List of Jewish American activists
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This is a list of notable Jewish American activists and polemicists
For other notable Jewish Americans, see List of Jewish Americans.
[edit] Activists
[edit] AIDS activists
- Elizabeth Glaser, founder of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation
- Larry Kramer, co-founder of GMHC
[edit] Anti-corporate activists
- Judi Bari, environmentalist (Jewish mother)
- Robert "Gypsy Boots" Bootzin, Health food and fitness guru
- Laurie David, environmental activist
- Rob Reiner, actor, director, producer, writer and anti-tobacco activist; son of Carl Reiner[1]
- Henry Spira, animal rights activist
[edit] Anti-racist
- Kivie Kaplan, head of the NAACP
- Winona LaDuke, Native American activist & environmentalist (Jewish mother)
- Stanley Levison, Communist Party USA member, advisor to Martin Luther King
- Abel Meeropol, composer of anti-lynching song Strange Fruit
- Michael Schwerner & Andrew Goodman, CORE activists, KKK victims
- Joel & Arthur Spingarn, early NAACP leaders
- Tim Wise, anti-racism activist
- João Brandão Júnior, Jewish name Iochanan Ben-Yossif ( Jewish Mother Jacy Barcessat), Human Rights and Social Inclusion in Brazil, USA and Africa.
[edit] Anti-war
- Leslie Cagan, founder of United for Peace and Justice
- Daniel Ellsberg, leaked the Pentagon Papers
- Allen Ginsberg, poet and Pentagon-levitator
- Allard K. Lowenstein, politician and anti-Vietnam war leader
- Bernard Lown, co-founder of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Nobel Peace Prize (1985)
- Murray N. Rothbard, writer
[edit] Progressive
- Elmer Berger, Reform rabbi, deceased
- Noam Chomsky, linguist, historian and author
- Norman Finkelstein, former professor, (denied most recent tenure at DePaul University)
- Fred Newman, founder of International Workers Party
- Adam Shapiro, member of International Solidarity Movement
- Anna Baltzer, author and public speaker.
[edit] Civil liberties
- Felix Frankfurter, Supreme Court Justice, helped found the American Civil Liberties Union
- Nadine Strossen, head of ACLU (father half Jewish holocaust survivor)
[edit] Conservatives and neoconservatives
- Midge Decter, writer
- David Horowitz, writer, activist, commentator
- Irving Kristol, founder of American Neoconservatism.
- William Kristol, editor, writer
- Rabbi Daniel Lapin, founder of Toward Tradition
- Jay Lovestone, AFL-CIO cold warrior; earlier, chairman of Communist Party USA ousted on orders from Joseph Stalin
- John Podhoretz, writer and commentator
- Norman Podhoretz, writer
[edit] Counterculture
- Abbie Hoffman, co-founder of the Youth International Party (Yippies)
- Ed Rosenthal, cannabis activist
- Jerry Rubin, co-founder of the Yippie movement
- A.J. Weberman, Yippie activist, author
[edit] Electronic rights activists
- Mitch Kapor, co-founder of Electronic Frontier Foundation
- Bruce Perens, open source advocate, co-founder of Software in the Public Interest
- Richard Stallman, founder of Free Software Foundation
- Jonathan Tasini, National Writers Union leader, fighter for electronic rights for authors
[edit] Feminism and gay rights
- Bella Abzug, feminist politician, deceased
- Gloria Allred (1941–) lawyer and radio talk show host[2]
- Bettina Aptheker (1944–) lesbian activist, author, and educator[3]
- Andrea Dworkin, feminist writer
- Susan Faludi, feminist writer
- Leslie Feinberg, transgender activist & author
- Clara Fraser, founder of Radical Women and the Freedom Socialist Party [4]
- Betty Friedan, co-founder & first president of NOW
- Franklin E. Kameny, gay rights leader[5]
- Harvey Milk, murdered gay rights activist and openly gay politician
- Robin Morgan, editor of Ms. Magazine
- Ernestine Rose, feminist
- Gloria Steinem, founder of Ms. Magazine (Jewish father)
- Rebecca Walker (1969–) feminist writer[6]
- Naomi Wolf, feminist writer
- Evan Wolfson, gay marriage activist
[edit] Cults
- Maurice Davis, Rabbi, testified to joint-Congressional panel in 1976
- Steven Hassan, exit counselor author, Combatting Cult Mind Control
- Rick Ross, consultant on cults
[edit] Gun rights advocacy
- Sandra Froman — President of the National Rifle Association (NRA), second female president and first Jewish president[7]
[edit] Anti-Semitic hate groups
- Daniel Burros, American Nazi Party and KKK activist (committed suicide in 1965 when his background was revealed)
- Adam Yahiye Gadahn, Al Qaeda member, federal fugitive (son of musician Phil Pearlman, who converted from Judaism to Christianity)
- Harold von Braunhut, wealthy Aryan Nation and KKK supporter, deceased (born Jewish according to Washington Post)
[edit] Immigration reform
- Kinky Friedman, country singer, 2006 candidate for Governor of Texas
[edit] Leaders of Jewish communal organizations
- Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe
- Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League
[edit] Liberal and left-wing activists (miscellaneous)
- Michael Albert, co-founder of Z Magazine
- Saul Alinsky, community organizer
- Ben Cohen, founder of TrueMajority
- Jeff Cohen, founder of FAIR
- John Garfield, blacklisted actor, left-liberal activist
- William Kunstler, civil rights lawyer
- Al Lewis, actor, Green Party candidate, anti-prison and anti-drug war activist
- Eli Pariser, campaigns director of MoveOn.org
- George Soros, founder of Open Society Institute
- Barbra Streisand, entertainer, liberal activist and fundraiser
[edit] Jewish Defense
- Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the Jewish Defense League, deceased
- Mordechai Levy, founder and chairman of the Jewish Defense Organization,
- David Marcus ("Mickey" Marcus), U.S. Army Colonel, hero of Israeli War of Independence
- Avi Weiss, Orthodox rabbi, leader of Free Soviet Jewry movement
[edit] Nazi hunters and Holocaust educators
- Marvin Hier, Orthodox rabbi, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center
- Eli Rosenbaum, director of the Department of Justice's Office of Special Investigations since 1995; Nazi hunter since early 1980s
[edit] Pro-life
- Nat Hentoff, author and columnist
[edit] Rights of Ethiopian Jews
- Graenum Berger, founder of American Association for Ethiopian Jews
[edit] Socialists, anarchists and communists (historical)
- Alexander Berkman, anarchist leader
- Daniel De Leon, revolutionary socialist leader
- Emma Goldman, anarchist leader
- Murray N. Rothbard, anarchist leader
- Charles Ruthenberg, early leader of the Communist Party USA
- Max Shachtman, democratic socialist leader and theorist
[edit] Trade union leaders
- David Dubinsky, labor leader
- Samuel Gompers, labor leader
- Sidney Hillman, labor leader
- Jackie Presser, Teamster leader, racketeer
[edit] Weather Underground and its offshoots
- Kathy Boudin, Weather Underground member, leader
- David Gilbert, Weather Underground member, leader
- Terry Robbins, Weather Underground member and bomb maker (died in explosion of his own bomb)
- Bernardine Dohrn, Weather Underground, member, and leader of Days of Rage
- Mark Rudd, Students for a Democratic Society leader during 1968 Columbia University strike; later a Weather Underground member and leader
- Naomi Jaffe, Weather Underground, member and leader
- Laura Whitehorn, Weather Underground, member and leader
[edit] See also
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ R. Reiner — [1] "Reiner, however, said Gibson also must do some "major soul-searching." "It’s not a matter of just apologizing for some words you’ve said," said Reiner, who is Jewish. "It’s to really understand why it is you’re anti-Semitic and where those feelings came from.""
- ^ Waxman, Sharon; Richard Siklos (2006-12-19). "New Dispute Over Firing of Publisher". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/19/business/media/19regan.html?ref=media. Retrieved 2006-12-18.
- ^ "other Jewish authors who may be of interest... Bettina Aptheker"
- ^ http://www.socialism.com/Clarasmemorial.html[dead link]
- ^ Johnson, David K. (2002). "Franklin E. Kameny (1925-)". In Bullough, Vern L.. Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context. New York: The Haworth Press. pp. 209–218. ISBN 978-1-56023-193-6
- ^ Ross, Ross (2007-04-08). "Rebecca Walker bringing message to Expo". Pensacola News Journal. http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070408/NEWS01/704080331/1005. Retrieved 2007-04-08.
- ^ Weinstein Bilson, Mara. "The President of the National Rifle Association is Jewish?" ([dead link]). Moment Magazine. Archived from the original on December 6, 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20061206012609/http://www.momentmag.com/features/dec06/2006-12_Froman.html. Retrieved 2006-12-04.
