Civil Rights

Content type
Collection
The founders of Call.Activit

Using Their Voices to Share Experiences and Combat Racism in Israel

Mirushe "Mira" Zylali

Call.Activit’s founders hope the movement will help Ethiopian Israelis name their feelings and take control of their narratives.

Jews of Color Initiative Publishes "Beyond the Count," a Pathbreaking Report on the Lived Experiences of Jews of Color

August 12, 2021

On August 12, 2021, the Jews of Color Initiative (JoCI), an organization dedicated to racial equality within the U.S. Jewish community, published Beyond the Count, a report based on surveys and interviews of over a thousand Jews of color. The report brought to light the often-sidelined experiences of Jews of Color, contributing to the JoCI’s mission to acknowledge and confront racism and exclusion within American Jewish life.

Collage with Background of a Product Label and Foreground Illustration of a White Woman

As a Jewish Feminist, Learning How to Engage with My "First Ingredient": Whiteness

Lilly Rochlin

If I were a can, and you were to pick me up off of a grocery store shelf and scan my backside for a list of ingredients, “white” would be first.

Collage with Image of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Pen

Abolish the Death Penalty in Honor of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ellie Friedman

This month especially, while remembering everything RBG accomplished, we should take the time to look into the lesser known parts of Justice Ginsburg’s long career.

Raven Schwam-Curtis TikTok Still #2

How I Make Black Jews Visible Through the Magic of TikTok

Raven Schwam-Curtis

My TikToks educate, validate, and celebrate Black Jewish identity.

Tova Ricardo at a spoken word performance at a conference in 2021.

I’m a Black Jewish Woman and I’m Tired of Being Called “Angry”

Tova Ricardo

I refuse to choose between being a “good woman” or a woman who will not be intimidated, belittled, or silenced.

Kyla Kupferstein Torres and her Afro-Semitic Sisters

Finding My Village of Black, Jewish Moms

Kyla Kupferstein Torres

When we come together, there is no question of who belongs.

Neo-Nazis holding Vax the Jews banner in Austin

When Those Charged with Protecting Us from Bigotry Are Racist

Emily-Rose Baker

Structural racism in the US military and police has undermined the fight against antisemitism.

Lorna Lippmann

Lorna Lippmann (1921-2004) was an Australian researcher and educator who devoted much of her life to the promotion of Aboriginal rights. She was an activist, academic researcher, author, government advisor, and community relations practitioner.  Aboriginal leaders praised her pioneering contributions.

Episode 68: Beyond the Count: Talking to Jews of Color

"What would it be like if we could daven and engage in Jewish life without having to endure racism?" says Ilana Kaufman, Executive Director of the Jews of Color Initiative. In a recent survey of Jews of Color by Ilana's organization, most respondents report facing racism and discrimination in majority white Jewish communal settings, and they don't think Jewish leadership is doing enough about it.

Women with arms around each other, backs turned

Jewish Feminists, History, and the HUC Report

JWA Staff

JWA responds to the recent report on the investigation into sexual misconduct at HUC. 

Girl Holding #MeToo sign

It’s Time Schools Took Sexual Assault Seriously

Rena Kosowsky

By failing to educate students about sexual boundaries, my high school perpetuated a culture of assault.

Selma Browde

Selma Browde was a medical doctor and activist whose passionate work and advocacy on behalf of disadvantaged communities in South Africa spanned more than half a century.

Image of Large White Columns

Injustice in the Justice System: An Inside Look at the US District Court House

Ma'ayan Stutman-Shaw

As an intern at the US District Court House, I recognized a pattern, both in the cases that were brought forth and in the defendants’ backgrounds.

Judith Heumann

Judith (“Judy”) E. Heumann, a founder of the disability rights movement, is an internationally acclaimed leader of the disability community. Based in Washington, D.C., Heumann has been instrumental in the development and implementation of disability rights legislation.

Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz

Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz (1945-2018) was a lesbian-feminist writer and editor. She made multiple theoretical contributions to understanding Judaism, lesbianism, and feminism as intersectional identities, extended an awareness of class and economic justice through a Jewish lens, and made visible racial differences within Jewish communities. She advocated Radical Diasporism as a progressive alternative to Zionism.

Judith Herman

Dr. Judith Herman was a pioneer in identifying the frequency with which sexual abuse of female children occurs within the family, in the treatment of victims of abuse, and in psychotherapeutic confrontations of abusers.

Susan Brownmiller

Susan Brownmiller is a radical feminist writer and journalist. She was a leader in the Women’s Liberation Movement of the 1960s to 1980s (second-wave feminism). Brownmiller is bes-known for Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape (1975), the first comprehensive study of sexual violence.

Illustration of White Woman with Pink Hair in Front of City Buildings and Small Dots in the Background

Reexamining My Privilege in My City of Minneapolis

Noa Gross

Last summer, protesters in my city of Minneapolis were begging a system to change.

Pearl Hart

Pearl M. Hart was a pioneering attorney, activist, and educator. She devoted her life to defending the legal rights of the vulnerable and oppressed, especially women, children, immigrants, and gay men and lesbians. Her work in Chicago was instrumental in the development of the LGBTQ community there in the middle of the twentieth century.

Bella Abzug at a New York Press Conference, 1972, by Diana Mara Henry

Battlin' Bella: Why We Need The ERA Today

Rena Kosowsky

I believe that Bella Abzug’s approach to the courts and legislature on issues of discrimination and inequality must be applied to activism today. 

Bernice Sandler

Bernice (Bunny) Sandler was an activist and education expert who theorized Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, the federal law that mandates sexual equality in educational institutions that receive federal funding. As such, Sandler was an architect of the 1970s feminist “women’s liberation” movement. She continued to fight sex discrimination in education in the following decades, especially on issues of racial inequity and sexual assault.

Cora Wilburn

Cora Wilburn was one of the most prolific American Jewish women writers of her time. Much of her work appeared in secular and Spiritualist publications, but during her final decades she published poetry in Jewish publications. Her autobiographical novel, Cosella Wayne, published serially in 1860, is the first coming-of-age novel to depict Jews in the United States.

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