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Community Organizing

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Collection

Jonathan Cohen

Project
Katrina's Jewish Voices

Stuart Rockoff interviewed Jonathan Cohen on October 11, 2007, in Utica, Mississippi, as part of Katrina's Jewish Voices project. Jonathan shares his background, the role of Henry S. Jacobs Camp during Hurricane Katrina, the formation of a supportive community at the camp, the creation of the "Jacob's Ladder" relief project, the impact on the Jewish community, and the ongoing challenges faced by the camp in the post-Katrina era.

Sally Bronston

Project
Katrina's Jewish Voices

Rosalind Hinton interviewed Sally Bronston on August 10, 2007, in Metairie, Louisiana, as part of Katrina's Jewish Voices Oral History Project. Bronston shares her Jewish upbringing, education, involvement in Jewish organizations, experiences during Hurricane Katrina, challenges of post-storm life, and reflections on God and Judaism.

Shirley Bridge

Project
Weaving Women's Words

Pamela Lavitt Brown interviewed Shirley Bridge on June 27, 2001, in Seattle, Washington, as part of the Weaving Women’s Words Oral History Project. Bridge discusses her family, childhood memories, education, a career in pharmacology, marriage, raising a family, social activism, and her 50-year battle with cancer.

Allan Bissinger

Project
Katrina's Jewish Voices

Rosalind Hinton interviewed Allan Bissinger on August 3, 2006, in Metairie, Louisiana, as part of the Katrina’s Jewish Voices Oral History Project. Bissinger talks about his upbringing in New Orleans, his experience during Hurricane Katrina, his involvement in the Jewish community's recovery efforts, and how his Jewish identity has influenced his life, despite not being religious.

Martha Bergadine

Project
Katrina's Jewish Voices

Rosalind Hinton interviewed Martha Bergadine on November 3, 2006, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as a part of the Katrina's Jewish Voices Oral History Project. Rabbi Bergadine discusses her journey to Judaism, her work with the Jewish Federation, the impact of Hurricane Katrina on Baton Rouge, and the sense of community that emerged from the disaster.

Collage of Illustrated Women Swimming; Star of David Patterned Background

Sink or Swim: Antisemitic Jokes Are No Laughing Matter

Elle Rosenfeld

After reckoning with my friend’s antisemitism, it’s clear to me that intersectionality can be a tool to fight this form of hatred.

Roselle Ungar

Project
Katrina's Jewish Voices

Rosalind Hinton interviewed Roselle Ungar on August 30, 2006, in Metairie, Louisiana, as part of the Katrina's Jewish Voices Oral History Project. Ungar talks about her role as assistant executive director of the Jewish Federation, creating resources for Katrina evacuees, connecting them to aid and facilitating community, and her part in rebuilding the Jewish community in New Orleans.

Hanna Weinberg

Project
Weaving Women's Words

Jean Freedman interviewed Hanna Weinberg on June 10, 2001, in Baltimore, Maryland, as part of the Weaving Women's Words Oral History Project. Weinberg shares her immigration story from Germany and Lithuania to the United States, her experiences growing up in various cities, her marriage to Rabbi Yaacov Weinberg, her community involvement, and her reflections on raising a large family and widowhood.

Sonja Schlesin

Sonja Schlesin was one of Gandhi's most trusted and important associates during the period when he was a young lawyer in South Africa. She rose from becoming his secretary in 1906 to playing a major role in the large nonviolent demonstrations and protest marches of 1913, which he organized on behalf of the immigrant Indian community.

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.

Image of Emma Goldman Over Pomegranate Patterned Background

Anarchy, but Make It Feminist

Lucy Waldorf

As I familiarized myself with Emma Goldman's work, I realized that anarcho-feminist philosophy is so potent because both movements share the same goals.

Collage of Michelle Wu standing in front of an orange line train

Michelle Wu: The Power of Community Activism and a Hopeful Future for Boston

Talia Bloom

As I look back on my Jewish feminist foremothers and their respective activist efforts, I see many parallels with Michelle Wu’s work on the Orange Line in Boston.

Collage of Photos from Lucy Waldorf's Internship at Adamah

Growing My Identity and My Feminism Through Jewish Farming

Lucy Waldorf

The new movement of Jewish agricultural and regenerative farming has been at the center of my identity development.

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.

Jewish Environmentalism

Women have been central to the development of Jewish environmentalism in the United States. They founded organizations, wrote books, educated their communities, grew food, and advocated for better policies. These women saw their environmental ideals as directly connected to their Judaism and realized that our future may depend on this work in the face of the climate crisis.

Jewish Women and Israeli Dance in Brazil

In various parts of Brazil, women have taken on important roles for the Israeli dance establishment as a sociocultural practice within their Jewish communities. The text presents the names of some pioneer women in this process and other ones that have been preserving this traditional Jewish expression of dance for years.

Drawn Figure With Coins in Background

Teen Access to Wealth: On Summer Camp, Systems of Oppression, and Guilt

Jessie Schwalb

I’ve come to understand that my access to wealth and privilege can be leveraged to fight the systems that gave me them.

Image of a march at Amsterdam pride: figure holding up sign that reads: "Rainbow Capitalism = Queer Erasure"

The Dangers of Rainbow Capitalism

Liana Smolover-Bord

Is corporate support during June really "Pride," or is it just commodification of queer culture to bolster capitalism?

Image of Rowan Jimenez Singing, wearing hat and sunglasses.

The Privilege of Health and Healthcare: A Tribute to Rowan Jiménez

Dahlia Plotkin-Oren

Since Rowan's passing, I've learned about how lacking the United States is when it comes to healthcare accessibility.

Ina Perlman

Ina Perlman was a hands-on anti-Apartheid fighter and the face of “Operation Hunger,” which saved the lives of countless Black South Africans facing death and starvation in Apartheid South Africa.

Liz Lerman

A dancer, choreographer, educator, writer, and collaborator, Liz Lerman is among the dance field’s prominent public intellectuals, bringing deeply researched ideas about dance and community across fields as diverse as genetics, history, ethics of justice and reconciliation, and the science and religion of the origins of the universe. She draws consciously on the Jewish value of tikkun olam—healing the world—in her work.

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.

Lauren Tuchman

Lauren Tuchman, the first blind woman ordained as a rabbi, is best known for her championing inclusive Torah and disability justice. Though she is ordained in the Conservative movement, most of her work has been in community organizing and other non-congregational settings.

Leslie Feinberg

Leslie Feinberg and the Power of Queer Jewish Memory

Avivit

After reading Stone Butch Blues, I feel like I finally have a history and a sense of memory as a queer Jew.

Photo of Mollie Steimer with Lined Background

Mollie Steimer: Finding a Radical Approach to the American Criminal Justice System

Liana Smolover-Bord

Mollie Steimer dedicated her life to advocating for prisoners. Though we’ll likely never fully live up to her anarchist ideals, we can fight for radical solutions.

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