Norman Fruchter
Encyclopedia
Life
He graduated from Rutgers UniversityRutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
, in 1959, where he edited the literary magazine, Anthologist.
He was arrested protesting with CORE
Congress of Racial Equality
The Congress of Racial Equality or CORE was a U.S. civil rights organization that originally played a pivotal role for African-Americans in the Civil Rights Movement...
and James L. Farmer, Jr.
James L. Farmer, Jr.
James Leonard Farmer, Jr. was a civil rights activist and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement. He was the initiator and organizer of the 1961 Freedom Ride, which eventually led to the desegregation of inter-state transportation in the United States.In 1942, Farmer co-founded the Committee...
, Bayard Rustin
Bayard Rustin
Bayard Rustin was an American leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, pacifism and non-violence, and gay rights.In the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation , Rustin practiced nonviolence...
, Rev. Donald Harrington, and Michael Harrington
Michael Harrington
Edward Michael "Mike" Harrington was an American democratic socialist, writer, political activist, professor of political science, radio commentator and founder of the Democratic Socialists of America.-Personal life:...
, at the 1964 New York World's Fair
1964 New York World's Fair
The 1964/1965 New York World's Fair was the third major world's fair to be held in New York City. Hailing itself as a "universal and international" exposition, the fair's theme was "Peace Through Understanding," dedicated to "Man's Achievement on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe";...
. From 1960 to 1962, he served as assistant to the editor of New Left Review
New Left Review
New Left Review is a 160-page journal, published every two months from London, devoted to world politics, economy and culture. Often compared to the French-language Les Temps modernes, it is associated with Verso Books , and regularly features the essays of authorities on contemporary social...
. He was an editor at Studies on the Left, (1959–1967).
Newsreel
He was a member of Newsreel which was founded in 1967.From 1968 to 1972, Newsreel produced sixty protest films, in New York and then in California. [Robert] Kramer moved to California and participated in the West Coast collectives movement, teaching for a while in San Francisco. In 1969, Kramer, Norman Fruchter and John Douglas produced People's War for Newsreel, shooting in North Vietnam during American bombing.
As part of their mission to instigate social change, members of Newsreel would present films to political organizations and community groups across the United States. The retrospective, Exit Art / The First World had Newsreel members Norman Fruchter, Roz Payne and Lynn Phillips discuss the films. He was a member of SDS
Students for a Democratic Society (1960 organization)
Students for a Democratic Society was a student activist movement in the United States that was one of the main iconic representations of the country's New Left. The organization developed and expanded rapidly in the mid-1960s before dissolving at its last convention in 1969...
along with Thomas Hayden, Jesse Allen, Robert Kramer, also full-time organizers for the group: Carol Glassman; Terry Jefferson; Constance Brown; Corinna Fales; and Derek Winans. He was investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee
House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities or House Un-American Activities Committee was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. In 1969, the House changed the committee's name to "House Committee on Internal Security"...
.
He recommended Christine Choy to the Newsreel group, after meeting her at Ironbound
Ironbound
The Ironbound is a large working-class neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey. This close-knit, multi-ethnic community covers approximately four square miles . Historically, the area was called "Dutch Neck," "Down Neck," or simply "the Neck," because of the way the Passaic River curved to form what...
neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey
Newark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
.
Education
He was a member of School Board 15, in Brooklyn Heights, and formed Campaign for Fiscal Equity, which sued the city of New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
over inadequate school funding.
He headed the Institute for Education and Social Policy at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
. He commented on the Gates Foundation:
The Gates Foundation has given an enormous boost to small schools," Fruchter says. "Because of the extent of the funding, they have leverage with school systems that no one else has. They have helped make small schools a part of districtwide reform agendas in a way that wasn't possible before.
He commented on Mayor Michael Bloomberg's reforms:
Norman Fruchter, director of the Community Involvement Program at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform and the author of a report highlighting problems afflicting New York's middle schools, said he did not think the changes would improve the situation in those schools. Autonomy is not a virtue in and of itself, he said. "If you're living in an abandoned building, you have lots of autonomy," he said. "What you need isn't autonomy" but help....
While there have been some gains in elementary scores, said Fruchter, it's "not translating into middle school gain." The school system, he said, "has not figured out how to build conceptual skills at the eighth grade level."
Family
He married Rachael G. Fruchter (d. July 15, 1997), who was member of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology State University of New YorkState University of New York
The State University of New York, abbreviated SUNY , is a system of public institutions of higher education in New York, United States. It is the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States, with a total enrollment of 465,000 students, plus...
for nearly 25 years.
Commentary
- Norman Fruchter, "SDS: In and Out of Context", Liberation, February 1972
- Norman Fruchter, "Movement Propaganda and the Culture of the Spectacle", Liberation, May 1971, Page 4-17
Filmography
- Race Against Prime Time - ( Narrator(- Narration) / 1984 / Released / Albany Video )
- The People's War - ( Director / 1970 / Released / )
- WE GOT TO LIVE HERE, Robert Machover & Norman Fruchter, (1965, 16mm B&W/sound, 20 min.)
- Troublemakers, Robert Machover & Norman Fruchter, (1966, 16mm B&W/sound, 54 min.)
- FALN (1965), Peter Gessner, Norman Fruchter and Robert Machover, Robert KramerRobert KramerRobert Kramer was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He directed 19 films between 1965 and 1999...
- Summer '68 (1969)
Reviews
There was a time in literature when men aged gracefully and died benevolently. Now the old men of fiction are always difficult, as if they had all taken Dylan Thomas' advice: "Rage, rage against the dying of the light." The hero of this novel rages even more than most. The novel covers only one day in his life, but its ferocity is enough for generations. Though old age is a curious subject for a first novel, Norman Fruchter, 25, writes with the accumulated wisdom of a nonagenarian....A reader is torn between exasperation and pity. It is a measure of Fruchter's skill that he can make the old man so grotesque and at the same time so sympathetic.