40 Friday, July 26, 1985

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

NEW JEWISH AGENDA

A controversial
organization of
activists holds its
`first' national
convention in Ann
Arbor.

BY ALAN ABRAMS

Special to The Jewish News

O

4G

Rabbi Marshall Meyer leads the Havdalah service Saturday night at the New Jewish Agenda convention. Holding the candle is NJA
Detroit Chapter member Francine Rosemberg-Ballard, and to her right are convention speakers Adrienne Rich and Ed Asner.

T

o Dana Jackson of the Detroit
Free Press, the New Jewish
Agenda is "a Jewish organiza-
tion promoting peace and social
justice."
To Michael Drissman, editor of
The Jewish Idea's Shofar, the New
Jewish Agenda promotes treason and
collaboration.
Last weekend, the NJA gave De-
troiters an opportunity to judge for
themselves, as the organization held
its first national convention on the
grounds of the University of Michigan
in Ann Arbor.
There was even some confusion
over whether this was the NJA's first
or second convention. Agenda, the
organ of the NJA, opted for second. But
they counted the December 1980
founding convention in Washington
when 700 people collectively gave
birth to NJA.
New Jewish Agenda is a national
organization with over 4,500 mem-
bers. The group claims to be a con-
tinuance of the Jewish presence at the
forefront of movements for social jus-
tice. NJA says Jewish involvement in
these movements reached its peak in
the 1930s and again during the civil
rights struggle. Leftist in stance, NJA

attempts to present an alternative to
what they call the conservative trend
in established Jewish organizations.
The group is best known for its
stand on Israel, in which they support
dialogue and eventual mutual recog-
nition between Israelis and Palesti-
nians. Nuclear disarmament, racism
and anti-Semitism, Jewish culture
and identity, rights for the disabled,
economic justice, gay and lesbian
rights, and environmental issues are
among NJA's other concerns.
The organization however is often
criticized for caring more about non-
Jewish issues than they do about Jews.
Their reply is that all issues are indeed
Jewish issues.
Locally, NJA has active chapters
in Detroit and Ann Arbor. The Detroit
chapter is unique among the 45 chap-
ters nation wide in that it is a member
of the local Jewish Community Coun-
cil.
Big guns trot out in support of the
group: actor Ed Asner (television's
Lou Grant); feminist poet Adrienne
Rich; Rabbi Marshall Meyer, the
leader of the struggle against anti-
Semitism in Argentina during the
period of military rule.
Security conscious to the point of

near-paranoia, the NJA feared disrup-
tion of the convention by either the
Jewish Defense League or other vocal
supporters of Rabbi Meir Kahane. In-
stead, only a lone voice of protest was
raised by Mordechai Levy of New
York, a member of the Jewish Defense
Organization. Levy flew in for the con-
vention's opening, passed out leaflets,
gave an interview to the Ann Arbor
News, and flew back to New York the
next morning. He protested NJA's
overriding concern with non-Jewish
causes.
Otherwise, the , scene was often
reminiscent of the 1960s. Workshops
were held on dormitory lawns. Dress
was casual and so was the conversa-
tion. Were it not for the profusion of
yarmulkes, it might have been
Woodstock.
Ed Asner met the press in a small
conference room on the third floor of
the Michigan League Building. It was
more of an intimate gathering than a
press conference. And it gave the NJA
the opportunity to disseminate a press
kit, the highlight of which was a pro-
gram book financed by a grant from
the Mondry Family Fund. The Mondry
family are the owners of the Highland
Appliance chain,

