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New Jewish Agenda (NJA) was a multi-issue membership organization active in the United States between 1980 and 1992, consisting of approximately 50 local chapters. Its slogan was "a Jewish voice among progressives and a progressive voice among Jews." The organization emphasized participatory democracy and advocated for civil rights, particularly for groups marginalized within the broader Jewish community. NJA was notable for its positions on Palestinian rights and the inclusion of queer Jews, which were considered controversial at the time.
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Over 1,200 people attended NJA's founding conference of New Jewish Agenda (NJA) on December 25, 1980, representing members of Orthodox, Conservative, Reconstructionist, and Reform synagogues.[1] The date was purposely chosen to coincide with Christmas.[2] During the conference, a 25-member Executive Committee (EC) was elected. The EC determined that straw-poll resolutions would serve as guides rather than mandates for NJA policy and proposed the creation of task forces for each policy area.[3]
Many founding members were Jewish activists involved in movements advocating for peace, demilitarization, civil liberties, civil rights, and women’s liberation, as well as those critical of Israeli policies. NJA incorporated Jewish cultural symbols and traditions into its organizing efforts.[4] For example, the organization rewrote Jewish prayers and High Holy Day services to reflect feminist, secular, and other non-traditional Jewish perspectives. Jewish rituals were also utilized in protests, such as when the Disarmament Task Force constructed a sukkah across the street the White House. NJA members framed their activism as explicitly Jewish, which received mixed and often critical responses from the broader Jewish community.
At a Delegates Conference held on November 28, 1982, in New York City, 65 elected representatives from NJA chapters and at-large members from across the United States reached consensus on a National Platform. The platform included a general Statement of Purpose and specific positions on 18 issue areas.
Topic headings of each issue area
- Jewish Communal Life in the United States
- New Jewish Agenda's Feminist Commitment
- Women in the Work Force, Family, and Reproductive Rights
- Gay and Lesbian Jews
- Jews with Disabilities
- Anti-Semitism
- Racism
- Affirmative Action
- Civil Liberties
- Energy and Environment
- Economic Justice
- The Labor Movement
- Relations between Israel and North American Jewry
- Internal Social Life in Israel
- Israel, the Palestinians, and Arab Neighbors
- Israel and the International Community
- World Jewry and Threatened Jewish Communities (Soviet, Ethiopian, Argentine Jews)
- Militarism and the Nuclear Arms Race
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New Jewish Agenda (NJA) operated five primary campaigns through National Task Forces focused on Middle East Peace, Worldwide Nuclear Disarmament, Economic and Social Justice, Peace in Central America, and Jewish Feminism. These task forces coordinated activities at both local and national levels, utilizing methods such as national speaking tours, publications, newsletters, gatherings, and conferences. In addition to the broader task force initiatives, NJA members often formed more specialized Working Groups to address specific issues within or outside the scope of the task forces' primary focus areas.
Economic and Social Justice Taskforce
New Jewish Agenda chapters participated in coalitions to combat racism, anti-Semitism and South African apartheid.[5] In 1986, NJA organized vigils outside South African consulates in five U.S. cities. The organization also coordinated a six-week tour featuring Rabbi Ben Isaacson, a prominent anti-apartheid activist from South Africa, and Reverend Zachariah Mokgebo, a leading Black South African minister.[6]
In November 1991, NJA held a conference in Philadelphia titled "Carrying It On: Organizing Against Anti-Semitism and Racism for Jewish Activists and College Students." The event drew over 500 Jewish activists and allies from other communities for workshops focused on understanding and combating institutional racism in the United States, as well as examining the connections between anti-Semitism and racism.[7] Julian Bond delivered the keynote address, which examined the history of Black-Jewish relations in the United States.
In 1983, NJA organized the Jewish contingent for the 20th Anniversary March on Washington for Jobs, Peace, and Freedom. This included a Shabbat service and celebration attended by over 500 people. The march featured hundreds of Jewish participants carrying a 24-foot banner with the words "Justice, Justice Thou Shall Pursue". The Friday night gathering included speeches by Martin Luther King III and Susannah Heschel.
Feminist Taskforce
Jewish feminist leadership was part of to NJA's culture from its inception. In 1985, NJA’s National Conference passed a resolution establishing a Feminist Task Force (FTF). The national FTF encouraged local chapters to create their own feminist task forces and to recruit women interested in feminist activism. NJA’s feminist work was influenced by non-Jewish, non-white feminists.[8] One notable project of the FTF was Gesher (Hebrew for "Bridge"), a newsletter that featured updates from chapter task forces and explored feminist issues within NJA. Gesher later evolved into the Jewish feminist journal Bridges, which continued publication until June 2011.[9]
In 1985, NJA sent a delegation to the United Nations Decade for Women Forum in Nairobi. The delegation facilitated a dialogue among Jewish, African-American, and Arab feminists. At the event, an Israeli Jew and a Palestinian from Gaza addressed an audience of over 400 people. NJA also helped lay the groundwork for a Palestinian-Israeli women's organization and organized speaking tours to share insights from the forum.[10]
In the same year, NJA published Coming Out/Coming Home, a pamphlet addressing homophobia and advocating for gay rights within the Jewish community. NJA also organized workshops and events to engage Jewish communities in gay rights activism. In April 1986, the Brooklyn and Manhattan chapters hosted the first New York community-wide conference on queer Jews. The following year, NJA coordinated a Jewish contingent and Havdalah service at the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. After the march, many NJA members participated in a civil disobedience action at the Supreme Court of the United States to protest their ruling in Bowers v. Hardwick and to advocate for AIDS-related civil rights.[11]
At its September 1987 meeting, the FTF launched a two-year campaign to address issues of "Family," focusing on both traditional and non-traditional family structures within Jewish communities. This campaign included a Mother’s Day 1988 conference in Philadelphia on women and poverty, featuring a panel discussion led by Adrienne Rich, which highlighted the high poverty rates among women, including Jewish women. On May 19, 1988, the FTF co-sponsored a program titled No More Family Secrets: Now We’re Talking with the National Council of Jewish Women. The event featured discussions on topics such as domestic violence and incest within Jewish communities.
The FTF’s work intersected with other NJA campaigns, housing both the Gay/Lesbian Working Group and the AIDS Working Group. AIDS activism became a key focus for NJA, particularly in raising awareness within Jewish communities.[12] The AIDS Working Group, established in July 1986 under the FTF, coordinated local activism and hosted workshops, including a session on "AIDS in the Jewish Community" at NJA’s 1987 National Convention at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Middle East Peace Taskforce
NJA was the only American Jewish organization to explicitly oppose the 1982 Lebanon War from the outset. Shortly after the war began, NJA published a full-page advertisement in The New York Times denouncing the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Local chapters quickly mobilized, with the Washington, D.C. chapter issuing a public statement two days after the June 6 invasion, the Massachusetts chapter organizing a protest vigil, and the Philadelphia chapter staging a demonstration at City Hall. NJA also hosted town hall meetings featuring Noam Chomsky.[13]
In 1983, NJA launched a petition calling for a freeze on the construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, garnering 5,000 signatures from American Jews. This initiative served as a foundation for public education on the impact of settlement policies on the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. NJA presented the petition at the General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations. The organization also organized two political study missions to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories during the summers of 1983 and 1984, meeting with academics, journalists, and political figures. A later tour led to the production of the 1991 video This is the Moment: Israelis and Palestinians Talk.[14]
NJA staged protests against Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Menachem Begin during his 1982 visit to Los Angeles and Ariel Sharon at a 1983 Academy of the Hebrew Language banquet in San Francisco, which drew over 2,000 demonstrators. In 1985, NJA joined protests against violent anti-Arab activities in Los Angeles. In early 1988, NJA supported progressive Zionists in mobilizing representatives for the 31st World Zionist Congress, recruiting 650 new members for "Americans for Peace in Israel," the U.S. affiliate of Mapam.
In 1984, NJA co-sponsored a national speaking tour with the American Friends Service Committee featuring Mordechai Bar-On and Mohammed Milhim. This tour resulted in the PBS television special The Arab and the Israeli. These dialogues were followed by local discussions between American Jewish and Arab communities. NJA also hosted a tour by a founding member of the Committee Against the War in Lebanon and a member of the Israeli Committee in Solidarity with Bir Zeit University.
Worldwide Nuclear Disarmament Taskforce
NJA successfully lobbied for the passage of a resolution supporting a multilateral nuclear arms freeze at the 1982 General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations. This resolution prompted other organizations, including the American Jewish Congress and B'nai B'rith to adopt similar positions. In 1983, Arthur Waskow founded The Shalom Center, a Jewish organization dedicated to peace and anti-nuclear activism, building on the momentum created by NJA's efforts.[15]
In 1981, the observance of Tisha B'Av coincided with the anniversary of atomic bombing of Nagasaki in 1945. NJA marked the occasion with traditional Tisha B'Av observances near the White House and the Soviet Embassy. In 1984, NJA chapters organized numerous Sukkat Shalom and Rainbow Sign events, connecting traditional Jewish practices to the call for nuclear disarmament. This included the construction of a sukkah in Lafayette Park to draw attention to anti-nuclear activism.[16]
On June 12, 1982, 500 NJA members participated in the Disarmament Rally in New York, then the largest such rally in U.S. history.[17] In 1985, NJA brought a substantial delegation to the Mobilization for Justice and Peace in Washington, D.C. In 1986, the organization co-sponsored a Boston University conference titled Judaism, War, and the Nuclear Arms Race.
Following a 1986 Shalom Center Training Institute for disarmament activists, NJA task force members sought to connect disarmament advocacy with broader human rights issues. This included solidarity efforts with the Soviet Jewry movement. NJA participated in a December 1987 demonstration on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., held on the eve of the 1987 Washington Summit, to advocate for Soviet Jews.
Central American Solidarity Taskforce
In 1984, NJA sponsored a delegation of national Jewish leaders to Nicaragua to investigate human rights conditions and assess allegations by the U.S. government that the Sandinista government was pursuing anti-Semitic policies. The delegation’s findings reported no evidence of anti-Semitic behavior or policies by the Sandinistas. Their report noted Nicaragua's willingness to resume diplomatic talks with the State of Israel and oppose anti-Semitism.[18] Through widespread publicity, the delegation effectively countered the Reagan administration's efforts to rally American Jewish support for the Contras. NJA continued to send delegations to Central America, collaborated with peace organizations to lobby against U.S. aid to the Contras, and represented the Jewish community in the Pledge of Resistance coalition and the Inter-Religious Task Force on Central America.
NJA also supported the Sanctuary Movement. Approximately 20 synagogues became active in the movement, aiding Central American refugees. This effort was bolstered by NJA's distribution of educational materials to over 2,000 rabbis and synagogues, as well as through published articles and letters to the editor. NJA produced two brochures addressing concerns that had previously limited Jewish involvement in the Central American crisis and highlighting scriptural commandments urging Jews to protect and provide refuge to the persecuted.[19]
In 1986, NJA sponsored national speaking tours featuring three rabbis whose congregations had offered sanctuary to Central American refugees. The organization’s "Jewish Witness for Peace" delegation also produced a 30-minute educational video titled Crossing Borders, which was distributed within the Jewish community to raise awareness and foster engagement with the Sanctuary Movement.
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New Jewish Agenda served as a leadership incubator, contributing to the development of numerous Jewish organizations before its closure in 1992. While the reasons for NJA's disbandment are not definitively agreed upon, financial difficulties played a significant role, with the organization accruing long-term debt that reportedly reached at least $60,000[20] Additionally, NJA faced isolation within the mainstream Jewish community due to its then-controversial positions on Palestine and the inclusion of queer Jews.
NJA played a role in fostering the growth of other Jewish organizations, including Americans for Peace Now, The New Israel Fund, Jewish Fund for Justice, The Shalom Center, The Shefa Fund, Bridges Journal, American Friends of Neve Shalom, Brit Tzedek v'Shalom, Bat Shalom, and The Abraham Fund. It also built liaisons with older organizations such as the Jewish Peace Fellowship.
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