Naomi Jaffe
Naomi Jaffe | |
|---|---|
| Born | Naomi Esther Jaffe June 1943 (age 80) Glen Wild, New York , U.S |
| Other names |
|
| Alma mater | Brandeis University |
| Occupation | Activist |
| Known for | Former member of the 1970s group the Weather Underground Organization |
| Children | 1 |
Naomi Esther Jaffe (born June 1943) is a former undergraduate student of
Weather Underground Organization
. Jaffe was recently the Executive Director of Holding Our Own, a multiracial foundation for women.
Early life
Jaffe was born in upstate
Jewish parents.[1] Her father, Abe Jaffe (February 3, 1909 – October 11, 2003), was a poultry farmer and her mother, Sadie Bakst Jaffe (May 13, 1908 – January 15, 2005), was an elementary school teacher.[2][3] Her brother, Bernard (1945–January 2, 2004), was a musician.[4]
As a child, she was influenced by her
Communist relatives. Their influence was reflected in her later revolutionary involvement.[5] After high school, she went on to attend Brandeis University and studied Marxism in a few classes with the professor and political theorist Herbert Marcuse.[1]
Students for a Democratic Society
After receiving her undergraduate degree Jaffe founded a chapter of the
New Left Notes and published an article about equal rights for women called "The Look Is You" coauthored with Bernardine Dohrn.[8]
Jaffe, a known member of the group US antiwar movement.[10]
Weathermen
In 1969, the SDS was heading in a more radical direction and Jaffe became one of the founding members of the Weatherman Organization, yet never became a leader.feminist convictions, yet she always believed that the WUO should have focused more on women's liberation.[13]
In September 1969, she participated in "jailbreaks", actions in which high school students were encouraged to leave class and run through the halls as though they were being freed from the prison that was their school. This action was to gain support for the "
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for that act.[14][15] From October 8–11, 1969 Jaffe participated in the "Days of Rage" in Chicago where members of the WUO, after having taken control of the SDS, ran through the streets smashing windows and causing chaos, she was arrested on October 11 for battery and resisting arrest.[16] In 1970, Jaffe was indicted in Detroit, Michigan, for her participation in the 1969 War Council held in Flint, Michigan,[17] the final public meeting of the Weatherman-controlled SDS before the dissolution of the SDS in January 1970.[18] 13 people were indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit bombings and murders, however, these charges were dropped in 1973.[17][19]
Underground
After the
FBI lifted her fingerprints from an abandoned apartment in San Francisco, California. Summaries of surveillance files indicate that the apartment had been rented by Weathermen from 1970 to 1971 and contained bomb making material; the FBI called the apartment a bomb factory.[21] While underground Jaffe helped to design and publish Weather's short-lived publication, Osawatomie.[22] Around 1975, while living on the East Coast, Jaffe expressed concerns about the direction the group was taking: because of her feminist background she most likely wanted them to refocus on women's issues, and this led to her becoming estranged from the group. She was living on her own and not in a collective, so when she showed up to a planned meeting and no one else showed, she realized she was out.[20] Jaffe resurfaced in 1978.[23] In an unpublished critique of Prairie Fire, written soon after Weather split up, Jaffe wrote harshly about the problems with the Weather Underground's lack of focus on feminist issues.[24]
Recent history
After she resurfaced, Jaffe spent a great deal of time reassessing her priorities as an activist. In the last 20 years, she has focused much of her attention on feminism,
Free Mumia Committee[1] and she is also the former Executive Director of the organization Holding Our Own, an anti-racist women's funding foundation.[25] Jaffe was also prominently featured in the 2002 documentary film The Weather Underground
.
References
Footnotes
- ^ a b c d Thompson 2001, p. 391.
- ^ "Abe Jaffe, 94 ― Ret. Poultry Farmer". Sullivan County Democrat. October 14, 2003. Retrieved February 17, 2021.
- ^ "Sadie Jaffe, 96 ― Ret. Elem. Teacher". Sullivan County Democrat. January 18, 2005. Retrieved February 17, 2021.
- ^ "Bernard Jaffe ― Musician, 58". Sullivan County Democrat. January 13, 2004. Retrieved February 17, 2021.
- ^ Thompson 2001, p. 121.
- ^ a b Babcox 1969.
- ^ Berger 2006, p. 39.
- ^ Teodori 1969, p. 355.
- ^ a b Berger 2006, p. 84.
- ^ US Senate 1975, p. 75.
- ^ a b Berger 2006, p. 293.
- ^ Berger 2006, p. 89.
- ^ Berger 2006, pp. 291–292.
- ^ Berger 2006, p. 101.
- ^ Federal Bureau of Investigation, p. 46 (380).
- ^ US Senate 1975, p. 76.
- ^ a b US Senate 1975, p. 132.
- ^ Berger 2006, pp. 123–124.
- ^ Berger 2006, pp. 138, 242.
- ^ a b "Weather Underground" documentary
- ^ Federal Bureau of Investigation, p. 50 (384).
- ^ Berger 2006, p. 213.
- ^ Thompson 2001, p. 155.
- ^ Berger 2006, p. 195.
- ^ Thompson 2001, pp. 154–155.
Sources
- Babcox, Peter (9 February 1969). "Meet the Women Of the Revolution, 1969". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
- Berger, Dan (2006). Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity. AK Press. ISBN 978-1-904859-41-3.
- Federal Bureau of Investigation. "Weather Underground (Weathermen)". FBI Records (The Vault). Retrieved 16 February 2021.
- Jacobs, Ron (1997). The Way the Wind Blew: A History of the Weather Underground. Verso. ISBN 978-1-85984-167-9.
- Teodori, Massimo, ed. (1969). The New Left: A Documentary History. Bobbs-Merrill. ISBN 978-0-224-61862-5.
- Thompson, Becky W. (2001). A Promise and a Way of Life: White Antiracist Activism. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-0-8166-3633-4.
- United States Congress; Senate Committee on the Judiciary (1975). The Weather Underground: Report of the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Ninety-fourth Congress, First Session. U.S. Government Printing Office.
- "The Weather Underground", documentary produced by Carrie Lozano, directed by Bill Siegel and Sam Green, New Video Group, 2003, DVD
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