New Jewish Agenda Records
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Abstract
New Jewish Agenda (1980-1992), was a progressive multi-issue organization whose members included secular and observant Jews drawn from many sectors of the Left. NJA had some forty-five local chapters and five task forces: Middle East, Economic and Social Justice, Nuclear Disarmament, Central America, and the Feminism (later to include AIDS) task force. NJA also sought to develop a progressive Jewish cultural and religious ethos, reflected in its creation of The Shalom Seders: Three Haggadahs (1984). The process-oriented, "participatory democracy" political culture of NJA complicated its efforts to deal with its infiltration, circa 1987, by the New Alliance Party, whose views were antithetical to those of NJA. The organization also faced hostility from mainstream organized Jewry for its critical view of Israeli foreign policy, ongoing financial difficulties, and the erosion of some of its membership to other, usually single-issue progressive Jewish organizations, and eventually disbanded in 1992. The collection contains national administrative records, including convention, national council and steering council records, including minutes, correspondence, internal bulletins, reports, mailings, membership lists, press releases, some officers' records (for example, those of Rena Bernards and Anna Jaffe); fundraising, task force and chapter records (including extensive files on the Portland, OR chapter), issues of its national newsletters, Agenda, Agenda-in-Brief and Gesher (published by the Feminist Task Force), photographs, audio sound recording and printed ephemera produced by NJA and other progressive (especially Jewish) organizations.
Historical Note
New Jewish Agenda (1980-1992), aka "Agenda," identified itself as "a Jewish voice among progressives and a progressive voice among Jews." NJA was a multi-issue organization that included secular and observant Jews, Jews from the organized Left (principally the New Left of the 1960s-1970s), and politically unaffiliated Jews; it was organized into some forty-five local chapters. The political concerns of NJA were reflected in the names of the task forces through which the bulk of its activity was conducted: the Middle East Task Force (advocating a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and opposing settlements in the occupied territories), the Economic and Social Justice Task Force, the Nuclear Disarmament Task Force, the Central America Task Force (in particular opposing U.S. policy in El Salvador and Nicaragua), and the Feminism (later to include AIDS) Task Force, which reflected the strong presence of women and homosexuals in Agenda. NJA also sought to develop a progressive Jewish cultural and religious ethos, reflected in its creation of The Shalom Seders: Three Haggadahs (1984), and also devoted some attention to the issues of Soviet Jewry and Ethiopian Jews. The process-oriented, "participatory democracy" political culture of NJA complicated its efforts to deal with its infiltration, circa 1987, by the New Alliance Party, a political cult whose views were antithetical to those of NJA. The organization also faced hostility from mainstream organized Jewry for its critical view of Israeli foreign policy, ongoing financial difficulties, and the erosion of some of its membership to other, usually single-issue progressive Jewish organizations, and eventually disbanded in 1992.
New Jewish Agenda (1980-1992), aka "Agenda," identified itself as "a Jewish voice among progressives and a progressive voice among Jews." NJA was a multi-issue organization that included secular and observant Jews, Jews from the organized Left (principally the New Left of the 1960s-1970s), and politically unaffiliated Jews; it was organized into some forty-five local chapters. The political concerns of NJA were reflected in the names of the task forces through which the bulk of its activity was conducted: the Middle East Task Force (advocating a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and opposing settlements in the occupied territories), the Economic and Social Justice Task Force, the Nuclear Disarmament Task Force, the Central America Task Force (in particular opposing U.S. policy in El Salvador and Nicaragua), and the Feminism (later to include AIDS) Task Force, which reflected the strong presence of women and homosexuals in Agenda. NJA also sought to develop a progressive Jewish cultural and religious ethos, reflected in its creation of The Shalom Seders: Three Haggadahs (1984), and also devoted some attention to the issues of Soviet Jewry and Ethiopian Jews. The process-oriented, "participatory democracy" political culture of NJA complicated its efforts to deal with its infiltration, circa 1987, by the New Alliance Party, a political cult whose views were antithetical to those of NJA. The organization also faced hostility from mainstream organized Jewry for its critical view of Israeli foreign policy, ongoing financial difficulties, and the erosion of some of its membership to other, usually single-issue progressive Jewish organizations, and eventually disbanded in 1992.
Sources
- Block, Ethan D. "One Voice Less for the Jewish Left: New Jewish Agenda, 1981-1993."http://www.newjewishagenda.net/PDFs/onelessvoice.pdf)
- Nepon, Emily. "New Jewish Agenda: The History of an Organization, 1980-1992." Senior thesis, Goddard College, 2006, and related material (http://www.newjewishagenda.net/).
- "New Jewish Agenda." Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Jewish_Agenda). (March 2009)
Arrangement
The collection is organized into six series:
Missing Title
- Records
- Portland, Oregon Chapter Records
- Linda Eber Materials
- Tom Rawson Files
- Photographs
- Ithaca, New York Chapter Records
Materials in Series I-IV, and VI are arranged in the order in which they were received.
Scope and Contents
The collection contains national administrative records, including convention, national council and steering council records, including minutes, correspondence, internal bulletins, reports, mailings, membership lists, press releases, some officer's records ( including those of Rena Bernards and Anna Jaffe); fundraising, task force and chapter records (including extensive files on the Portland, OR and Ithaca, NY chapters), issues of its national periodicals Agenda, Agenda-in-Brief, Internal Discussion Bulletin, Internal Discussion Bulletin on Anti-Semitism, and Gesher (published by the Feminist Task Force), printed ephemera produced by NJA and other progressive (especially Jewish) organizations, photographs, one audio sound recording, cassette, one box of files of Linda Eber (NJA National Program Coordinator, 1988-1992), and two boxes of Tom Rawson Files (Boston Chapter, miscellaneous national NJA files).
Subjects
Organizations
Genres
People
Topics
Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright (and related rights to publicity and privacy) to materials in this collection created by the New Jewish Agenda was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder.
Preferred Citation
Published citations should take the following form:
Identification of item, date; New Jewish Agenda Records; TAM 183; box number; folder number;
Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012, New York University Libraries.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by the New Jewish Agenda in 1996; additional materials were donated by the organization between 2003 and 2013 and from Christine Balka in 2003, Sandy Polishuk and Harry Stein in 2006, Tom Rawson in 2011, Michael Oren in 2013 and Amy Svirsky in 2018. The accession numbers associated with these donations are 2003.029, 2003.030 2011.001, 2011.069, 2013.034 and 2019.025.
Audiovisual Access Policies and Procedures
Researchers interested in using audiovisual materials in this collection (films, cassette tapes, VHS tapes, et cetera) must use a digitized copy, which we refer to as an access copy. Researchers may view an item's original container, but the media themselves are not available for playback because of preservation concerns. Materials that already have already been digitized are noted in the collection's finding aid and can be requested in our reading room; materials not yet digitized will need to have access copies made before they can be used. These requests are free of charge and can be made in anticipation of your visit. The process typically takes four to six weeks. To request an access copy be made, or if you are unsure if an item has been digitized, please contact tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. A librarian will respond to you with further information.
About this Guide
Processing Information
Materials from the 2013 accession were incorporated into Series I, Box 7. Photographs were separated from this collection during initial processing and were established as a separate collection, the New Jewish Agenda Photographs (PHOTOS 145). In 2013, the photograph collection was reincorporated into the New Jewish Agenda Records. Materials from the 2019 accession were added as a new series, Series VI.