New Jewish Agenda
Encyclopedia
New Jewish Agenda was a multi-issue membership organization active in the United States
between 1980 and 1992 and made up of about 50 local chapters. NJA's slogan was "a Jewish voice among progressives and a progressive voice among Jews." New Jewish Agenda demonstrated commitment to participatory (grassroots
) democracy and civil rights for all people, especially those marginalized within the mainstream Jewish community. NJA was most controversial for its stances on the rights of Palestinians and Lesbian and Gay Jews.
, Conservative
, Reconstructionist
, and Reform
, synagogues. The date was purposely chosen to coincide with Christmas
. At the founding conference, a 25-member Executive Committee (EC) was elected. The EC agreed that the straw-poll resolutions should function as guides and not mandates of NJA policy, and proposed establishing taskforces for each proposal area.
Many of the original members were Jewish organizers active in movements for peace and de-militarization, civil-liberties, civil rights
, women’s liberation, and those critical of Israeli policies. New Jewish Agenda used specifically Jewish cultural symbols and gatherings in their organizing, a common strategy in our current political era. For example, NJA wrote and revised Jewish prayers and High Holy Day
services to reflect Feminist, Secular, and other non-traditional Jewish communities. They also used Jewish ritual in protest – for example, the Disarmament taskforce built a sukkah
across the street from the White House. Though NJA members identified their activism as explicitly Jewish, they were met with mixed and often critical response from the larger Jewish community.
At a November 28, 1982 Delegates Conference in NYC, 65 elected representatives of NJA chapters and at-large members from across US, consented on a National Platform. The Platform included a general Statement of Purpose and specific statements on 18 issue areas.
and apartheid. NJA sponsored vigils outside South African consulates in five U.S. cities which "received press from Seattle to Wash, DC and from Paris to Capetown," according to a 1986 report-back. NJA also organized a six-week tour featuring one of South Africa's most prominent rabbis active in the anti-apartheid movement, Ben Isaacson, and a leading Black South African minister, Rev. Zachariah Mokgebo.
A conference on Anti-Semitism and Racism called "Carrying It On: Organizing Against Anti-Semitism and Racism for Jewish Activist and College Students" was held in Philadelphia in November 1991. Over 500 Jewish activists and allies from other communities gathered for workshops aiming to learn about and mobilize against institutionalized racism in the U.S. and to analyze the relationship between anti-Semitism and racism. Julian Bond
, African-American SNCC
founder, Georgia senator, and now (as of 2005) chairman of the NAACP, offered a Keynote speech detailing the history of black-Jewish relations over the past 250 years in the U.S.
NJA organized the Jewish contingent for the 1983 20th Anniversary March on Washington for Jobs, Peace, and Freedom and a Friday night event (Shabbat service and celebration), which brought together over 500 people. The images of hundreds of Jews marching with a 24-foot banner that read "Justice, Justice Thou Shall Pursue" created an opportunity to build bridges and demonstrate commitment to the weekend's themes. The Friday night gathering included speeches by Martin Luther King III
and Susannah Heschel (whose father, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
, had been a close comrade of Dr. King).
who had been challenging the white-dominated culture of the larger feminist movement
, and making space for complicated conversations about overlapping identities. One of the FTF's projects was Gesher (Bridge), a newsletter that included reports from each chapter's FTF, and raised feminist issues within NJA. Gesher later became the Jewish Feminist journal Bridges, which is still published today.
NJA sent a delegation to the UN Decade for Women Forum in 1985 in Nairobi
. The delegation organized a successful feminist Jewish, African-American and Arab dialogue at the 1985 Forum. Also, at the Forum an Israeli-Jew and a Palestinian-Arab from the Gaza Strip spoke to a crowd of over 400. This was an especially meaningful achievement because the two previous UN Women's Forums had been divided over a "Zionism equals Racism" resolution. NJA was able to coordinate meetings at the Forum that led to the initiation of a Palestinian/Israeli women's organization. After the 1985 Forum, NJA attendees spoke around the country about the process and outcomes of organizing for it.
In 1985, NJA published and widely distributed a pamphlet called "Coming Out/Coming Home" about homophobia and gay rights within the Jewish community. They also spearheaded anti-homophobia work which included the development of workshops mobilizing the Jewish community to take part in many gay rights events. In April 1986, the Brooklyn and Manhattan chapters of NJA sponsored the first New York community-wide conference on Lesbian and Gay Jews. In 1987, NJA organized a Jewish contingent and Havdallah service at the October 12 March on Washington for gay rights. The day after that historic march, many took part in a civil disobedience
action at the Supreme Court of the United States
regarding the Hardwick decision (which ruled no legal privacy for gay sex) and for civil rights for people with AIDS.
At the National Taskforce meeting in September 1987, the FTF committed to talking about issues of "Family" as a 2-year campaign, and went about the work of creating dialogue about both traditional and non-traditional families within the Jewish community. On Mother's Day 1988, the FTF convened a conference in Philadelphia on Women and Poverty. A panel discussion led by Adrienne Rich
addressed the reality of high poverty rates among all women and discussed how stereotypes of Jewish wealth work to hide the poverty many Jewish women struggle with. A few days later, on May 19 1988, the FTF put on a program in New York City called "No More Family Secrets: Now We're Talking," co-sponsored with the National Council of Jewish Women
. The event started with a presentation talking about battered Jewish women and Jewish incest survivors.
The work of the Feminist Taskforce covered ground that overlapped with many of the other campaigns, and the FTF housed both the Gay/Lesbian Working Group and the AIDS Working Group. AIDS was always on the NJA agenda, especially as an issue to promote within Jewish communities. The AIDS Working Group was founded in July 1986 as a program of the FTF, and soon NJA Chapters reported AIDS activism at the local level. At the 1987 National Convention at UCLA, the AIDS Working Group presented a workshop on "AIDS in the Jewish community."
from its onset. In June 1982, shortly after Agenda's founding, NJA took out a full-page New York Times ad criticizing and denouncing the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Local chapters were able to mobilize first, including a public statement by NJA's Washington DC chapter two days after the June 6th Israeli invasion of Lebanon, a statement and protest vigil by the Massachusetts chapter, and a City Hall protest by Philadelphia NJA. NJA also organized town meetings featuring foreign policy expert Noam Chomsky
.
In 1983, NJA circulated a petition for a "Freeze on Settlements in the West Bank." It was signed by 5,000 American Jews and enabled a public education campaign about the effects of settlement policies on the Middle East peace process. NJA then brought the Settlement Freeze petition to the General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations. New Jewish Agenda also led two intensive political study missions to Israel and the occupied territories in the summers of 1983 and 1984, meeting with academics, journalists and leading political figures. A later tour led to the creation of the 1991 video "This is the Moment: Israelis and Palestinians Talk."
NJA protested Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin
when he spoke in Los Angeles in 1982. In November 1983, NJA protested Ariel Sharon
at a Hebrew Academy banquet in San Francisco and over 2,000 demonstrators turned out. In 1985, NJA joined protests against violent anti-Arab activities in Los Angeles. In early 1988, NJA supported Israeli peace groups' mobilization of progressive representatives at the 31st World Zionist Congress (WZC). In the year before the WZC, NJA collected 650 new members for "Americans for Peace in Israel", the US affiliate of Mapam
.
New Jewish Agenda and American Friends Service Committee
(AFSC) co-sponsored a national speaking tour (in 1984) of Peace Now leader Mordechai Bar-on
(a former IDF officer and member of Israeli Knesset) and Mohammed Milhem (deposed West Bank Palestinian Mayor), resulting in a PBS television special, "The Arab and the Israeli". These speaking tour dialogues were followed by local discussions between American Jewish and Arab communities. NJA also sponsored a tour of a founding member of the Committee Against the War in Lebanon and a member of the Israeli Committee in Solidarity with Bir Zeit University.
(CJF), for the passage of a multi-lateral nuclear arms freeze. The CJF resolution had powerful effects in the larger Jewish community, prompting other major Jewish organizations, including the American Jewish Congress
and B'nai Brith, to issue similar statements. Arthur Waskow
formed another Jewish organization, The Shalom Center, in 1983 to focus on peace and anti-nuclear activism from a Jewish perspective.
In 1981, observance of Tisha B'Av
coincided with the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki by the U.S. during World War II
. The occasion was marked by NJA with traditional observance of Tisha B'Av near the White House
and the Soviet Embassy
. These were buildings symbolic of the nuclear super-powers, thus marking the shared symbolism of the potential danger of world-destruction. In 1984, NJA chapters sponsored scores of Sukkat Shalom (Shelter of Peace) and Rainbow Sign celebrations, linking traditional Jewish observances with the call for nuclear disarmament. NJA built a sukkah
in Lafayette Park
across from the White House in order to draw attention to their anti-nuclear organizing.
500 NJA members marched in the June 12, 1982 Disarmament Rally in New York, which was at that time the largest Disarmament Rally in American history. In 1985, NJA brought a large delegation to the Mobilization for Justice and Peace in Washington, DC. In 1986, NJA co-sponsored the Boston University
conference "Judaism, War and the Nuclear Arms Race."
Following a 1986 Shalom Center Training Institute for disarmament activists, taskforce members became increasingly interested in making connections between disarmament and human rights
issues, especially as applied to solidarity with Soviet Jewry, including participation in a demonstration on the Mall in Washington
in December 1987, on the eve of a Ronald Reagan
-Mikhail Gorbachev
summit. At the time, Soviet Jews were facing anti-Semitism and political repression while struggling to emigrate in large numbers to the U.S. and Israel.
to examine human rights conditions and investigate U.S. Government allegations of anti-Semitic policies pursued by the Sandinista government. The delegation came back with a report that the Sandinistas were not engaging in anti-Semitic behavior or policies and in fact that Nicaragua was willing to resume diplomatic talks with Israel and to oppose any forms of anti-Semitism. Through widespread publicity, the 1984 delegation was able to make great strides in discrediting the Reagan administration's attempts to mobilize the American Jewish community support for the Contras
. NJA sent down many more delegations to Central America
, joined with other peace groups for lobbying and speaking out against U.S. aid to the Contras, and represented the Jewish community in both the Pledge of Resistance coalition and the Inter-Religious Task Force on Central America.
NJA took special notice of the Sanctuary movement
, which had formerly been a movement of progressive churches, inspired by the Liberation Theology movement
. In less than a year, over twenty synagogues were active in the sanctuary movement. This was accomplished in part by distributing educational packets on the issues to over 2,000 rabbis and synagogues and by publishing articles and letters to the editor. NJA also distributed two brochures about the concerns that had kept progressive Jews from responding to Central American crisis and the scriptural commandments that obligate Jews to harbor the persecuted and protect them from harm.
In 1986, NJA sponsored national speaking tours by three rabbis whose congregations have offered sanctuary to Central American refugees. Agenda's "Jewish Witness for Peace
" delegation created a 30-minute video called "Crossing Borders" which was distributed within the Jewish community as an educational tool.
,The New Israel Fund
, Jewish Fund for Justice, The Shalom Center, The Shefa Fund, Bridges Journal, American Friends of Neve Shalom, Brit Tzedek v'Shalom
, Bat Shalom
, and The Abraham Fund
. It also built liaisons with older organizations such as the Jewish Peace Fellowship.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
between 1980 and 1992 and made up of about 50 local chapters. NJA's slogan was "a Jewish voice among progressives and a progressive voice among Jews." New Jewish Agenda demonstrated commitment to participatory (grassroots
Grassroots
A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...
) democracy and civil rights for all people, especially those marginalized within the mainstream Jewish community. NJA was most controversial for its stances on the rights of Palestinians and Lesbian and Gay Jews.
History
Over 1,200 people attended NJA's founding conference on December 25, 1980, representing members of OrthodoxOrthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
, Conservative
Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s.Conservative Judaism has its roots in the school of thought known as Positive-Historical Judaism,...
, Reconstructionist
Reconstructionist Judaism
Reconstructionist Judaism is a modern American-based Jewish movement based on the ideas of Mordecai Kaplan . The movement views Judaism as a progressively evolving civilization. It originated as a branch of Conservative Judaism, before it splintered...
, and Reform
Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...
, synagogues. The date was purposely chosen to coincide with Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
. At the founding conference, a 25-member Executive Committee (EC) was elected. The EC agreed that the straw-poll resolutions should function as guides and not mandates of NJA policy, and proposed establishing taskforces for each proposal area.
Many of the original members were Jewish organizers active in movements for peace and de-militarization, civil-liberties, civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
, women’s liberation, and those critical of Israeli policies. New Jewish Agenda used specifically Jewish cultural symbols and gatherings in their organizing, a common strategy in our current political era. For example, NJA wrote and revised Jewish prayers and High Holy Day
High Holy Days
The High Holidays or High Holy Days, in Judaism, more properly known as the Yamim Noraim , may mean:#strictly, the holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur ;...
services to reflect Feminist, Secular, and other non-traditional Jewish communities. They also used Jewish ritual in protest – for example, the Disarmament taskforce built a sukkah
Sukkah
A sukkah is a temporary hut constructed for use during the week-long Jewish festival of Sukkot. It is topped with branches and often well decorated with autumnal, harvest or Judaic themes...
across the street from the White House. Though NJA members identified their activism as explicitly Jewish, they were met with mixed and often critical response from the larger Jewish community.
At a November 28, 1982 Delegates Conference in NYC, 65 elected representatives of NJA chapters and at-large members from across US, consented on a National Platform. The Platform included a general Statement of Purpose and specific statements on 18 issue areas.
Topic headings of each issue area
- Jewish Communal Life in the United States
- New Jewish Agenda's Feminist Commitment
- Women in the Work Force, Family, and Reproductive Rights
- Gay and Lesbian Jews
- Jews with Disabilities
- Anti-Semitism
- Racism
- Affirmative Action
- Civil Liberties
- Energy and Environment
- Economic Justice
- The Labor Movement
- Relations between Israel and North American Jewry
- Internal Social Life in Israel
- Israel, the Palestinians, and Arab Neighbors
- Israel and the International Community
- World Jewry and Threatened Jewish Communities (Soviet, Ethiopian, Argentine Jews)
- Militarism and the Nuclear Arms Race
NJA campaigns
New Jewish Agenda maintained five primary campaigns through National Taskforces on Middle East Peace, Worldwide Nuclear Disarmament, Economic and Social Justice, Peace in Central America, and Jewish Feminism. Each taskforce coordinated work at the local and national level using organizing methods including national speaking tours, publications, newsletters, national taskforce gatherings, and conferences. Within many of the taskforces, and occasionally outside of the taskforces' wide subject areas, NJA members often established more focused Working Groups.Economic and Social Justice Taskforce
New Jewish Agenda chapters around the country were active in coalitions to combat racism, anti-SemitismAnti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
and apartheid. NJA sponsored vigils outside South African consulates in five U.S. cities which "received press from Seattle to Wash, DC and from Paris to Capetown," according to a 1986 report-back. NJA also organized a six-week tour featuring one of South Africa's most prominent rabbis active in the anti-apartheid movement, Ben Isaacson, and a leading Black South African minister, Rev. Zachariah Mokgebo.
A conference on Anti-Semitism and Racism called "Carrying It On: Organizing Against Anti-Semitism and Racism for Jewish Activist and College Students" was held in Philadelphia in November 1991. Over 500 Jewish activists and allies from other communities gathered for workshops aiming to learn about and mobilize against institutionalized racism in the U.S. and to analyze the relationship between anti-Semitism and racism. Julian Bond
Julian Bond
Horace Julian Bond , known as Julian Bond, is an American social activist and leader in the American civil rights movement, politician, professor, and writer. While a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, during the early 1960s, he helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating...
, African-American SNCC
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ' was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It emerged from a series of student meetings led by Ella Baker held at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina in April 1960...
founder, Georgia senator, and now (as of 2005) chairman of the NAACP, offered a Keynote speech detailing the history of black-Jewish relations over the past 250 years in the U.S.
NJA organized the Jewish contingent for the 1983 20th Anniversary March on Washington for Jobs, Peace, and Freedom and a Friday night event (Shabbat service and celebration), which brought together over 500 people. The images of hundreds of Jews marching with a 24-foot banner that read "Justice, Justice Thou Shall Pursue" created an opportunity to build bridges and demonstrate commitment to the weekend's themes. The Friday night gathering included speeches by Martin Luther King III
Martin Luther King III
Martin Luther King III is an American human rights advocate and community activist. He is the eldest son and oldest living child of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King. His siblings are Dexter Scott King, Rev. Bernice Albertine King, and the late Yolanda Denise...
and Susannah Heschel (whose father, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
Abraham Joshua Heschel
Abraham Joshua Heschel was a Polish-born American rabbi and one of the leading Jewish theologians and Jewish philosophers of the 20th century.-Biography:...
, had been a close comrade of Dr. King).
Feminist Taskforce
Jewish Feminist leadership was part of NJA's culture from its earliest days, and the 1985 Conference passed a resolution to begin a Feminist Taskforce (FTF). The national FTF encouraged local chapters to form their own feminist taskforces and work on recruiting women to NJA who would be interested in that work. New Jewish Agenda's feminist taskforce was heavily influenced by the work of many non-Jewish feminists of colorBlack feminism
Black feminism argues that sexism, class oppression, and racism are inextricably bound together. Forms of feminism that strive to overcome sexism and class oppression. The Combahee River Collective argued in 1974 that the liberation of black women entails freedom for all people, since it would...
who had been challenging the white-dominated culture of the larger feminist movement
Feminist movement
The feminist movement refers to a series of campaigns for reforms on issues such as reproductive rights, domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, women's suffrage, sexual harassment and sexual violence...
, and making space for complicated conversations about overlapping identities. One of the FTF's projects was Gesher (Bridge), a newsletter that included reports from each chapter's FTF, and raised feminist issues within NJA. Gesher later became the Jewish Feminist journal Bridges, which is still published today.
NJA sent a delegation to the UN Decade for Women Forum in 1985 in Nairobi
Nairobi
Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...
. The delegation organized a successful feminist Jewish, African-American and Arab dialogue at the 1985 Forum. Also, at the Forum an Israeli-Jew and a Palestinian-Arab from the Gaza Strip spoke to a crowd of over 400. This was an especially meaningful achievement because the two previous UN Women's Forums had been divided over a "Zionism equals Racism" resolution. NJA was able to coordinate meetings at the Forum that led to the initiation of a Palestinian/Israeli women's organization. After the 1985 Forum, NJA attendees spoke around the country about the process and outcomes of organizing for it.
In 1985, NJA published and widely distributed a pamphlet called "Coming Out/Coming Home" about homophobia and gay rights within the Jewish community. They also spearheaded anti-homophobia work which included the development of workshops mobilizing the Jewish community to take part in many gay rights events. In April 1986, the Brooklyn and Manhattan chapters of NJA sponsored the first New York community-wide conference on Lesbian and Gay Jews. In 1987, NJA organized a Jewish contingent and Havdallah service at the October 12 March on Washington for gay rights. The day after that historic march, many took part in a civil disobedience
Civil disobedience
Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is commonly, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is one form of civil resistance...
action at the Supreme Court of the United States
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
regarding the Hardwick decision (which ruled no legal privacy for gay sex) and for civil rights for people with AIDS.
At the National Taskforce meeting in September 1987, the FTF committed to talking about issues of "Family" as a 2-year campaign, and went about the work of creating dialogue about both traditional and non-traditional families within the Jewish community. On Mother's Day 1988, the FTF convened a conference in Philadelphia on Women and Poverty. A panel discussion led by Adrienne Rich
Adrienne Rich
Adrienne Cecile Rich is an American poet, essayist and feminist. She has been called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century."-Early life:...
addressed the reality of high poverty rates among all women and discussed how stereotypes of Jewish wealth work to hide the poverty many Jewish women struggle with. A few days later, on May 19 1988, the FTF put on a program in New York City called "No More Family Secrets: Now We're Talking," co-sponsored with the National Council of Jewish Women
National Council of Jewish Women
The National Council of Jewish Women defines itself as a grassroots organization of volunteers and advocates who turn progressive ideals into action...
. The event started with a presentation talking about battered Jewish women and Jewish incest survivors.
The work of the Feminist Taskforce covered ground that overlapped with many of the other campaigns, and the FTF housed both the Gay/Lesbian Working Group and the AIDS Working Group. AIDS was always on the NJA agenda, especially as an issue to promote within Jewish communities. The AIDS Working Group was founded in July 1986 as a program of the FTF, and soon NJA Chapters reported AIDS activism at the local level. At the 1987 National Convention at UCLA, the AIDS Working Group presented a workshop on "AIDS in the Jewish community."
Middle East Peace Taskforce
Despite the New Jewish Agenda's emphasis on multi-issue organizing, The Middle East Task Force (METF) was central to NJA's work. NJA joined a field that was still deeply controversial and heated within the Jewish community. NJA was the only American Jewish organization that clearly opposed the 1982 Lebanon War1982 Lebanon War
The 1982 Lebanon War , , called Operation Peace for Galilee by Israel, and later known in Israel as the Lebanon War and First Lebanon War, began on 6 June 1982, when the Israel Defense Forces invaded southern Lebanon...
from its onset. In June 1982, shortly after Agenda's founding, NJA took out a full-page New York Times ad criticizing and denouncing the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Local chapters were able to mobilize first, including a public statement by NJA's Washington DC chapter two days after the June 6th Israeli invasion of Lebanon, a statement and protest vigil by the Massachusetts chapter, and a City Hall protest by Philadelphia NJA. NJA also organized town meetings featuring foreign policy expert Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
.
In 1983, NJA circulated a petition for a "Freeze on Settlements in the West Bank." It was signed by 5,000 American Jews and enabled a public education campaign about the effects of settlement policies on the Middle East peace process. NJA then brought the Settlement Freeze petition to the General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations. New Jewish Agenda also led two intensive political study missions to Israel and the occupied territories in the summers of 1983 and 1984, meeting with academics, journalists and leading political figures. A later tour led to the creation of the 1991 video "This is the Moment: Israelis and Palestinians Talk."
NJA protested Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin
Menachem Begin
' was a politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of the State of Israel. Before independence, he was the leader of the Zionist militant group Irgun, the Revisionist breakaway from the larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. He proclaimed a revolt, on 1 February 1944,...
when he spoke in Los Angeles in 1982. In November 1983, NJA protested Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon is an Israeli statesman and retired general, who served as Israel’s 11th Prime Minister. He has been in a permanent vegetative state since suffering a stroke on 4 January 2006....
at a Hebrew Academy banquet in San Francisco and over 2,000 demonstrators turned out. In 1985, NJA joined protests against violent anti-Arab activities in Los Angeles. In early 1988, NJA supported Israeli peace groups' mobilization of progressive representatives at the 31st World Zionist Congress (WZC). In the year before the WZC, NJA collected 650 new members for "Americans for Peace in Israel", the US affiliate of Mapam
Mapam
Mapam was a political party in Israel and is one of the ancestors of the modern-day Meretz party.-History:Mapam was formed by a January 1948 merger of the Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party and Ahdut HaAvoda Poale Zion Movement. The party was originally Marxist-Zionist in its outlook and represented...
.
New Jewish Agenda and American Friends Service Committee
American Friends Service Committee
The American Friends Service Committee is a Religious Society of Friends affiliated organization which works for peace and social justice in the United States and around the world...
(AFSC) co-sponsored a national speaking tour (in 1984) of Peace Now leader Mordechai Bar-on
Mordechai Bar-On
Mordechai Bar-On is an Israeli historian and former IDF Chief Education Officer and politician.-Biography:Born in Tel Aviv during the Mandate era, Bar-On was a member of the IDF's first officer training course in 1948. He became a platoon commander and company commander in the Givati Brigade, and...
(a former IDF officer and member of Israeli Knesset) and Mohammed Milhem (deposed West Bank Palestinian Mayor), resulting in a PBS television special, "The Arab and the Israeli". These speaking tour dialogues were followed by local discussions between American Jewish and Arab communities. NJA also sponsored a tour of a founding member of the Committee Against the War in Lebanon and a member of the Israeli Committee in Solidarity with Bir Zeit University.
Worldwide Nuclear Disarmament Taskforce
NJA successfully lobbied a resolution to the 1982 General Assembly of the Council of Jewish FederationsJewish Federation
A Jewish Federation is a confederation of various Jewish social agencies, volunteer programs, educational bodies, and related organizations, found within most cities in North America that host a viable Jewish community...
(CJF), for the passage of a multi-lateral nuclear arms freeze. The CJF resolution had powerful effects in the larger Jewish community, prompting other major Jewish organizations, including the American Jewish Congress
American Jewish Congress
The American Jewish Congress describes itself as an association of Jewish Americans organized to defend Jewish interests at home and abroad through public policy advocacy, using diplomacy, legislation, and the courts....
and B'nai Brith, to issue similar statements. Arthur Waskow
Arthur Waskow
Arthur Ocean Waskow, born Arthur I. Waskow, is an American author, political activist, and rabbi associated with the Jewish Renewal movement.-Education and early career:...
formed another Jewish organization, The Shalom Center, in 1983 to focus on peace and anti-nuclear activism from a Jewish perspective.
In 1981, observance of Tisha B'Av
Tisha B'Av
|Av]],") is an annual fast day in Judaism, named for the ninth day of the month of Av in the Hebrew calendar. The fast commemorates the destruction of both the First Temple and Second Temple in Jerusalem, which occurred about 655 years apart, but on the same Hebrew calendar date...
coincided with the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki by the U.S. during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The occasion was marked by NJA with traditional observance of Tisha B'Av near the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
and the Soviet Embassy
Russian diplomatic missions
This is a list of diplomatic missions of Russia. These missions are subordinate to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Russian Federation has one of the largest networks of embassies and consulates of any country. Russia has significant interests in Eastern Europe, the Near East and...
. These were buildings symbolic of the nuclear super-powers, thus marking the shared symbolism of the potential danger of world-destruction. In 1984, NJA chapters sponsored scores of Sukkat Shalom (Shelter of Peace) and Rainbow Sign celebrations, linking traditional Jewish observances with the call for nuclear disarmament. NJA built a sukkah
Sukkah
A sukkah is a temporary hut constructed for use during the week-long Jewish festival of Sukkot. It is topped with branches and often well decorated with autumnal, harvest or Judaic themes...
in Lafayette Park
Lafayette Park
Lafayette Park may refer to a location in the United States:*Lafayette Park, Detroit, Michigan, a park, development, and neighborhood*Lafayette Park Historic District, a historic district in Albany, New York...
across from the White House in order to draw attention to their anti-nuclear organizing.
500 NJA members marched in the June 12, 1982 Disarmament Rally in New York, which was at that time the largest Disarmament Rally in American history. In 1985, NJA brought a large delegation to the Mobilization for Justice and Peace in Washington, DC. In 1986, NJA co-sponsored the Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
conference "Judaism, War and the Nuclear Arms Race."
Following a 1986 Shalom Center Training Institute for disarmament activists, taskforce members became increasingly interested in making connections between disarmament and human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
issues, especially as applied to solidarity with Soviet Jewry, including participation in a demonstration on the Mall in Washington
National Mall
The National Mall is an open-area national park in downtown Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. The National Mall is a unit of the National Park Service , and is administered by the National Mall and Memorial Parks unit...
in December 1987, on the eve of a Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
-Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
summit. At the time, Soviet Jews were facing anti-Semitism and political repression while struggling to emigrate in large numbers to the U.S. and Israel.
Central American Solidarity Taskforce
NJA sponsored a 1984 delegation of national Jewish leaders to NicaraguaNicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
to examine human rights conditions and investigate U.S. Government allegations of anti-Semitic policies pursued by the Sandinista government. The delegation came back with a report that the Sandinistas were not engaging in anti-Semitic behavior or policies and in fact that Nicaragua was willing to resume diplomatic talks with Israel and to oppose any forms of anti-Semitism. Through widespread publicity, the 1984 delegation was able to make great strides in discrediting the Reagan administration's attempts to mobilize the American Jewish community support for the Contras
Contras
The contras is a label given to the various rebel groups opposing Nicaragua's FSLN Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction government following the July 1979 overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle's dictatorship...
. NJA sent down many more delegations to Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
, joined with other peace groups for lobbying and speaking out against U.S. aid to the Contras, and represented the Jewish community in both the Pledge of Resistance coalition and the Inter-Religious Task Force on Central America.
NJA took special notice of the Sanctuary movement
Sanctuary movement
The Sanctuary Movement was a religious and political campaign that began in the early 1980s to provide safe-haven for Central American refugees fleeing civil conflict...
, which had formerly been a movement of progressive churches, inspired by the Liberation Theology movement
Liberal theology
Liberal theology may refer to*Liberal Christianity also known as liberal theology, is an umbrella term covering diverse, philosophically and non-mystic biblical text belief within general Christianity that became more popular in the 20th century...
. In less than a year, over twenty synagogues were active in the sanctuary movement. This was accomplished in part by distributing educational packets on the issues to over 2,000 rabbis and synagogues and by publishing articles and letters to the editor. NJA also distributed two brochures about the concerns that had kept progressive Jews from responding to Central American crisis and the scriptural commandments that obligate Jews to harbor the persecuted and protect them from harm.
In 1986, NJA sponsored national speaking tours by three rabbis whose congregations have offered sanctuary to Central American refugees. Agenda's "Jewish Witness for Peace
Witness for Peace
Witness for Peace is an United States-based activist organization founded in 1983 that opposed the Reagan administration's support of the Nicaraguan Contras, alleging widespread atrocities by these counterrevolutionary groups. Witness for Peace brought U.S. citizens to Nicaragua to see the effects...
" delegation created a 30-minute video called "Crossing Borders" which was distributed within the Jewish community as an educational tool.
Post-Agenda
New Jewish Agenda was a leadership incubator which contributed to the formation of many more focused and single-issue organizations before it shut down in 1992. There is no conclusive agreement as to the reasons behind NJA's official disbanding, but it is thought to have been in large part due to long-term debt, at one point reaching $60,000 and possibly higher. NJA was also isolated because the mainstream Jewish community did not agree with its positions regarding Israel/Palestine and the status of Lesbian and Gay Jews. NJA helped with the development of other left wing Jewish organizations, including Americans for Peace NowAmericans for Peace Now
Americans for Peace Now , the United States partner of Israel’s Shalom Achshav organization, is an American coalition working to help Israel achieve a secure peace with the Arab states and the Palestinian people...
,The New Israel Fund
New Israel Fund
The New Israel Fund is a U.S. based non-profit organization established in 1979, and describes its objective as social justice and equality for all Israelis.-Ideology:...
, Jewish Fund for Justice, The Shalom Center, The Shefa Fund, Bridges Journal, American Friends of Neve Shalom, Brit Tzedek v'Shalom
Brit Tzedek v'Shalom
Brit Tzedek v'Shalom, also known as Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace, is an organization of United States Jews and describes its members as "deeply committed to Israel's well-being through the achievement of a negotiated settlement to the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict"...
, Bat Shalom
Bat Shalom
Bat Shalom is one of the organizations of the Coalition of Women for a Just Peace. Bat Shalom is a feminist grassroots organization of Jewish and Palestinian Israeli women working together towards peace, a just resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, respect for human rights, and an equal...
, and The Abraham Fund
The Abraham Fund Initiatives
The Abraham Fund Initiatives is a non-profit organization based in Jerusalem and New York City. Named for the common ancestor of both Jews and Arabs, it is dedicated to advancing coexistence, equality and cooperation between Israel's Jewish and Arab citizens...
. It also built liaisons with older organizations such as the Jewish Peace Fellowship.