If Only You Could Bottle It: Memoirs of a Radical Son

Jack Nusan Porter

Published by Academic Studies Press 2023

If Only You Could Bottle It

Memoirs of a Radical Son

Jack Nusan Porter

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781644699010

Overview
Contents

About this book

The unique story of a radical Jew and a Jewish radical from his time in a DP Camp in Austria to his coming to America in 1946 and growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to his activism in the radical 1960s to making his mark in Boston's literary, academic, political, and business circles.

Author / Editor information

Porter Jack Nusan :

Jack Nusan Porter was a founder of the Jewish Student Movement in the 1960s and editor of the classic movement anthology Jewish Radicalism. He is an associate of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University and a former associate of Harvard’s Ukrainian Research Institute. His run for US Congress in the12th District of Massachusetts was the subject of a profile in the April 9, 2012 “Talk of the Town” in The New Yorker. In 2015, he was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his work in the prediction and eradication of genocide and Holocaust.

Jack Nusan Porter founded the Jewish Student Movement in the 1960s and was editor of the classic movement anthology Jewish Radicalism. He is currently an associate of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University and a former associate of Harvard’s Ukrainian Research Institute. His run for US Congress in the 12th District of Massachusetts was the subject of a profile in an April 2012 issue of “Talk of the Town” in The New Yorker. In 2015, he was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his work in the prediction and eradication of genocide.

Reviews

“One of the most admired and thoughtful heroes of the Jewish left, Jack Nusan Porter offers a remarkable memoir of his life and work. Vividly recounting mid-century Jewish life in middle America, along with travel to the new State of Israel, Porter gives us a thoughtful window into an extraordinary era that reconstituted Jewish identity after the Shoah.”

– Professor Susannah Heschel, Eli M. Black Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth College

“This remarkable and compelling book, a combination of memoir and articles by and about the author, provides an in-depth portrait of Jack Porter, a committed Jewish radical who has also retained his commitment to his very specific Jewish faith. It is a unique and highly readable account of his ongoing search for how Jews should relate to the modern world.”

– Antony Polonsky, Emeritus Professor of Holocaust Studies, Brandeis University; Chief Historian, Global Education Outreach Project, Museum of Polish Jews in Warsaw

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Praise for Jack Nusan Porter Publicly Available Download PDF	iii
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	xv
Part One: 1946–1963—Coming to America
1. From Maniewicze to Milwaukee—the Making of a Writer/Activist Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. Milwaukee in the 1940s and 1950s / Diary, 1959 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	38
3. LA in the 1950s and 1960s Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	105
4. Habonim/Dror, 1956–1964 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	112
5. Israel, 1962–1963 / Diary, 1963 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	118
6. Golda and Me Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143
Part Two: 1963–1971—The Radical Years
7. University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee: Becoming an Activist/Intellectual, 1963–1967; the Milwaukee Riots and Father Groppi; the Beginning of the Counterculture for Me; Hippies, Acid Trips, and Communes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
8. Activism Continued, 1967–1971: The 1968 Chicago Convention Riot; the Chicago 8 Trial; My Relationship to Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Paul Krasner, and Lee Weiner; the Black Student Sit-In at NYU; the Founding of the Radical Jewish Student Movement; the 1960s (Civil Rights, Hippies, Grass, Acid, the Israeli-Arab Six-Day War, Vietnam, Woodstock) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	158
9. My Secret Days and Nights in the Jewish Defense League Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181
10. Northwestern: The Making of a Sociologist Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
11. Academic Follies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	202
12. Reunions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	212
Part Three: 1971–1991—The Transitional Years
13. My Grove Press Days Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	225
14. My Nazi-Hunting Days Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	230
15. My Native American Days and Nights (Sun Dances, Sweat Lodges, Dealing with Death) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	236
16. Marriage and Settling Down / The Almuly Family / A Jittery Decade, the 1970s—the First Half of the Radical Decade; the Second Half— We Grow Up, Settle Down, and Get Married Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	239
17. The Death of a Father Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	246
18. The Founding of the IAGS/International Association of Genocide Scholars / Trips to Sarajevo, Iraq, and Other Zones of Conflict Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255
19. A Jew at Harvard’s Ukrainian Research Institute Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
20. No Tenure: The Switch to Real Estate: Hello, Harold Brown and Other Billionaires Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	270
21. The Landlord: Dealing with Weirdoes (Crazy Tenants), Wise Guys (Italian, Russian, African American), and Community Organizers (Chuck Turner, Mel King, Ray Flynn) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	289
Part Four: 1991–2020—The Stabilizing Years
22. The Death of My Mother Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	299
23. Running for Office—Skakes, Fitzie, and Other Kennedys Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	313
24. The New Yorker Article Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	319
25. The Lost, Confused, and Yet Somehow Productive Years of 1990–2010 (Divorce, Stress—the Mallory-Weiss Syndrome—Death of Second Wife, Alienation from Family yet Traveling the World Lecturing on Genocide and Its Prevention) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	322
26. Rabbi in Paradise (“Key West Rabbi”) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	325
27. Finding Love Again, with Raya, 2011–2017 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	334
28. Back to Harvard and Stability, 2011–2020—Renewed Productivity, Especially with Help from World-Famed Designer and Cousin Allen Porter, Support from My Mentor and Genocide Guide Greg Stanton, and Spiritual and Communal Support from My Sephardic Shul) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	340
29. Toward the Future / Miracles / Mormons / and Mahayana Meditation / Finding Peace and Love Again Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	352
Photographs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	357
Glossary of Terms Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	371
Appendix Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	381
Sources and Permissions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	406
About the Author Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	408

Language: English
Publisher: Academic Studies Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 250
Keywords: memoir; Jewish Radicalism; 1960s; Ukraine; immigration; contemporary genocide studies; Holocaust studies; academic; author; writer

eBook

Published: September 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781644699010