Activist Resources

 

CONSIDER GETTING ACTIVE! (if you aren’t already)

For even more ideas, see chapter 15 of HOPE into PRACTICE, as well as the list at the end of the Reader’s Guide (chapter excerpts and more).

 

ORGANIZATIONS

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• Bend the Arc is building a national movement that pursues domestic justice as a core expression of Jewish tradition.
• Jews of Color Initiative, a national effort focused on building and advancing the professional, organizational and communal field for Jews of Color
• Jewish Voice for Peace advocates for a U.S. foreign policy based on international law and self-determination and security for Israelis and Palestinians.
• If Not Now, a movement to end the American Jewish community’s support for the occupation and gain freedom and dignity for all Israelis and Palestinians.
• U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights works to end U.S. support for Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. A corollary website, which seems to no longer be online (as of March 2017), discussed weapons the U.S. gives Israel each year and which corporations profit.
• Middle East Children’s Alliance, sends humanitarian aid to children in Palestine, Iraq and Lebanon and advocates for their rights
• Center For Jewish Nonviolence brings Jewish activists from around the world to Israel/Palestine to join in Palestinian-led nonviolent civil resistance to occupation, apartheid, and displacement

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• Eyewitness Palestine – journeys for justice with Palestinian & Israeli peace-builders
• Dimensions Educational Consulting: Led by women and Jewish People of Color, they provide training and consulting in diversity, equity and inclusion
• Joyous Justice, an award-winning Black & Cherokee Jewish woman-led, multiracial community-powered social justice and spiritual transformation organization that seeds and leads systemic change and healing
• Not Free to Desist: An open letter from Black Jews, Non-Black Jews of Color, and our allies to Jewish Federations, Foundations, Organizations, and Initiatives Re-Imagining our Collective Jewish Covenant, 6/12/20
• Jews in ALL Hues, peer-driven & grass roots, creates communities for dual (or multiple) heritage Jews. They note that 52% of U.S. Jews age 28 and younger are dual/multiple heritage Jews (including having one Jewish parent, adopted Jews, Jews by Choice, etc.).
• Black Lives Matter — Not a Moment, but a Movement.

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• Movement for Black Lives
• Color of Change empowers Black Americans and allies to make government more responsive to Black American concerns and to bring positive socio-political change for everyone.
• Anti Police Terror Project: a Black-led, multi-racial, intergenerational coalition that seeks to build a replicable and sustainable model to eradicate police terror in communities of color.
• Black Organizing Project …works for racial, social and economic justice through grassroots community organizing and policy-change
• Black Visions Collective believes in a future where all Black people have autonomy, safety is community-led, and we are in the right relationship within our ecosystems.
• Ella Baker Center, organizes with Black, Brown, and low-income people to shift resources away from prisons and punishment, and towards opportunities that make communities safe, healthy, and strong.
• The Sogorea Te Land Trust – an urban indigenous women-led community organization that facilitates the return of Chochenyo and Karkin Ohlone lands in the Bay Area to indigenous stewardship
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• Honor The Earth – uses indigenous wisdom, music, art and the media to raise awareness and support for Indigenous Envirnomental issues. Leader Winona LaDuke has called for an indigenous-led “Green New Deal.”
• Youth vs. Apocalypse, a diverse group of young climate justice activists working to lift the voices of youth – especially youth of color and working class youth — to fight for a livable climate and an equitable, sustainable, and just world.
• Sunrise Movement, a movement of young people across race and class to stop the climate crisis and win a Green New Deal.
• 1000 Grandmothers for Future Generations – elder women activists focused on climate justice, supporting the rights of Native Americans and other frontline communities. (In the tradition of indigenous peoples, a grandmother is an elder woman who cares about the next seven generations)
• Third Act, a community of experienced Americans over the age of sixty using life experience, skills and resources to change the world for the better.
• 350.org, a global movement to solve the climate crisis.
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• Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity – California organization that connects people of faith to social justice work, focusing on the criminal justice and immigration systems
• Political Research Associates: Challenging the Right, Advancing Social Justice
• Never Again Action a national Jewish movement to shut down ICE
• Showing Up for Racial Justice, SURJ — a national network of groups and individuals organizing White people for racial justice
• Council on American Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest civil rights and advocacy group
• MPower Change, building a mass movement of diverse U.S. Muslims and allies ready to fight for a future free from Islamophobia and white supremacy
• Catalyst Project works in majority white communities to deepen anti-racist commitments and build multi-racial movements for liberation.
• HIAS, “Welcome the stranger, protect the refugee,” guided by Jewish values and history
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• Jews for Racial & Economic Justice works towards systemic change to build racial and economic justice in New York City.
• Open Hillel is a student-run campaign to encourage inclusivity and open discourse at campus Hillels, especially regarding Israel-Palestine.
• Unruly – a social and racial justice blog by the Jews of Color and Sephardi/Mizrahi Caucus organized in partnership with Jewish Voice for Peace.
• American Friends Service Committee – a Quaker organization focused on a wide range of peace and justice issues, believing in the power of love to overcome violence and injustice
• Southern Poverty Law Center, excellent resource on fighting hate, the Muslim ban, immigrant rights, more.
• All That’s Left: Anti-Occupation Collective, a collective unequivocally opposed to the occupation and committed to building the diaspora angle of resistance
• Shalom Rav, a blog by Rabbi Brant Rosen — explores the intersection between Judaism and social justice, with a particular emphasis on Israel/Palestine.
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• Jewish Women’s Archive — Documenting Jewish women’s stories, elevating their voices, and inspiring them to be agents of change
• VDAY, a global movement to end violence against women and girls.
• National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights works to defend and expand the rights of immigrants and refugees, regardless of status.
• Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice advances LGBTQI human rights worldwide, working for racial, economic, social and gender justice.
• Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute, an embodied earth-honoring sisterhood of Jewish women exploring sacred ways.
• CODEPINK Women for Peace, women-initiated & grassroots, a peace and social justice movement working to end U.S. funded wars and occupations.
• Be’chol Lashon advocates for the growth and diversity of the Jewish people.
• Jewish Youth for Community Action, leadership training to empower Jewish youth and work for social justice.
• Women in Black, a worldwide network of women opposed to war, violence and injustice
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• Beta Israel of North America empowers Ethiopian Jews in the U.S., Israel and Ethiopia.
• Californians for Justice, youth-led, works for racial justice by building the power of youth, communities of color, immigrants, low-income families, and LGBTQ communities.
• Levantine Cultural Center champions understanding of the Middle East and North Africa by presenting programs that bridge political and religious divides.
• Tarabut-Hithabrut, Arab-Jewish Movement for Social & Political Change, brings together the dispossessed and the oppressed in Israel through involvement in social struggles, to think together without dogmatic certainties.
• 972mag.com, a blog-based web magazine providing fresh, original, on-the-ground analysis of events in Israel and Palestine–committed to human rights, freedom of information, and opposing the occupation.

TOOLS

• A Tool for Transcending Jewish Trauma, from Jo Kent Katz. And make sure to read Luba Yusim and Sophia Sobko’s essay on being post-Soviet Jewish immigrants.
• (Divorcing) White Supremacy Culture: Coming Home to Who We Really Are
• In the Streets and In Your Home: Jews4BlackLives Ritual Toolkit

ARTICLES

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• “For the Safety of Jews and Palestinians, Stop Weaponizing Antisemitism”, Op Ed by Bernie Steinberg, 12/29/23
• “There is a Jewish Hope for Palestinian Liberation: It Must Survive” by Peter Beinart, 10/23
• “When ‘Never Again’ Becomes a War Cry” by Natasha Roth-Rowland, 10/23
• “3 Key Insights for Building A Powerful and Loving Movement Against Oppression in Palestine-Israel” by Rae Abileah & Nadine Bloch, 10/23
• “Ta-Nehisi Coates Speaks Out Against Israel’s ‘Segregationist Apartheid’ Regime after West Bank Visit” 11/23
• “Winning White People to the Fight Against the MAGA Right” by Erin Heaney, 7/23
• “Purim after Hawara” by Peter Beinart, 3/23
• “On Kanye West, Antisemitism and Palestinian Liberation” by Hadar Cohen, 11/22
• “The Maga Threat is Greater Today than it was in 2020” by Max Elbaum, 1/23
• “The Frontline: Does Antisemitism Exist in the Climate Movement?” by Yessenia Funes, 12/22
• “Zionism has no space for an Arab Jew like me” by Hadar Cohen, 11/22
• “Why Democracies Are So Slow to Respond to Evil” by Dara Horn, 9/22
• “Blacks and Jews, Again” by Michael Eric Dyson, 11/20/22, NYT
• “The Mistake in Equating Right-wing and Left-wing Antisemitism” by Jonathan Jacoby, 10/26/22, The Forward
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• “Buffalo Massacre: An Act of White Nationalist Political Violence” 5/16/22, Political Research Associates
• “Feminism Hasn’t Failed. Here’s the Evidence” by Rebecca Solnit, 7/4/22, Guardian
• “By staying silent on Masafer Yatta, Biden is green lighting forced population transfer” by Davida Ginsberg, 7/10/22
• “Urvashi Vaid, 1958-2022: Telling the truth, standing together, and fighting for liberation” (obituary) by Laura Flanders, 5/26/22, The Nation
• “Largest study ever of Jews of color reports widespread discrimination” by Arno Rosenfeld, 8/12/21. And then make sure to read the “Beyond the Count” report itself, commissioned by the Jews of Color Initiative
• “After the Insurrection: Fighting Antisemitism is a critical piece of a racial justice agenda” by Carin Mrotz, 2/15/21
• “Making Our Movements Stronger by Resisting Antisemitism” by Jonah S. Boyarin & Dania Rajendra, 12/7/17
• “Skin in the Game, How Anti-Semitism Animates White Nationalism” by Eric Ward, June 2017
• “In the Shadow of the Lynching Memorial” by Nadine Epstein, 9/21, Moment Magazine
• “Anti-Zionist Embodiment, Breath, and Belonging” by Wendy Somerson, August 2022
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• “I’m Not White, I’m Jewish, But I’m White: Standing as Jews in the Fight for Racial Justice” by Paul Kivel, 1998
• “My son was racially profiled at his Jewish day school. Here’s how they handled it” by Heather Miller, 12/21
• “Asian Jews are suffering. We need you to listen” by Rebecca Kuss, 3/21
• “I was innocent and afraid for my life, then I got a glimpse of what an ally can look like” by Yavilah McCoy, 6/20
• “Jewish Communities are Finally Paying Attention to Jews of Color: here’s the long road to how they got there” by Josefin Dolsten, 7/20
• “Jury awards $26 million in Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally civil case” by Nicole Sganga, 11/24/21
• “Sunrise DC was wrong. But liberal Jewish groups remain complicit in occupation” by Eva Borgwardt and Yonah Lieberman, 10/29/21, Forward
• “Groundswell: Rabbi Dev Noily on Following Indigenous Leadership” by Noach Phillips, 11/7/21
• “Standing Together: Against Antisemitism and for Justice in Israel-Palestine” by Ben Lorber, 5/21/21
• “Jews of Color, once sidelined, now being recruited by Jewish Agencies” by Rachele Kanigel, the J Weekly, 8/5/21
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• “Op-Ed: Rabbi Sharon Brous: Why Jews should support reparations for slavery” LA Times, 3/7/18
• “What is Owed” by Nikole Hannah-Jones, June 2020, NYTimes Magazine, (reparations)
• “Slavery and its Atonement: On the Impact of Slavery and the White Jewish Obligations to Respond” by Rabbi Toba Spitzer, 2018
• “To The New Jewish Left” by April Rosenblum, 8/12/21
• “John Lewis’ Last Words”, 7/30/20, The Atlanta Journal Constitution
• “I Will Sing for People Who Might not Sing for Me” by Rabbi Dev Noily, 10/27
• “Celebrating a New Jewish Diasporism: A Sermon for Rosh Hashanah 5777” by Rabbi Brant Rosen, 10/16
• “Sometimes Love is a Call to Action: Kol Nidre 5781” by Rabbi Sharon Brous, 9/27/20
• “Why the Atlanta Shootings and Anti-Asian Racism are Jewish Issues” with Gabi Kuhn and Riki Robinson, Jews of Color Initiative, March 2021
• “This Passover, Keeping Us Safe” by Bekkah Scharf, 3/18/21

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• “Asian Jews Deserve Better: We are not seen as “normal” Jews, and especially not normal American Jews. We should be.” by Gen Xia Ye Slosberg, 3/3/21
• “‘This has been exhausting’: Asian-American Jews on the Atlanta spa murders and rising anti-Asian hate crimes, in their own words”, JTA, 3/19/21
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• “‘We Jews are Not a Race’: A Rabbi of Color Speaks Personally on Yom Kippur” by Angela Warnick Buchdahl, 9/28/20
• “‘Believe us’: Black Jews respond to the George Floyd protests, in their own words” by Josefin Dolstein, 5/31/20
• “Why Jews should support the state’s high school ethnic studies curriculum” by Rabbi Dev Noily & Hazzan Shulamit Wise Fairman, 5/27/20
• “Peter Beinart Crosses Over: On Game Changers and Historic Injustices” by Rabbi Brant Rosen, 7/8/20
• “What is White Supremacy?” By Elizabeth ‘Betita’ Martinez
• “America, This is Your Chance: We must get it right this time or risk losing our democracy” by Michelle Alexander, NYT, 6/8/20
• “I’m a Black rabbi. I’ve never been in a Jewish space where I wasn’t questioned.” by Sandra Lawson, 6/12/20
• “75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice” by Fred Jones, 5/27/20
• “Hanukkah anti-Semitism Requires a Response, but We Cannot Fight Hatred with More Hatred” by Rabbi Michael Adam Latz and Carin Mrotz, 12/30/19
• “Radical Inclusion” by Aurora Levins Morales, Evolve/Reconstructing Judaism
• “Ella Baker’s Legacy Runs Deep. Know Her Name” by Barbara Ransby, New York Times, 1/20/20
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• “The Right Wants to Keep Jewish and Black Non-Jewish Communities Divided, We Can’t Let That Happen” by Ben Lorber, Dove Kent, Leo Ferguson, 1/17/20
• “Our democracy’s founding ideals were false when they were written. Black Americans have fought to make them true.” by Nikole Hannah-Jones, 8/14/19, New York Times Magazine
• “A Year After the Tree of Life Shooting, Anti-Semitism and Anti-Immigrant Racism Thrive” by Ben Lorber & Tina Vasquez
• “How Telegram Became White Nationalists’ Go-To Messaging Platform” by Tess Owen, Vice.com, 10/7/19
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• “Identity Politics: Friend or Foe?” by Alicia Garza, 9/24/19, Othering & Belonging Institute
• “Muslims and Jews Face a Common Threat from White Supremacists. We Must Fight it Together” by Mehdi Hasan & Jonathan Freedland, The Intercept, 4/3/19
• “Debunking the Myth that Anti-Zionism Is Anti-Semitic” by Peter Beinart, 2/27/19, The Forward
• “Time to Break the Silence on Palestine” by Michelle Alexander, New York Times, 1/19/19
• “Jewish Women of Color Open Letter” Medium.com, 1/11/19
• “Let’s Refuse to Give Up On Each Other” Penny Rosenwasser Facebook post on the Women’s March
• “Responding to Anti-Semitic Violence With Solidarity’s Sacred Power” by Brant Rosen, Truthout, 10/28/18
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• “Understanding Antisemitism: An Offering to our Movement”, A Resource from Jews For Racial & Economic Justice
• “6 Places Resisting Fear with Compassionate Defiance” YES! Magazine
• “No, I Won’t Stop Saying White Supremacy” by Robin DiAngelo
• “American Jews Should Support the Movement for Black Lives Platform” by Ilise Benshushan Cohen, Aurora Levins Morales, and Rebecca Vilkomerson, The Nation, 9/7/16
• “This Country Needs a Truth and Reconciliation Process on Violence Against African Americans—Right Now” by Fania Davis
• “How I Finally Fell in Love With My Jewish Womanhood” by Talia Bauer, HELLOFLO
• “A Ritual Dismantling of Walls, Healing from Trauma through the Jewish Days of Awe” by Wendy Elisheva Somerson, Tikkun.org
• “On the Frontiers of a Divided World, Border Lessons: Reflections after the 2014 Helix Project” by Mandy Cohen, Yiddishkayt
• “Jo Roberts on Jewish trauma, the Nakba, and the olive tree” – an interview with Phillip Weiss
• The Culture of Power, by Paul Kivel

BOOKS

• “To Be A Jewish Dyke in the 21st Century,” Sinister Wisdom, A Multicultural Lesbian Literary & Art Journal, edited by Elana Dykewomon and Judith Katz, Winter 2021
• My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem
• Wounds into Wisdom: Healing Intergenerational Jewish Trauma by Rabbi Tirzah Firestone, Ph.D.
• The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture, by Gabor Maté MD and Daniel Maté, 2022
• How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
• Medicine Stories: Essays for Radicals by Aurora Levins Morales
• When We Were Arabs: A Jewish Family’s Forgotten History by Massoud Hayoun
• Uprooting Racism 4th Edition, How White People Can Work For Racial Justice by Paul Kivel, 2017
• White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo

VIDEO & FILM

• Elijah Barrow Ward’s talk about Jews of Color, Rosh Hoshana, 2023, 10 min. Begin watching at 53:45 and end at 1:03:17.
• The U.S and the Holocaust by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, and Sarah Botstein, 9/22 – 3 part, 6-hour series which “delves deeply into the tragic human consequences of public indifference, bureaucratic red tape and restrictive quota laws in America.”
• The Wisdom of Trauma, featuring Dr. Gabor Mate
• What Not To Say to Jews of Color Allie’s Best
• LUNAR Series Trailer: What does it mean to be both Asian American and Jewish?
• Stop Line 3:Grandmothers stand to support Water Protectors, by Peg Hunter
• Tamika Mallory on George Floyd Protests: “Don’t talk to us about looting. American has been looting Black people. Looting is what you do, we learned it from you.”
• Rev. Al Sharpton delivers eulogy at George Floyd’s memorial, 6/4/20
• Black America in Crisis: Red Table Talk Video (35 min) with Angela Davis, Tamika Mallory, Jada Pickett Smith & Willow Smith
• Robin DiAngelo, 6 minute video: Why “I’m not a racist” is only half the story
• “We are not in the same boat,” by Brittany Packnett, 3 min. video –racism and the covid virus
• Jewish Women of Color at Women’s March, 1/19/19
• Eli Talks: Ilana Kaufman, Racism in the Jewish Community: The Uncomfortable Truth (15 min.) 6/12/13
• ‘Segregated By Design’ examines the forgotten history of how our federal, state and local governments unconstitutionally segregated every major metropolitan area in America through law and policy ( based on the book, The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein), 17 min. May 2019.
• This is Personal: Intersectional Identity and the Women’s March”, Jewish Women of Color Panel speaking as part of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival programming, August 2019, (1 hour, 20 min.)
• Excellent short video from Emily Mayer, co-founder of If Not Now, about anti-Semitism and white supremacy, 2/18/19
• Documenting Hate: New American Nazis, by A. C. Thompson of Pro Publica, Frontline PBS, November 20, 2018
• Israel & Palestine: A Very Short Introduction, 6 minutes
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• Encounter Point (DVD) by Ronit Avni and Julia Bacha. Award-winning documentary about the everyday Palestinian and Israeli Jewish leaders who work together against violence and for peace
• The Way Home by Shakti Butler, 90 minutes (1998). Multiracial councils of women, including Jews, explore racism, internalized oppression, and what holds oppression in place.
• Young, Jewish and Left by Irit Reinheimer & Konnie Chameides, 70 minutes (2006). “Weaves queer culture, Jewish Arab history, secular Yiddishkeit, anti-racist analysis, and religious/spiritual traditions into a…tapestry of Leftist politics…Grab your Bubbe (grandmother) and your habibi (loved one) and check it out.”
• They Were Promised the Sea by Kathy Wazana. Informed by the director’s family history, this “stunning visual, lyrical and musical meditation” investigates the circumstances surrounding the mass migration of Jews from Morocco, an exodus linked to the dispossession and exile of the Palestinian people.
• Cracking the Codes: the System of Racial Inequality by Shakti Butler, “Part story telling, part toolbox,…portrays the complex interplay between the personal, institutional and systemic…for anyone who has ever wondered how to get this conversation started – and keep it going.”
• Commie Camp by Katie Halper, a “wonderful hopeful” documentary about leftie Camp Kinderland, “a beacon for how the world should be: cabins are named for Anne Frank, Joe Hill, and Pablo Neruda. At its core the film is about the important and very serious question of just how values are transmitted to the next generation.” Today the camp is “multicultural with a Jewish flavor.” (I haven’t seen it, but I can’t wait to!)

PODCASTS

• “Jewish Ancestral Healing” with Penny Rosenwasser, interview by Rae Abileah, 8/22: »Register here, for FREE, to receive the link to the interview.
• Robin DiAngelo | Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm–In Conversation with Resmaa Menakem, bestselling author of My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies, 58 min, 7/20/21
• On Being – an interview with Resmaa Menakem and Robin DiAngelo

WEBINARS

• “Beyond the Count: Perspectives and Lived Experiences of Jews of Color” —Ilana Kaufman, 11/9/21, Boulder Jewish Community Center, »SEE FLYER
• “Choosing Justice Despite our Fears: Uprooting Internalized Antisemitism & White Supremacy” —Penny Rosenwasser, 11/14/21, Boulder Jewish Community Center, »SEE FLYER
• A Black Abolitionist View on Cop City with Angela Davis, Jasmine Burnett, mariah parker, M. Adams (Live Panel) , 6/23
• The Space Between: Jewish Wisdom from JOC Leaders
• “Black Lives Mattter: A Conversation on Being Black and Jewish in this Moment” —Ilana Kaufman and Yavilah McCoy, 1 hour, July 2020

PRE-2014 BOOKS & ARTICLES

• How the Jews Became White Folks and What That Says About Race in America by Karen Brodkin
• The Colors of Jews by Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz
• The Flying Camel: Essays on Identity by Women of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Heritage, edited by Loolwa Khazzoom
• Nice Jewish Girls: a lesbian anthology edited by Evelyn Torton Beck
• “The Past Didn’t Go Anywhere: Making Resistance to Anti-Semitism Part of All of Our Movements” by April Rosenblum (pamphlet)
• Living in the Shadow of the Cross: Understanding and Resisting the Power and Privilege of Christian Hegemony by Paul Kivel

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• “Reflections by an Arab Jew” by Ella Shohat
• Justice Justice Shall You Pursue: a History of the New Jewish Agenda by Ezra Berkeley Nepon
• Kindling: Writings on the Body by Aurora Levins Morales
• Trail Guide to the Torah of Nonviolence by Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb
• Ronnie Gilbert, A Radical Life in Song by Ronnie Gilbert
• The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan
• Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict by Phyllis Bennis
• Wrapped in the Flag of Israel: Mizrahi Single Mothers and Bureaucratic Torture by Smadar Lavie

CONFERENCES

• White Privilege Conference, open to everyone, challenges concepts of privilege and oppression, works towards strategies for a more equitable world
• National Women’s Studies Association Conference, the only U.S. annual meeting exclusively devoted to feminist scholarship
• Creating Change, annual organizing and skills-building event for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and their allies