About the Book
Told through essays, memoirs, and other musings, this is the story of a radical Jew, academic, and educator from his birth in Ukraine during the Holocaust through the radical 60s and 70s, to the present day as he fights anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, xenophobia, and hate.
Internationally known in Holocaust, genocide, and Jewish studies, Jack Nusan Porter was born in Maniewicz, Ukraine to Jewish Partisans in the 1940s. Through this engaging and thoughtful memoir, we follow Porter as he recounts his personal journey from a DP camp in Linz, Austria to an idyllic childhood in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he attended Hebrew day school under Reb Twersk. Porter masterfully details his radicalism in the politically and sociologically turbulent 1960s which would later influence his academic work on genocide, Holocaust studies, and international human rights. Constantly re-inventing himself, readers are treated to engaging anecdotes as they navigate through Porter's highs, lows, and in-betweens.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments
Preface
Part One: 1946-1963—Coming to America
From Maniewicze to Milwaukee—the Making of a Writer/Activist
Milwaukee in the 1940s and 1950s / Diary, 1959
LA in the 1950s and 1960s
Habonim/Dror, 1956-1964
Israel, 1962-1963 / Diary, 1963
Golda and Me
Part Two: 1962-1971—The Radical Years
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
Activism Continued, 1967-1971: The 1968 Chicago Convention Riot; the Chicago 8 Rrial; 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)
My Days and Nights in the Jewish Defense League
Northwestern: The Making of a Sociologist
Academic Follies
Reunions
Part Three: 1971-1991—The Transitional Years
My Grove Press Days
My Nazi-Hunting Days
My Native American Days and Nights (Sun Dances, Sweat Lodges, Dealing with Death)
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
The Death of a Father
The Founding of the IAGS/International Association of Genocide Scholars / Trips to Sarajevo, Iraq, and Other Zones of Conflict
A Jew at the Ukrainian Institute
No Tenure: The Switch to Real Estate: Hello, Harold Brown and Other Billionaires
The Landlord: Dealing with Weirdoes (Crazy Tenants), Wise Guys (Italian, Russian, African American), and Community Organizers (Chuck Turner, Mel King, Ray Flynn)
Part Four: 1991-2020—The Stabilizing Years
The Death of My Mother
Running for Office—Skakes, Fitzie, and Other Kennedys
The New Yorker Article
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)
Rabbi in Paradise (“Key West Rabbi”)
Finding Love Again, with Raya, 2011-2017
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)
Toward the Future / Miracles / Mormons / Mahayana Meditation / Finding Peace and Love Again
Glossary of Terms
Appendix
My Contribution to Knowledge
Famous People I Have Met or Who Have Influenced Me
Jack Nusan Porter’s Family Tree
Sources and Permissions
About the Author