The New Jewish Agenda (NJA), an activist national Jewish community organization, set out to be a progressive voice within the Jewish community and a Jewish voice within the progressive community. Most active in the decade of the 1980's, the NJA was committed to working at the grassroots level on programs for the Jewish people in the United States, Israel, and other Jewish communities that differed from the dominant policies of the Israeli government and the United States national Jewish establishment. This collection is comprised of the working papers of the Los Angeles chapter and Western Regional office of the NJA, organized in 1979 and lasting through the early years of the 1990's.

The Los Angeles Chapter of the New Jewish Agenda (NJA), was formed on June 21, 1981, with the same purposes, by laws and organizational structure as the national Agenda. The national NJA had been founded in December, 1980 and had central offices in New York and Washington DC. The aspiration of the NJA was to build a new synthesis of Jewish identity derived from a variety of religious, cultural and secular backgrounds, committed to building a socially just and peaceful world from the community and grassroots level. The NJA set out to be a progressive voice within the Jewish community and a Jewish voice within the progressive community. With the belief that authentic Jewish life demanded serious and consistent attention to Tikun Olam (the just ordering of human society and the world) the NJA and its chapters sought to apply those Jewish values to a variety of issues including: American Jewish communal life, mutual responsibility between Israel and diaspora communities, Israeli society and Middle East peace, American domestic and foreign policy, the role of women and men in Jewish life, Jewish family life, the relations between Jews and other communities.

5 letter size boxes

3 2/3 linear feet

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