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Our Story
New Jewish Agenda was a national organization
from 1980 to
1992. Their slogan was "a Jewish voice
among progressives and a progressive voice among Jews." NJA
practiced participatory grassroots
democracy with over 45 local chapters. They organized a progressive
Jewish voice for every political issue of their decade: working for
peace and justice in the Middle East and Central America, Worldwide
Nuclear
Disarmament,
Economic and Social Justice in the US, and they had a powerful Jewish
Feminist Taskforce that included work on LGBT issues and the emergence
of the AIDS pandemic. New Jewish Agenda took radical stances on the
rights of Palestinians and the rights of Queer Jews. Activists from a
wide range of religious
and secular communities coalesced, building power and analysis that continue to illuminate our movements today.
I'm a Jewish writer and activist in my early 30's, born two years before NJA's founding conference. My passion for telling this story is informed by my own commitments to feminism, anti-racism, Palestinian solidarity, and queer liberation. I researched this history by digging through archive boxes at NYU's Tamiment Archives, interviewing seven former members, reading every relevant book I could get my hands on, and asking every Jewish activist I met what they remembered about NJA. In 2006, I turned that research into a website to make the information publicly available. Now, I'm asking for your help to publish a book that can be passed from hand-to-hand to share this crucial people's history of progressive Jewish activism.
The Impact
This book will be published in the Spring of 2012, in collaboration with a small literary press called Thread Makes Blanket and printed by progressive, woman-owned 1984 Printing. The book includes a few original NJA documents and afterword essays by historian/activist Dr. Rachel Mattson and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice board member Daniel Lang/Levitsky. The book will be about 150 pages, standard size (5.5 x 8.5) with original woodcut cover art by Abigail Miller. Praise for the book is already coming in from reviewers - check it out!We're printing 1,000 copies, and raising money to pay for printing costs up front by using indiegogo to pre-sell books and posters and other perks.
We are also producing a Celebrate People's History Poster in collaboration with cover-artist Abigail Miller and justseeds Artist Cooperative - check out our poster-in-progress below!
What We Need & What You Get
Here's our estimate of initial project costs:- Printing + shipping costs for 1,000 books: $3,000
- Printing + shipping costs for 1,000 posters: $750
- Mailing Costs for pre-sold books and posters: $750
The total project budget is around $7,000. Our fundraising goal is $4,000 to have funds up-front for printing costs and shipping for the pre-orders. If we don't meet our goal, we'll have to come up with the printing funds out of pocket, and as a bunch of low-income activists, that means the project will take much longer to produce. If we raise more than $4,000 - even better! The big goal is to get these books and posters out into the world so if a ton of the books are pre-ordered, we'll put any profits towards a second printing!
PLEASE NOTE: Donation amounts including shipping/handling costs.
Downloadable book availability is estimated Feb 15, Books/Posters/etc mailing date is estimated April 15.
Downloadable book availability is estimated Feb 15, Books/Posters/etc mailing date is estimated April 15.
Other Ways You Can Help
Spread the Word! Please share this fundraising page with your networks. Do you know people that were part of NJA? Let them know about this book or give it to them as a gift! Spread the word to progressives and activists in your life - this history is not only relevant to Jews, but all who work for justice and think about how movements build, evolve, and transform our world.
- Are you interested in bulk-ordering (10 or more copies) or helping with distribution? Let us know!
- Want to set up an event or book-reading at your organization, synagogue, school, hillel, or chevruta? Let us know! We plan to do initial book-release events in Philly and the Mid-Atlantic region in April or May, and traveling for more events in June-September.
(images shown are design-in-progress cover art and poster by Abigail Miller)
