New Jewish Agenda (Organization)

The New Jewish Agenda (N.J.A.) was a national Jewish organization (1980-1992) that had more than forty chapters. It saw itself as a "Jewish voice among progressives" and a "progressive voice among Jews." Based on its commitment to the Talmudic precept of "Tikun Olam" --the just reordering of society--the N.J.A. took positions in support of: economic and social justice; feminism, including women's reproductive rights; peace in the Middle East, including self-determination for both Israelis and the Palestinians; a worldwide nuclear freeze; and non-intervention in Central America. It also thought that Jewish gays should be accorded equal rights within the larger Jewish community.

From the description of New Jewish Agenda records, 1980-1992. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 229901132

New Jewish Agenda (1980-1992), aka “Agenda,” identified itself as “a Jewish voice among progressives and a progressive voice among Jews.” NJA was a multi-issue organization that included secular and observant Jews, Jews from the organized Left (principally the New Left of the 1960s-1970s), and politically unaffiliated Jews; it was organized into some forty-five local chapters. The political concerns of NJA were reflected in the names of the task forces through which the bulk of its activity was conducted: the Middle East Task Force (advocating a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and opposing settlements in the occupied territories), the Economic and Social Justice Task Force, the Nuclear Disarmament Task Force, the Central America Task Force (in particular opposing U.S. policy in El Salvador and Nicaragua), and the Feminism (later to include AIDS) Task Force, which reflected the strong presence of women and homosexuals in Agenda. NJA also sought to develop a progressive Jewish cultural and religious ethos, reflected in its creation of The Shalom Seders: Three Haggadahs (1984), and also devoted some attention to the issues of Soviet Jewry and Ethiopian Jews. The process-oriented, “participatory democracy” political culture of NJA complicated its efforts to deal with its infiltration, circa 1987, by the New Alliance Party, a political cult whose views were antithetical to those of NJA. The organization also faced hostility from mainstream organized Jewry for its critical view of Israeli foreign policy, ongoing financial difficulties, and the erosion of some of its membership to other, usually single-issue progressive Jewish organizations, and eventually disbanded in 1992.

From the guide to the New Jewish Agenda Records, 1980-circa 1992, (Tamiment Library / Wagner Archives)

New Jewish Agenda (1980-1992), aka “Agenda,” identified itself as “a Jewish voice among progressives and a progressive voice among Jews.” NJA was a multi-issue organization that included secular and observant Jews, Jews from the organized Left (principally the New Left of the 1960s-1970s), and politically unaffiliated Jews; it was organized into some forty-five local chapters. The political concerns of NJA were reflected in the names of the task forces through which the bulk of its activity was conducted: the Middle East Task Force (advocating a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and opposing settlements in the occupied territories), the Economic and Social Justice Task Force, the Nuclear Disarmament Task Force, the Central America Task Force (in particular opposing U.S. policy in El Salvador and Nicaragua), and the Feminism (later to include AIDS) Task Force, which reflected the strong presence of women and homosexuals in Agenda. NJA also sought to develop a progressive Jewish cultural and religious ethos, reflected in its creation of The Shalom Seders: Three Haggadahs (1984), and also devoted some attention to the issues of Soviet Jewry and Ethiopian Jews. The process-oriented, “participatory democracy” political culture of NJA complicated its efforts to deal with its infiltration, circa 1987, by the New Alliance Party, a political cult whose views were antithetical to those of NJA. The organization also faced hostility from mainstream organized Jewry for its critical view of Israeli foreign policy, ongoing financial difficulties, and the erosion of some of its membership to other, usually single-issue progressive Jewish organizations, and eventually disbanded in 1992.

From the guide to the New Jewish Agenda Records, 1980-circa 1992, (Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive)