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Activism

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Episode 64: Anita Diamant Talks Menstrual Justice

Menstrual justice is the latest front in the global fight for gender equality. Author Anita Diamant's new book, Period. End of Sentence, explores the stigma around menstruation and efforts around the world to ensure that menstruating people are not denied access to education, work, and full participation in society. Anita, whose 1997 best seller The Red Tent imagined a special retreat where the Biblical matriarchs went when they were having their periods, says in the modern day, menstrual justice has become "part of the justice language."

Amy Schumer

Amy Schumer is one of America’s most loved and successful comedians. Her career is built on a true riches-to-rags-to-riches story and is firmly centered on growing up in an unconventional Jewish upbringing.

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.

Marjorie Agosín

Marjorie Agosín is an award-winning Chilean Jewish poet, memoirist, novelist, literary critic, editor, educator, and human rights activist. Her work, which she writes in Spanish, is widely translated into English and other languages. She is a professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies at Wellesley College.

Episode 61: Being Heumann with Judy Heumann

Judy Heumann is a lifelong disability rights activist—from fighting for her own right to live in a college dorm, to lobbying for the Americans with Disabilities Act, to leading major initiatives at the World Bank and State Department. Judy is committed to removing the barriers that prevent disabled people from fully participating in society, a topic she explores in-depth in her memoir, Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist. She tells her story for Can We Talk? and for JWA's revised and updated edition of the Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women.

Figures in Conversation, with a Coffee Mug Patterned Background

Solidarity Through Conversations About Privilege

Ella Thompson

As a mixed-race Jewish woman, I’m no stranger to discussions about privilege.

Topics: Activism, Education

Episode 57: Youth vs. Climate Change (Transcript)

Episode 57: Youth vs. Climate Change (Transcript)

Episode 57: Youth vs. Climate Change

"We don’t want to exist, we want to thrive and create a better world." In this episode of Can We Talk?, three young Jewish women reflect on how they became active in fighting climate change, how their identities influence their activism, and what inspires them to keep going. Isha Clarke is an activist with Youth vs. Coal and Youth vs. Apocalypse; Noa Gordon-Guterman is an Avodah Service-Corps member working with Interfaith Power and Light; and Tali Deaner is the campaigns director at Jewish Youth Climate Movement.

Drawing of Zelophehad's Daughters

The Daughters of Zelophehad and the Right to Broadband Internet

Noa Gross

Noa and her sisters pushed for something which, at the time, wasn’t recognized as an inherent right. Today, we need to do the same with broadband internet access.

Sarah Rodrigues Brandon

Sarah Rodrigues Brandon (1798-1828) was born poor, enslaved, and Christian on the island of Barbados. By the time of her death thirty years later she was one of the wealthiest Jews in New York and her family were leaders in Congregation Shearith Israel. This entry explains Sarah’s life journey and highlights how her story relates to that of other women of mixed African and Jewish ancestry in early America.

Mexico-US border wall at Tijuana, Mexico

Keep the Pressure On: Jewish Activists Continue the Fight for Immigration Justice Under Biden

Justine Orlovsky-Schnitzler

JWA's politics writer talks to Jewish activists from Never Again Action about keeping the pressure on the incoming presidential administration when it comes to immigration justice.

Nadine Batchelor-Hunt crop

Black and Jewish: A Conversation with Nadine Batchelor-Hunt

Emily-Rose Baker

UK-based writer and journalist Nadine Batchelor-Hunt talks to JWA about being Black and Jewish, grappling with those identities being pitted against each other.

2019-2020 Rising Voices Fellows Zine Cover Page Cropped

An RVF Zine: Reflecting on the 2019-2020 Rising Voices Fellowship

Rising Voices Fellows

The 2019-2020 Rising Voices Fellows reflect on their time in the Fellowship and on their collaborative zine-making process.

Topics: Activism, Art, Writing
Illustration of DIfferent Hairstyles

My Relationship with My Mom and My Hair: How They Both Have Grown

Shoshanna Hemley

When I think back on mornings spent sitting on a stool in the kitchen before school, pouting as my mother detangled my thick hair, I’m glad she wrestled those knots for me. 

Topics: Activism, Family
Photo of Woman at the Beach

Spirituality, Self-Care, and the Fight for Justice

Ellanora Lerner

To see everything as holy, to be amazed by the simple, beautiful things in the world, not only brings me happiness; it also inspires me to fight for justice.

Uyghur Protest Outside the White House

The Uyghur Genocide Is a Jewish Issue

Esti

The manager of the Instagram account @jewsforUighurs explains why this is an issue we need to pay attention to.

Since Parkland Website Image

"Since Parkland": Writing the Stories of Youth Victims of Gun Violence

Ellie Klibaner-Schiff

With "Since Parkland," I tried to celebrate other kids' lives and acknowledge the failures that ended them.

Shoshanna Hemley Speaking at a Climate Action in Iowa City

From Singapore to Iowa: A Teen Activist on Protest and the Fight for Recognition

Shoshanna Hemley

When I brought up the idea of a protest, teachers and peers alike scoffed at first. I was living in Singapore, where protesting was illegal.

Justice Scale

On Individuals, Ethical Leaders, and the Pursuit of Justice

Maddy Pollack

In Austin, lack of housing is a huge, persistent issue. It's not only up to us to choose ethical leaders; we must act individually to fight injustice as well.

Family members gathered around baby sitting in a chair

My Aunt Tiki and My Disability Rights Activism

Dahlia Soussan

My Aunt Tiki inspires my disability rights activism; yet sometimes, I fail to speak up.

Close up image of a cow

Progressive vs. Passive: Why Being Uninformed is the Last Straw

Hannah Landau

It’s our responsibility to be informed consumers; livestock are responsible for 14.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Topics: Activism, Food
Black Lives Matter Poster on wall

A Message to Fellow White Jews

Belle Gage

The bottom line is that as white Jews, we can (and do) perpetuate racism and benefit from white privilege.

Topics: Activism, Protests

Judith Butler

Judith Butler is the Maxine Elliot Professor of Comparative Literature and the Program in Critical Theory at the University of California, Berkeley. Butler’s work treats gender, hate speech, the precarity of life, the precarity of one’s position as a Jewish thinker in light of Israeli policy towards Palestinians, alternative kinship structures, non-violence, vulnerability, and other, equally complex and important aspects of human existence.

"Courage" Spelled in Felt Letters

Gathering the Energy to Fight: Redefining Moral Courage

Eleanor Harris

In my view, moral courage isn’t really about courage; it’s about gathering up the energy to fight. This looks different for every person.

Topics: Activism
Teen Sitting on Steps of a Monument

A New Yorker Teen on Coronavirus, Homelessness in the City

Ilana Drake

I hear other teenagers throw around comments about getting rid of “these people.” Thousands of teenagers in New York City are homeless or facing food insecurity.

Topics: Activism

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