Lenni Brenner
Lenni Brenner (born 1937), formerly known as Leonard Glaser or Lenny Glaser,
Early life
Brenner was born into an
Political activity
Brenner has recounted that his involvement with the
Berkeley 1964, arrest and imprisonment
Brenner, then known as Glaser, came to Berkeley in 1962. A bid to enroll in the orthodox Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party was rejected though he was permitted to join its youth branch, from which he was expelled for ignoring an order that he desist from talking about drug reform at street rallies.[4] In February 1964, he was arrested on a drug charge and put on probation for marijuana possession.[5][c]
Though a non-student,[6] Brenner at UC had become by this time a long-time campus orator,[7] a familiar if solitary figure on the Berkeley campus (UC), where he delivered passionate tirades to passing students while protesting issues like Kennedy's handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the papal opposition to birth control, while also advocating for the legalization of marijuana.[8] On the missile crisis he once delivered a non-stop speech from noon to midnight at Bancroft and Telegraph Avenue in 1962.[4][d] That venue was not thought to be on University property.[e] The UC, under Chancellor Clark Kerr, who believed Communist influence lay behind the Free Speech Movement (FSM),[9] had recently banned political activities on campus, and speakers were obliged to address passers-by outside, on city-owned property, though card-tables with leaflets were permitted a few steps inside. On September 14, 1964, the University administration extended its ban, in effect from the 21st., to these card tables on the 26 foot brick walkway, technically also University property, just outside the campus entrance.[10] The tightening of this regulation triggered a wave of defiance, with students challenging the order by moving the card-tables inside the campus grounds.[4]
On October 1, 1964, Jack Weinberg a student of mathematics who had graduated with great distinction,[11] challenged the ruling by setting up one such card table in Sproul Plaza. He was collecting funds for Congress of Racial Equality(CORE):[7] a number of campus activists at the time,[12] including philosophy student Mario Savio, were spending their summers aiding the civil rights movement to get Afro-Americans to register for a vote in the face of Ku Klux Klan violence.[13]
After Weinberg refused to identify himself to emissaries of the dean, a lieutenant from the campus police was called in and informed him of the infraction.[14] Outnumbered, the policeman then left and came back with three more officers who arrested Weinberg for trespass and for violating the regulation against political activity.[15][12] Weinberg, using a passive disobedience technique, went limp and had to be hauled to a police car, which was almost immediately encircled by hundreds of students.[11][7] Brenner, In what has been described as an "historic event,"[7][f] is generally reported[g] to have been the first in the crowd to try and physically block the exit of the police vehicle detaining Weinberg by Weinberg by rolling under it.[16][6] Several hundred[h] joined him and the car remained "entrapped" for 32 hours. In response, 643 police were assembled on the campus by 2 October.[18] The hood of the car was turned into a platform where Savio, and one source claims Brenner himself,[19][i] made speeches and Joan Baez sang before a growing student crowd of thousands.
Brenner, though present, later stated he was opposed to the ensuing demonstration, and that he had approached the car and asked Weinberg if he wanted to get out. Weinberg replied negatively saying that his presence there was of symbolic value.
UC faculty scholar
Brenner was released on January 22, 1968, after serving a term of 3 years and 3 months.[23] In a memoir of the period, one of the FSM leaders, Michael Rossman[24] argued that the movement, in failing to stand by Brenner when he was targeted by the authorities, had effectively betrayed him and his distinctive campus voice.[8]
Latter activism
Brenner joined in the Free Speech Movement when it emerged on campus in the mid-1960s.[8] He was an anti-war activist during the Vietnam War.[25] In 1968 he co-founded the National Association for Irish Justice, the American affiliate of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association.[25]
In the 1990s, he and the
Brenner spoke at an Israeli Apartheid Week event in 2011 at Berlin, Connecticut. According to the Anti-Defamation League, at an event called "One State Solution" at the Islamic Association of Greater Hartford, Brenner said that Jews were the largest donors to American political parties and that the political system is as "crooked as a dog's hind leg". He also stated that President Truman recognised Israel because of contributions from Jews.[26]
Writing
His books have been widely translated and reviewed in 11 languages. His books have been reviewed in the London Times, the London Review of Books, Booklist magazine, and the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.[27]
His articles have also appeared in publications related to the Middle East and identifying with the political left, including
The Institute for Historical Review, a Holocaust denial platform, has cited, promoted, and sold Brenner's work.[28][29] Brenner has opposed his work being used by those on the far right, and those engaged in Holocaust denial.[28] Antisemitism scholar Kenneth S. Stern has described Brenner as antisemitic.[m] Brenner says that since he is Jewish, rather than being called an "anti-Semite", he is often called a "self-hating Jew".[n]
Anti-Zionist activist
In 2016, British socialist politician
Bibliography
Brenner has authored, co-authored and edited a number of books:
- Zionism in the Age of the Dictators – which argued that many Zionist leaders collaborated with fascism, particularly Nazi Germany in order to build up the Jewish presence in Palestine.[36] First printed in 1983, reprinted in 2014. It has been translated into Japanese: Fuashizumu jidai no shionizumu, by Shiba Kensuke (芝健介), Hōsei Daigaku 2001, German (in a revised edition), as Zionismus und Faschismus: über die unheimliche Zusammenarbeit von Zionisten und Faschisten, tr. Verena Gajewski Homilius, Kai, Berlin 2007, and Spanish as Sionismo y Fascismo, by Luis César Bou, Bósforo Libros, Madrid, 2010.[27]
- The Iron Wall: Zionist Revisionism from Jabotinsky to Shamir, first published in 1984 by Zed Books, London.
- Jews in America Today
- The Lesser Evil (1988) – a study of the United States Democratic Party
- 51 Documents: Zionist Collaboration with the Nazis(2002) Barricade Books – This book has been translated to Spanish by Luis César Bou as 51 Documentos Sobre la Colaboración Sionista con los Nazis Editorial Canaán, Buenos Aires, 2012. – translations of many of the documents quoted in Zionism in the Age of the Dictators and The Iron Wall
- Jefferson & Madison On Separation of Church and State: Writings on Religion and Secularism
- Black Liberation and Palestine Solidarity (2013)– a collection of selected essays that "discusses the historical response of African American freedom movements to the colonial settler state of Israel and its role in American Imperialism in the Middle East."[37]
Wider views
- Brenner is said to have read legal works extensively during his incarceration, and to have become contemptuous of law generally and the Supreme Court in particular (making an exception of the Fourth Chief Justice of the United States, John Marshall. In his view
The wind blows a piece of paper into the law courts and it takes a yoke of oxen to get it out.[4]
- In protesting the ban on marijuana use, Brenner framed his case in terms of the United States Constitution. The personal use of marijuana was a widespread, "trivial" and customary habit and, he argued, therefore was protected by the unenumerated rights alluded to in the 9th Amendment, according to which, "(t)he enumeration in the constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the People."[4]
Notes
- ^ Brenner went by this name in the 1960s. The name Glaser was that of his stepfather (Rorabaugh 1989, pp. 129–130; Rossman 2002, pp. 210–211).
- ^ "I didn't come from that tradition of being invested in Jewish issues or Israel. I came from the tradition that slammed the door on the synagogue after bar mitzvah time and walked off into America." (Brenner 2004a)
- ^ "In 1963, I was found guilty in Berkeley of possession of a 'roach', a butt of a marijuana cigarette, maybe 1/2 inch in length. Possession then carried 1 to 10 in the penitentiary, but I was granted 3 years street probation." (Brenner 2004b); the version given by his friend Michael Klein runs:"he was arrested for possession of marijuana. Last year he was picked up by the police while he was high on a legal cough medicine. He was taken to Alta Bates Community Hospital, where one of the doctors pronounced him legally intoxicated. The police officer then took him, semi-conscious, into another room of the hospital, searched him, and found part of a joint in one of his pants pockets."(Klein 1965)
- ^ Davidson writes of a dark-haired, someone "cute" boy in his ragged beatnik way sounding off against Kennedy and the crisis (Davidson 1997, p. 37).
- ^ "For several years student activists had made use of a strip of sidewalk along Bancroft Way, the southern boundary of the campus, where it was intersected by the heavily traveled Telegraph Avenue. At this busiest of all Berkeley intersections the activists set up tables, gave speeches, dispensed 'literature,' collected money, recruited members, and, in short, tried to involve passersby in one worthy cause or another. This section of sidewalk belonged to the university, not the city of Berkeley, though many administrators and students did not know it. Therefore, the activity on the strip violated the Kerr Directives. Until the summer of 1964, however, no one seemed to notice or to mind." (Hijiya 1988, p. 50).
- Lewis Feuer, writing in 1969, stated that, "No other student uprising in the United States has ever impressed the public imagination much as that which took place at the University of California in Berkeley in the fall of 1964." (Feuer 1969, p. 434, Wood 1980, p. 184)
- ^ According to Sara Davidson, the first to throw themselves in front of the car were Jeff Berman and his girlfriend Susie Hersh.[14] James Wood, an eye-witness correcting Davidson's account, states that the first under the car was "clearly Glaser". The whole incident was filmed by Ursula Cadalbert, and, though the only copy was subsequently mislaid in the mail, one faculty member who had viewed it said Brenner initiated the blocking of the police car by sliding under it.[6][7]
- Seymour Lipset, in a follow-up study set the precise figure of those who captured the police car at 600.[17]
- ^ Brenner is not listed by Freeman as a speaker from the car roof. She noted in this function, in addition to Savio, Charlie Powell, Bettina Aptheker, Jackie Goldberg, Dusty Miller, Jack Weinberg, a Father Fisher from Newman College, and Art Goldberg (Freeman 2004, pp. 159, 160, 169).
- ^ Michael Klein states that the main charge against him was that he advocated the removal of Jack Weinberg from the police car (Klein 1965).
- ^ Goines himself, when the police car had been captured, flattened the police car by letting the air out of 3 tyres (Freeman 2004, p. 156)
- ^ "Brenner also writes frequently for the Amsterdam News, a New York publication targeted to African Americans. This paper, which promotes the antiSemitic Rev. Al Sharpton, and defends the anti-Semitic CCNY professor Leonard Jeffries, used Brenner to diminish the claim that there is any serious anti-Semitism in the United States today." (Stern 1993, p. 172,n.129)
- ^ "Holocaust denial on the Far left also expresses itself in another way. Lenni Brenner, himself a Jew, is anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic. 'Just as there were no good Nazis,' he said, 'there are no good Zionists.' Despite Brenner's left credentials, his writings have been promoted and sold by the IHR." (Stern 1993, p. 56)
- ^ "Since I'm ethnically a Jew, Zionists don't call me an anti-Semite. Instead I'm a 'self-hating Jew.' But I've made a joke out of the charge. When I lecture, I cite the accusation and then tell how my 42 million ex-girlfriends insist that 'The Zionists don't know what they are talking about. Lenni Brenner is definitely not a self-hating Jew. Lenni is in love with himself. The only one he ever loved is himself!' My audiences always roar with laughter." (Brenner 2014)
Citations
- ^ a b c d e f Brenner 2014.
- ^ a b Brenner 2004a.
- ^ Deutsch 2010, p. 122.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Garson 1968, p. 3.
- ^ Brenner 2004b.
- ^ a b c Heirich 1971, p. 150.
- ^ a b c d e Wood 1980, p. 180.
- ^ a b c Rossman 2002, pp. 210–213.
- ^ Cohen 2013, p. 552.
- ^ Freeman 2004, pp. 11, 144–145, 165–166, 195.
- ^ a b Rosenfeld 2012, pp. 153–154.
- ^ a b Freeman 2004, p. 154.
- ^ Hijiya 1988, p. 48.
- ^ a b Davidson 1997, p. 77.
- ^ a b Petersen 1966, p. 18.
- ^ Rorabaugh 1989, pp. 129–130.
- ^ Lipset 1972, p. 98.
- ^ Feuer 1969, p. 448.
- ^ Klein 1965.
- ^ Goines 1993, p. 185.
- ^ Kennedy 2016a.
- ^ a b Brenner 2005b.
- ^ Garson 1968, p. 1.
- ^ Fox 2008.
- ^ a b c d e Sligo 2005a.
- ^ ADL 2012.
- ^ a b Brenner.
- ^ a b c Quinn 2016.
- ^ Stern 1993, p. 56.
- ^ Davis 1985, pp. 91–96.
- ^ Davis 1985, p. 95.
- ^ Davis 1985, pp. 95–96.
- ^ Kennedy 2016b.
- ^ Stoetzler 2019, p. 23.
- ^ Burleigh 2016.
- ^ Mortimer 1984, p. 14.
- ^ Brenner & Quest 2013.
Sources
- Brenner, Lenni (ed.). "Reviews". Stopmebeforeivoteagain.org.
- Brenner, Lenni (2004). ""It's All Rabbis and No Jews": An Interview with Lenni Brenner". Palestine Solidarity Review (Interview). Archived from the original on September 21, 2015.
- Brenner, Lenni (October 26, 2004). "The 1964 Berkeley Free Speech Movement". CounterPunch.
- Brenner, Lenni (November 13, 2005). ""Next"..A Prison Tale". CounterPunch.
- Brenner, Lenni (October 18, 2014). "Lenni Brenner: An Interview on Palestine Solidarity, Black Liberation and Anti-Zionism" (Interview). Interviewed by Falcone, Dan. Truthout.
- Brenner, Lenni; Quest, Matthew (2013). Black Liberation and Palestine Solidarity. On Our Own Authority! Publishing. ISBN 978-0-985-89097-1.
- Burleigh, Michael (May 5, 2016). "History shows Hitler never was a Zionist". The Jewish Chronicle.
- "Civil rights activist at Sligo talk". Sligo. Irish Independent. March 2, 2005a.
- Cohen, Robert (September 2013). "J. Edgar and the Gipper on the Berkeley Barricades: Review". JSTOR 43663462.
- Cummins, Eric (1994). The Rise and Fall of California's Radical Prison Movement. ISBN 978-0-804-72232-2.
- ISBN 978-0-520-20910-7.
- S2CID 144901468.
- Deutsch, Christopher Robert (Fall 2010). Against the Red Tide: Rename, Vale and the Long Red Scare in California (MA thesis). California State University, Sacramento.
- Feuer, Lewis (1969). The Conflict of Generations: the character and significance of student movements. Basic Books.
- Fox, Margalit (May 19, 2008). "Michael Rossman, Who Fought for Campus Rights, Dies at 68". The New York Times.
- ISBN 978-0-253-21622-9.
- Garson, Marvin (January 26, 1968). "Lenny Glaser, "When travelling in a strange land, find out what is forbidden"". Vol. 1, no. 1. JSTOR community.28043928.
- ISBN 978-0-898-15535-8.
- Heirich, Max (1971). The Spiral of Conflict: Berkeley 1964. ISBN 978-0-231-08325-6.
- Hijiya, James A. (April 1988). "The Free Speech Movement and the Heroic Moment". S2CID 145728882.
- "Israeli Apartheid Week: A Year-by-Year Report" (PDF). Anti-Defamation League. 2012.
- Kennedy, Dominic (May 2, 2016). "Livingstone's guru was campus radical caught with drugs". The Times.
- Kennedy, Dominic (May 4, 2016). "I'll stand by Livingstone, says Zionism book author". The Times.
- Klein, Michael (May 1965). "The Case of Lenny Glaser". Spider magazine. Vol. 1, no. IV.
- Routledge and Kegan Paul.
- Mortimer, Edward (February 11, 1984). "Contradiction, collusion and controversy". The Times. p. 14. Retrieved July 27, 2016 – via Times Digital Archive.
- U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 17–27.
- Quinn, Ben (April 29, 2016). "Ken Livingstone cites Marxist book in defence of Israel comments". The Guardian.
- ISBN 978-0-198-02252-7.
- Rosenfeld, Seth (October 10, 2004). "Mario Savio's FBI Odyssey: The Man Who Challenged the " Machine" Rosenfeld+ the Man Who Challenged the Machine". San Francisco Chronicle.
- ISBN 978-1-429-96932-1.
- Rossman, Michael (2002). ""The Rossman Report": A Memoir of Making History". In Cohen, Robert Cohen; Zelnik, Reginald E. (eds.). The Free Speech Movement: Reflections on Berkeley in the 1960s. ISBN 978-0-520-23354-6.
- Stern, Kenneth S. (1993). Holocaust Denial (PDF). American Jewish Committee.
- Stoetzler, Marcel (2019). "Capitalism, the nation and societal corrosion: notes on "left-wing antisemitism"". Journal of Social Justice. 9: 1–45.
- Wood, James L. (August 3, 1980). "Remembering the Free Speech Movement: Notes of an Observer". JSTOR 20831159.