Media & Reviews

BLOG & PRINT PRESS

Justice, Justice reviewed alongside Mary Patten’s Revolution as an Eternal Dream: the Exemplary Failure of the Madame Binh Graphics Collective in Make/Shift magazine:

“[Both books are] singular gifts, full of little-known moments in the recent history of collective struggle and insights relevant for current fights for justice, dignity, and liberation…[The books] succeed in showing collective action, however flawed and complicated, as a viable alternative to the world we live in, and serve as valuable case studies for organizers and activists grappling with questions of effectiveness and solidarity in present-day movement work.”

RADIO INTERVIEWS

Beyond the Pale Radio, WBAI/NYC, 6/10/12
Interview with Ezra Nepon and Nan Rubin. (Show archive not available)

Interview with Aaron Lakoff, 2/12/12
for The Media Coop and Station CKUT, Montreal

Radio613 in Kingston, ON, 2/1/12
Tzedek, tzedek tirdof! Tune in to radio613′s 59th episode featuring a great conversation with Ezra Berkley Nepon about the 1980s progressive Jewish group/movement, New Jewish Agenda. New Jewish Agenda was an American, national, multi-issue, grassroots progressive Jewish organization that operated as a “a Jewish voice among progressives and a progressive voice among Jews.” It was so much fun to talk to Ezra and hear about what led her to do this research, how the NJA functioned, how they struggled, what kinds of issues they tackled. Be inspired and grounded in progressive Jewish history and learn NJA’s story of feminist solidarity, economic justice, feminist, solidarity, nuclear disarmament, AIDS activism and more.

BLURBS

Dan Berger, historian, organizer, and author of Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity and The Hidden 1970s: Histories of Radicalism:

We know about the Jewish anarchists, communists, and socialists of the early 20th century. We know, too, that Jews were disproportionately involved in the civil rights and New Left movements of the mid-20th century. What about all the Jewish rabble rousers in the late 20th century? Justice, Justice is a fascinating hidden history of Jewish activism in Reagan’s America. Ezra Berkley Nepon gives us the inside scoop of New Jewish Agenda, both a clearinghouse for Jewish involvement in a range of progressive causes of the 1980s and a bulwark against the din of conservative voices in Jewish communities. Nepon’s careful, critical work is a gift to those who pursue justice in the 21st century.

Stephanie Roth, Board Member of Jewish Voice for Peace, fundraising consultant and author:

This compelling story of one progressive American Jewish organization from the 1980s has important lessons for anyone interested in understanding how social change happens.  Nepon documents the power of on-the-ground grassroots organizing to make social change, as well as the forces that led to the demise of an important social justice organization. Of particular interest to many activists today will be Nepon’s analysis of New Jewish Agenda’s commitment to address both domestic and Middle East peace and justice issues, in contrast to today’s reality of single-issue organizing, and more seriously, increased pressures by the mainstream Jewish community to silence any criticism of Israel.

Billy Wimsatt, author of Bomb the Suburbs and No More Prisons:

Ezra Nepon is a compelling, original writer who goes on a deeply personal detective quest to uncover the roots of modern progressive Jewish thought. Nepon is a radical historian in the tradition of Howard Zinn, and in Justice, Justice, Nepon opens the book on an important missing chapter in recent Jewish progressive history, with insightful reflections for change-makers of all backgrounds. A stirring, valuable book.

Simone Zelitch, author of Louisa, recipient of  the Goldberg Prize from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture:

What impresses me most about Ezra’s work is the determination to not only record, but to analyze this history, and to draw lessons that will be useful to activists today.