York City. According to Nan Rubin, then head of the Manhattan chapter, and Bruce Shapiro, of The Nation , NAP activists started trying to recruit NJA members into their therapy clinics, even asking them out on dates–a tactic that harkened back to the ’70s, when therapists at the Center for Change offered sex as a recruiting tool. NAP activists also overran the group’s meetings, creating chaos with endless denunciations of Zionism.”

MIDDLE EAST TASK FORCE

“New Jewish Agenda Convention Urges Recognition of PLO” MERIP OCT-DEC 1985

“Bernards Reflects on Nairobi Women’s Conference” The American Israelite. April 24, 1986.

Rosenblit, Avi Daniel. “The New Jewish Agenda and the Lebanon War: Negotiating a discourse in pro-Israel American Jewish identity, 1980-1983” American Studies Undergraduate Honors Thesis, Northwestern University (5. 9.2003).

Further Reading

Blankfort, Jeffrey. “Proposition W and The Pacification of the U.S. Middle East Movement.” Palestine: Information with Provenance.  (accessed October 12, 2011).

Becker, Aliza . “To Israel and Back Again: Journey of an American Jew.” The Christian Century Vol. 119 , no. 5 (2002): 6-7.  (accessed October 12, 2011).

NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT

Jews Join Thousands in Rally for Peace. Jewish Exponent, 1982

Sukkat Shalom: Jews Seek to End Nuclear Arms Race. Jewish Exponent, 1984

New Jewish Agenda. The Shalom Seders. Israel: Adama Books, 1984.

Waskow, Rabbi Arthur. Seasons of our Joy. Boston: Beacon Press, 1982.

CENTRAL AMERICAN SOLIDARITY

PAMPHLET: Jews and Central America, The Need to Act

PAMPHLET: Jews and the Sanctuary Movement 

“Jewish Activists Urge Synagogues to Shelter Latin American Refugees” LA Times

“Jewish Group Finds No Anti-Semitism by Sandanista Regime” Washington Post 

Fischman, Dennis. “Let My People In! Jewish Activist Urges Support from Progressives.” Critical Times. 

This article is about an NJA activists experience of the lack of understanding of Jewish experience within the mostly-Christian Central American Solidarity movement. The article focuses on a political funeral for Ben Lindner, a Jewish progressive (son of Portland NJA members) who was murdered in Nicaragua by Contras in 1987.

Further Reading:

Elkin, Judith Laikin. The Jews of Latin America. New York: Holmes & Meier, 1998.

Thompson, Becky. A Promise and a Way of Life: White Antiracist Activism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press 2001. (“Central America Peace Movement” 235-265)

Timerman, Jacobo. Prisoner without a name, cell without a number. New York: Vintage Books, 1982

FEMINISM

PAMPHLET: Coming Out/Coming Home Pamphlet

PAMPHLET: Israeli and Palestinian Women in Dialogue, A Search for Peace. 1985

Bulkin, Elly, Minnie Bruce Pratt, and Barbara Smith. Yours in Struggle: Three Feminist Perspectives on Antisemitism and Racism. Ithaca, NY. Firebrand Books, 1988. “Semite vs. Semite/Feminist vs. Feminist” (155-186)

Kinberg,Clare. “The Challenge of Difference at Bridges.” In The Narrow Bridge: Jewish Views on Multiculturalism, edited by Marla Brettschneider. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ Press, 1996. (27-41)

Further Reading

Beck, Evelyn Torton. Nice Jewish Girls: A Lesbian Anthology. Boston: Beacon Press, 1989.

Kaye/Kantrowitz, Melanie and Irena Klepfisz, eds. The Tribe of Dina: A Jewish Women’s Anthology. Boston: Beacon Press, 1989.

Kaye/Kantrowitz, Melanie. The Issue is Power: Essays on Women, Jewish, Violence and Resistance. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 1992.

Klepfisz, Irena. Dreams of a Insomniac: Jewish Feminist Essays, Speeches, and Diatribes. Portland, Or.: Eighth Mountain Press, 1990.

Pogrebin, Letty Cottin. Deborah, Golda, and Me: Being Female and Jewish in America. New York: Crown Publishers, 1991.

Rogow, Faith. “Why is this Decade Different from all Other Decades?: A Look at the rise of Jewish Lesbian Feminism.” Bridges: A Journal for Jewish Feminists and our Friends. 1.1 (Spring 1990): 67-77.

Thompson, Becky. A Promise and a Way of Life: White Antiracist Activism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press 2001. (“Seeking a Critical Mass, Ample Work to Be Done.” 177-207)

Wernick, Laura and Leila Wice. “Conference Report: The 12th International Conference of Lesbian and Gay Jews.” Bridges: A Journal for Jewish Feminists and our Friends. 2:2 (Fall 1991): 129.

ECONOMIC & SOCIAL JUSTICE

“10,000 Protesters Denounce Reagan” New Amsterdam News: The New Black View (March 27, 1982). 

“Jewish Groups Protest at Embassy: Prayers, Menorahs part of Anti-Apartheid Vigil”. Washington Post

“March Called a Success.” Jewish Week of Maryland, Virginia and Washington DC, 1983 

Milner, Jenney and Donna Spiegelman. “Carrying It On: a report from the NJA Convergence on Organizing Against Racism and Anti-Semitism.” Bridges Journal. 3:1 (Spring/Summer 1992): 138-147.

Further Reading

Brodkin, Karen. How Jews became white folks and what that says about race in America. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1998.

Kivel, Paul. “I’m Not White I’m Jewish: Standing as Jews in the Fight for Racial Justice.” Paul Kivel.  (accessed October 12, 2011).

AIDS Working Group

Schulman, Sarah. My American History: Lesbian and Gay Life During the Reagan/Bush Years. New York: Routledge, 1994.

Further Reading

Deborah B. Gould, “Life during Wartime: Emotions and the Development of ACT UP,” Mobilization 7, no. 2 (2002): 1 – 27.

Kramer, Larry. Reports from the Holocaust: The Making of an AIDS activist. New York, St. Martin’s Press: 1989.