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List of Jewish American activists (view source)
Revision as of 02:12, 15 November 2011
, 02:12, 15 November 2011Created page with '''This is a list of notable Jewish American activists and polemicists For other notable Jewish Americans, see List of Jewish Americans. ==Activists== …'
''This is a list of notable [[Jewish Americans|Jewish American]] activists and polemicists
For other notable Jewish Americans, see [[List of Jewish Americans]].
==Activists==
===AIDS activists===
* Elizabeth Glaser, founder of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation
* Larry Kramer, co-founder of GMHC
===Anti-corporate activists===
* Judi Bari, environmentalist (Jewish mother)
* Gypsy Boots|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<ref>'''R. Reiner''' — [http://www.dailynewstribune.com/artsCulture/view.bg?articleid=74975] "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.""</ref>
* Henry Spira, animal rights activist
===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, Congress of Racial Equality|CORE activists, KKK victims
* Joel Spingarn|Joel & Arthur Spingarn, early NAACP leaders
* Tim Wise, anti-racism activist
===Anti-war===
* Leslie Cagan, founder of United for Peace and Justice|UPJ
* 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|IPPNW, Nobel Peace Prize (1985)
* Murray N. Rothbard, writer
===Anti-Zionist===
* Elmer Berger (rabbi)|Elmer Berger, Reform rabbi, deceased
* Noam Chomsky, linguist, historian and author
* Norman Finkelstein, defunct 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.
===Civil liberties===
* Felix Frankfurter, Supreme Court Justice, helped found the ACLU
* Nadine Strossen, head of ACLU (father half Jewish holocaust survivor)
===Tax Relief and Small Government===
* [[Les Golden|Les “Cut the Taxes” Golden]], writer, actor, musician, founding board member Illinois Taxpayer Education Foundation, spokesman Yes for Illinois, candidate
===Conservatives and neoconservatives===
* Midge Decter, writer
* David Horowitz (conservative 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 Stalin
* John Podhoretz, writer and commentator
* Norman Podhoretz, writer
===Counterculture===
* Abbie Hoffman, co-founder of the Youth International Party|Yippie
* Ed Rosenthal, cannabis activist
* Jerry Rubin, co-founder of the Youth International Party|Yippie
* A.J. Weberman, Yippie activist, author
===Electronic rights activists===
* Mitch Kapor, co-founder of Electronic Frontier Foundation|EFF
* Bruce Perens, open source advocate, co-founder of Software in the Public Interest|SPI
* Richard Stallman, founder of Free Software Foundation
* Jonathan Tasini, National Writers Union leader, fighter for electronic rights for authors
===Feminism and gay rights===
* Bella Abzug, feminist politician, deceased
* Gloria Allred (1941–) lawyer and radio talk show host<ref name="Allred1">{{cite news | last =Waxman| first =Sharon| coauthors=Richard Siklos| title =New Dispute Over Firing of Publisher| pages=| publisher =The New York Times| date =2006-12-19 | url =http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/19/business/media/19regan.html?ref=media| accessdate =2006-12-18 }}</ref>
* Bettina Aptheker (1944–) lesbian activist, author, and educator<ref>"other Jewish authors who may be of interest... Bettina Aptheker"</ref>
* Andrea Dworkin, feminist writer
* Susan Faludi, feminist writer
* Leslie Feinberg, transgender activist & author
* Clara Fraser, founder of Radical Women and the Freedom Socialist Party <ref>http://www.socialism.com/Clarasmemorial.html {{dead link|date=November 2010}}</ref>
* Betty Friedan, co-founder & first president of National Organization for Women|NOW
* Franklin E. Kameny, gay rights leader<ref name=johnson-kameny>{{Cite book
| last = Johnson
| first = David K.
| year = 2002
| contribution = Franklin E. Kameny (1925-)
| editor-last = Bullough
| editor-first = Vern L.
| editor-link = Vern Bullough
| title = Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context
| place = New York
| publisher = The Haworth Press
| pages = 209–218
| isbn = 978-1-56023-193-6
| postscript =
}}</ref>
* 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<ref name="Walker1">{{cite news|last=Ross|first=Ross|coauthors=|title=Rebecca Walker bringing message to Expo|pages=|publisher=Pensacola News Journal|date=2007-04-08|url=http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070408/NEWS01/704080331/1005|accessdate=2007-04-08}}</ref>
* Naomi Wolf, feminist writer
* Evan Wolfson, gay marriage activist
===Cults===
* Maurice Davis (Rabbi)|Maurice Davis, Rabbi, testified to joint-Congressional panel in 1976
* Steven Hassan, exit counselor author, ''Combatting Cult Mind Control''
* Rick Ross (consultant)|Rick Ross, consultant on cults
===Gun rights advocacy===
* Sandra Froman — President of the National Rifle Association (NRA), second female president and first Jewish president<ref name="Froman">{{cite journal | last =Weinstein Bilson| first=Mara| authorlink =| coauthors =| title =The President of the National Rifle Association is Jewish?| journal =Moment Magazine| volume =| issue =| pages =| publisher =| date = | url =http://www.momentmag.com/features/dec06/2006-12_Froman.html| doi =| id =| accessdate =2006-12-04| format ={{Dead link|date=May 2008}} | archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20061206012609/http://www.momentmag.com/features/dec06/2006-12_Froman.html| archivedate = December 6, 2006}}</ref>
===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)
===Immigration reform===
* Kinky Friedman, country singer, 2006 candidate for Governor of Texas
===Leaders of Jewish communal organizations===
* Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe
* Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League
===Liberal and leftwing activists (miscellaneous)===
* Michael Albert, co-founder of Z Magazine
* Saul Alinsky, community organizer
* Ben Cohen (ice cream)|Ben Cohen, founder of TrueMajority
* Jeff Cohen (media critic)|Jeff Cohen, founder of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting|FAIR
* John Garfield, blacklisted actor, left-liberal activist
* William Kunstler, civil rights lawyer
* Al Lewis (actor)|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|OSI
* Barbra Streisand, entertainer, liberal activist and fundraiser
===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
===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
===Pro-life===
* Nat Hentoff, author and columnist
===Rights of Ethiopian Jews===
* Graenum Berger, founder of American Association for Ethiopian Jews
===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
===Trade union leaders===
* David Dubinsky, labor leader
* Samuel Gompers, labor leader
* Sidney Hillman, labor leader
* Jackie Presser, Teamster leader, racketeer
===Weather Underground and its offshoots===
* Kathy Boudin, Weather Underground member, leader, and convicted terrorist
* David Gilbert (activist)|David Gilbert, Weather Underground member, leader, and convicted terrorist
* 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
== See also ==
* [[Jewish left]]
==Footnotes==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Jewish society]]
[[Category:Lists of American Jews|Activists]]
For other notable Jewish Americans, see [[List of Jewish Americans]].
==Activists==
===AIDS activists===
* Elizabeth Glaser, founder of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation
* Larry Kramer, co-founder of GMHC
===Anti-corporate activists===
* Judi Bari, environmentalist (Jewish mother)
* Gypsy Boots|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<ref>'''R. Reiner''' — [http://www.dailynewstribune.com/artsCulture/view.bg?articleid=74975] "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.""</ref>
* Henry Spira, animal rights activist
===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, Congress of Racial Equality|CORE activists, KKK victims
* Joel Spingarn|Joel & Arthur Spingarn, early NAACP leaders
* Tim Wise, anti-racism activist
===Anti-war===
* Leslie Cagan, founder of United for Peace and Justice|UPJ
* 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|IPPNW, Nobel Peace Prize (1985)
* Murray N. Rothbard, writer
===Anti-Zionist===
* Elmer Berger (rabbi)|Elmer Berger, Reform rabbi, deceased
* Noam Chomsky, linguist, historian and author
* Norman Finkelstein, defunct 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.
===Civil liberties===
* Felix Frankfurter, Supreme Court Justice, helped found the ACLU
* Nadine Strossen, head of ACLU (father half Jewish holocaust survivor)
===Tax Relief and Small Government===
* [[Les Golden|Les “Cut the Taxes” Golden]], writer, actor, musician, founding board member Illinois Taxpayer Education Foundation, spokesman Yes for Illinois, candidate
===Conservatives and neoconservatives===
* Midge Decter, writer
* David Horowitz (conservative 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 Stalin
* John Podhoretz, writer and commentator
* Norman Podhoretz, writer
===Counterculture===
* Abbie Hoffman, co-founder of the Youth International Party|Yippie
* Ed Rosenthal, cannabis activist
* Jerry Rubin, co-founder of the Youth International Party|Yippie
* A.J. Weberman, Yippie activist, author
===Electronic rights activists===
* Mitch Kapor, co-founder of Electronic Frontier Foundation|EFF
* Bruce Perens, open source advocate, co-founder of Software in the Public Interest|SPI
* Richard Stallman, founder of Free Software Foundation
* Jonathan Tasini, National Writers Union leader, fighter for electronic rights for authors
===Feminism and gay rights===
* Bella Abzug, feminist politician, deceased
* Gloria Allred (1941–) lawyer and radio talk show host<ref name="Allred1">{{cite news | last =Waxman| first =Sharon| coauthors=Richard Siklos| title =New Dispute Over Firing of Publisher| pages=| publisher =The New York Times| date =2006-12-19 | url =http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/19/business/media/19regan.html?ref=media| accessdate =2006-12-18 }}</ref>
* Bettina Aptheker (1944–) lesbian activist, author, and educator<ref>"other Jewish authors who may be of interest... Bettina Aptheker"</ref>
* Andrea Dworkin, feminist writer
* Susan Faludi, feminist writer
* Leslie Feinberg, transgender activist & author
* Clara Fraser, founder of Radical Women and the Freedom Socialist Party <ref>http://www.socialism.com/Clarasmemorial.html {{dead link|date=November 2010}}</ref>
* Betty Friedan, co-founder & first president of National Organization for Women|NOW
* Franklin E. Kameny, gay rights leader<ref name=johnson-kameny>{{Cite book
| last = Johnson
| first = David K.
| year = 2002
| contribution = Franklin E. Kameny (1925-)
| editor-last = Bullough
| editor-first = Vern L.
| editor-link = Vern Bullough
| title = Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context
| place = New York
| publisher = The Haworth Press
| pages = 209–218
| isbn = 978-1-56023-193-6
| postscript =
}}</ref>
* 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<ref name="Walker1">{{cite news|last=Ross|first=Ross|coauthors=|title=Rebecca Walker bringing message to Expo|pages=|publisher=Pensacola News Journal|date=2007-04-08|url=http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070408/NEWS01/704080331/1005|accessdate=2007-04-08}}</ref>
* Naomi Wolf, feminist writer
* Evan Wolfson, gay marriage activist
===Cults===
* Maurice Davis (Rabbi)|Maurice Davis, Rabbi, testified to joint-Congressional panel in 1976
* Steven Hassan, exit counselor author, ''Combatting Cult Mind Control''
* Rick Ross (consultant)|Rick Ross, consultant on cults
===Gun rights advocacy===
* Sandra Froman — President of the National Rifle Association (NRA), second female president and first Jewish president<ref name="Froman">{{cite journal | last =Weinstein Bilson| first=Mara| authorlink =| coauthors =| title =The President of the National Rifle Association is Jewish?| journal =Moment Magazine| volume =| issue =| pages =| publisher =| date = | url =http://www.momentmag.com/features/dec06/2006-12_Froman.html| doi =| id =| accessdate =2006-12-04| format ={{Dead link|date=May 2008}} | archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20061206012609/http://www.momentmag.com/features/dec06/2006-12_Froman.html| archivedate = December 6, 2006}}</ref>
===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)
===Immigration reform===
* Kinky Friedman, country singer, 2006 candidate for Governor of Texas
===Leaders of Jewish communal organizations===
* Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe
* Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League
===Liberal and leftwing activists (miscellaneous)===
* Michael Albert, co-founder of Z Magazine
* Saul Alinsky, community organizer
* Ben Cohen (ice cream)|Ben Cohen, founder of TrueMajority
* Jeff Cohen (media critic)|Jeff Cohen, founder of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting|FAIR
* John Garfield, blacklisted actor, left-liberal activist
* William Kunstler, civil rights lawyer
* Al Lewis (actor)|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|OSI
* Barbra Streisand, entertainer, liberal activist and fundraiser
===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
===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
===Pro-life===
* Nat Hentoff, author and columnist
===Rights of Ethiopian Jews===
* Graenum Berger, founder of American Association for Ethiopian Jews
===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
===Trade union leaders===
* David Dubinsky, labor leader
* Samuel Gompers, labor leader
* Sidney Hillman, labor leader
* Jackie Presser, Teamster leader, racketeer
===Weather Underground and its offshoots===
* Kathy Boudin, Weather Underground member, leader, and convicted terrorist
* David Gilbert (activist)|David Gilbert, Weather Underground member, leader, and convicted terrorist
* 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
== See also ==
* [[Jewish left]]
==Footnotes==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Jewish society]]
[[Category:Lists of American Jews|Activists]]