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Author Archives: Eleanor J. Bader
March 3, 2021 by Eleanor J. Bader
Lynn Paltrow on the Prosecution of Pregnancy
Over the past 40-plus years, state and federal lawmakers have doubled down on efforts to not only restrict abortion, but to scrutinize pregnancy — zeroing in on low-income women, women of color and drug-using women, allegedly to protect the “right to life of unborn babies.”
Already, 18 states have laws equating drug or alcohol use while pregnant with civil child abuse. Two states, Minnesota and South Dakota, allow civil commitment — mandatory institutionalization — when someone who is pregnant poses a danger to her embryo or fetus. At the initial hearing, the fetus is entitled to counsel but the pregnant woman is not.
National Advocates for Pregnant Women, which seeks to secure the civil and human rights of pregnant people and their families, argues that these efforts mistakenly treat both pregnancy and substance use as criminal — rather than as public health — matters. Worse, NAPW says that these tactics actually undermine rather than improve maternal and child health.
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January 26, 2021 by Eleanor J. Bader
Honoring the Memory of a Special Young Woman— by Teaching Consent
When Erin Michele Levitas was 19, she was raped by someone she knew. As she processed and healed from what had happened, she made a decision: After college, she would attend law school and become an advocate for survivors of sexual assault.
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December 23, 2020 by Eleanor J. Bader
Art and Aid: an Interview with Margot Spindelman
When crises hit — whether fire, flood, or global pandemic — righteous people mobilize by bringing food, water, clothing, medical care and emotional support to those in need. These mutual aid networks often do what governments do not: offer concrete help to communities long ignored by public agencies.
Not surprisingly, COVID has led to a surge in such networks, with individuals in every part of the country phoning isolated seniors, feeding the hungry, tutoring kids and helping society’s most vulnerable populations with everyday chores.
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September 25, 2020 by Eleanor J. Bader
Collage Artist Sally Edelstein: “My Politics is My Art.”
Collage-maker Sally Edelstein calls herself a “visual archeologist,” digging deep into American mythology. But she does more than this. Alongside the creation of innumerable pieces of wall art that juxtapose the collision between past and present, her blog, envisioningtheamericandream.com, probes the ways that advertising and media steer our perceptions of race, class, and gender and how they can either expand or limit what we imagine for ourselves and our lives. Humor is abundant. So are pointed critiques of the Trump administration. There is also a focus on environmental calamity: Edelstein’s work chronicles the transition from World War II shortages, when “Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, Or do without” segued into rampant consumerism at the end of the war and sent Rosie and her riveting sisters back to the roost. She spoke to Lilith’s Eleanor J. Bader about her art, writing, and political rage from her Long Island home in mid-September.
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September 2, 2020 by Eleanor J. Bader
“For Me, Art Has Always Been a Protest”
The block-long mural is called the Wall of Justice and it began to take shape on Brooklyn’s Fourth Avenue in Gowanus within days of the police shooting of George Floyd. (more…)
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August 13, 2020 by Eleanor J. Bader
A History Professor and her Homeschool Co-Op
Four months ago, history professor Karen Miller thought she’d be spending her sabbatical living and working in Manila as a Fulbright scholar. That, of course, was before the coronavirus became an international pandemic and upended her plans, forcing her to make several major decisions, including whether to leave the Philippines and return to her home in Brooklyn, New York.
Miller ultimately did return—on March 14th. Since then, she and a group of friends have created Homeschoolcoop2020.com, a free, online educational program for children and their caretakers. As of mid-August, the Coop has offered hundreds of diverse classes, some of them single sessions and others ongoing. To date, the range has included yoga, basic sewing, beginning Latin for high school students, intro to chess, human sexuality for middle schoolers, the history of the Panama Canal, drawing, French, and poetry—both writing and appreciating.
Miller recently spoke to Lilith’s Eleanor J. Bader about the Coop’s formation and exponential growth.
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March 26, 2020 by Eleanor J. Bader
Feeding People in Virus-Stricken New York
It’s Monday morning, the start of the second week of New York City’s attempt to contain the coronavirus, and Alexander Rapaport, founder and Executive Director of MASBIA, (MASBIA.org) New York City’s only kosher food pantry and feeding program, is gearing up for an exceptionally busy week.
“Shortly after Hurricane Sandy, City Councilmember Brad Lander said—and I’m paraphrasing—that in times of crisis some people will fall apart while others will be brave and help out,” Rapaport begins. “We are trying to be the helpers in this time of COVID-19. In the face of all odds, we are plowing ahead. But it’s not easy.”
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March 15, 2020 by Eleanor J. Bader
A Jewish Journey to Montgomery
Between 1877 and 1950, approximately 4400 African American women and men were lynched in the United States. Billie Holiday sang of them, “strange fruit hanging from the sycamore tree,” in Abel Meeropol’s iconic 1939 song, but it was not until 2018 that civil rights activist and attorney Bryan Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative raised enough money to open the commemorative Legacy Museum and National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama.
Both sites are intended to acknowledge the racism at the heart of America’s story and address the many ways that the heritage of bigotry continues to fester and poison the body politic.
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March 4, 2020 by Eleanor J. Bader
The New Organization Uniting Allies to Combat Racism
When the National Anti-Racism Alliance (NARA) began to come together in Spring 2019, its purpose was explicit: “a nonviolent community of people who think racism is out of control in this country and who are publicly willing to identify themselves as anti-racist fighters.”
NARA’s founder, Mark Naison—an African American Studies and History professor at Fordham University—welcomed any-and-all but emphasized that “the NARA label is particularly important for anti-racist whites to display, as it lets our friends of color know that they can count on us in a crisis to stand with them.”
Rhode Island activist Nomi Hurwitz is one of NARA’s moderators, facilitating a largely-online discussion—on Facebook—between members who share information, debate strategy and tactics, and address the many ways that racial bias poisons our lives.
She and Eleanor J. Bader spoke by phone in mid-February.
Eleanor J. Bader: What drew you to NARA?
Nomi Hurwitz: I have known Mark Naison for a number of years. I met him through friends on Facebook and have benefited from reading his work. When I heard that he had started NARA, I wanted to join.
I’ve been fighting against racism for a long time. I started at 18. Now, more than 30 years later, I want to learn more about how to undo it, how to confront it when I see someone being harmed or hear a derogatory comment.
In Providence, where I live, I’ve heard white people say things that are disrespectful to African American or Latinx people, things like ‘They only have their positions because of affirmative action.’ I’ve heard white people blame their lack of success—that they can’t get published, for example—on the fact that they’re white. These comments are racist. And they can be lethal. Twenty years ago, Providence off-duty police officer, Cornell Young, Jr., an African American, was shot and killed by two white officers who did not recognize him in plainclothes when he attempted to intervene and stop a crime that was then in progress.
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January 30, 2020 by Eleanor J. Bader
The Compulsive Photographer of The Unnoticed: An Interview with Lori Azim
When Lori Azim (Instagram: @Cheeseburger_earmuffs) was growing up in Kansas, her father–a professional photographer who took portraits of people like jazz great Duke Ellington and President Harry Truman—made it clear that he did not want his daughter to make camera work her profession.
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