Vivian Leburg Rothstein
Vivian Leburg Rothstein’s early experiences fighting for civil rights led her to a long career advocating for peace, women’s rights, and the labor movement. Rothstein demonstrated with CORE in 1963 and travelled to Mississippi in 1965 to participate in demonstrations, voter registration, and school integration. She went on to do community organizing with Students for a Democratic Society and work with Southern Appalachian whites. On a peace delegation to North Vietnam in 1967, she met with the Vietnamese Women’s Union and was inspired to help found Chicago Women’s Liberation Union in 1969, focusing her efforts on organizing working class women. She then worked with the American Friends Service Committee on its Middle East Peace Education Program and spent ten years running a nonprofit agency that provided shelters and services to homeless adults and families as well as battered women and their children in Santa Monica, California. As of 2014, she directs organizing efforts by the Hotel Workers International Union in Los Angeles for a living wage and benefits, and she is collaborating with several friends on a book about their experiences in the women’s movement.
How to cite this page
Jewish Women's Archive. "Vivian Leburg Rothstein." (Viewed on June 29, 2022) <https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/rothstein-vivan>.