Bella Abzug

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Liberal lawyer and unconventional politician, Bella Stavisky Abzug (born 1920) works energetically for civil and women's rights. She served three terms as a New York Congresswoman.

Bella Stavisky Abzug was born on July 24, 1920, in the Bronx, New York. She was the daughter of Emanuel and Esther Savitsky, Russian Jewish immigrants who owned a local meat market. During her youth she worked in her father's store until it failed in the 1920s and he turned to selling insurance. In 1930 her father died, which left her mother to support the family with his insurance money and jobs in local department stores. She attended an all-female high school in the west Bronx and eventually entered Hunter College, where she excelled as a student, earning her degree in 1942.

Student Activist

Abzug was elected as president of her high school class and later as student body president at Hunter College. She taught Hebrew and Jewish history on the weekends and marched in protest against the spread of Nazism in Europe and against British and American neutrality during the Spanish Civil War. In World War II she joined the ranks of thousands of American women entering war production industries and worked in a shipbuilding factory. In 1944 she married Maurice Abzug, a stockbroker and novelist. They had two daughters.

By the time she entered Columbia Law School Bella's career as a litigation lawyer, politician, and activist was well along. At Columbia she was editor of the Columbia LawReview. After her graduation in 1947 she joined a firm that specialized in labor law, one of the most confrontational areas of law practice. In the 1950s she worked as a labor lawyer and represented civil rights workers. She launched a lifelong commitment to helping poor and oppressed people gain justice and a decent life in the days following World War II. During this time such commitments were viewed with suspicion as part of the "red scare." She defended many individuals, such as New York school teachers accused of subversive activities during the anti-communist crusade of Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Civil Rights

In the early 1950s she was deeply involved in the early Civil Rights movement. While carrying her second child in 1962, she undertook a case to defend an African American man accused of raping a white woman with whom he had been having an affair. Although she ultimately lost the case, Abzug was able to delay the man's execution for two years by appealing the conviction twice to the Supreme Court. Her arguments in the case were nearly two decades ahead of their time, and the Warren and Burger Courts would eventually accept similar arguments made for guaranteeing a fair trial and prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment.

During the 1960s Abzug joined in the movement to ban nuclear testing. She helped to found the Woman's Strike for Peace organization, leading the organization in demonstrations that took place in New York and Washington, D.C. After the signing of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty she helped to refocus the antinuclear movement into an antiwar movement as the U.S. became more deeply involved in the Vietnam War.

In the late 1960s Abzug struggled to forge a broad, progressive coalition across party lines to address the concerns of the poor, ethnic minorities, and women's groups in shaping a new national agenda. During these years she became active in the Democratic party, and after the insider fiasco at the Chicago Democratic Convention in 1968 she joined with other liberal Democrats to found the New Democratic Coalition.

Elected to office

Running for office in 1970, supported by her ties to labor and a strong backing from the Jewish vote, Abzug was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from New York City's 19th ward. During her first year in Congress she gained national attention by her bold and daring political initiatives on behalf of liberal causes, as well by wearing her wide, trademark hat within the halls of congress. On her first day in office she introduced a bill calling for the withdrawal of troops from Vietnam by July 4, 1971. Although conservative forces in Congress defeated the bill within a week, Abzug established herself immediately as an unconventional politician who would take on her opponents using a brusque and often confrontational style. During her tenure she co-authored the Freedom of Information and Privacy Acts, she was the first to call for President Nixon's impeachment in the 1970s, and she cast one of the first votes for the Equal Rights Amendment.

In 1972 redistricting eliminated Abzug's congressional district, and she decided to run in the 20th district against a popular liberal incumbent, William Fitz Ryan. She lost the primary, but Ryan died before the general election in November, and Abzug became the Democratic nominee. She won in the November election and served in the House until 1976 when she gave up her seat to run for the Senate, a race she lost to Daniel Patrick Moynihan. She then ran in the Democratic mayoral primary in New York, but was defeated by Edward Koch. Never one to give up, she told reporters who assumed she was finished with politics, "I'll thank you not to write my obituary."

Continuing Activism

Abzug continued to make headlines fighting for peace and women's rights long after leaving office. President Jimmy Carter appointed her as co-chair of the National Advisory Committee for Women, but was apparently unprepared for the demands that the committee would make. When the committee met with President Carter, several of the members spoke to him about the cuts in social services and pointed out their negative impact on the nation's women. After that meeting Abzug was dismissed from the committee, an action that sparked the resignation of several members, including the other co-chair, and gave rise to a massive public outcry against Carter for the firing.

Throughout her long and controversial political career, Abzug has retained a place in the limelight with her characteristic sharp tongue and unconventional style. Her hats along with her defiance of codes of dress and demeanor have won her a reputation as a nonconformist. But above and beyond the flair of her personality, it is the issues she supports that are her deepest concern. As she wrote in the introduction to her autobiography, "I am not evoking a wild fantasy when I claim that I'm going to help organize a new political coalition of the women, the minorities and the young people, along with the poor, the elderly, the workers, and the unemployed, which is going to turn this country upside down and inside out."

Abzug continues to devote her energies to women's rights and reproductive freedom. As chair of New York City's Commission on the Status of Women she directs a National Parity Campaign to increase the number of women in elective office. In 1991, she presided over the Women's Congress for a Healthy Planet and her presence at the United Nations 4th Women's Conference in Beijing garnered considerable attention. She is also co-chair of the Women's Environmental Development Organization (WEDO), and as senior advisor to UNCED Secretary General Maurice Strong she successfully campaigned to incorporate key issues of the women's agenda into official statements approved at the Earth Summit.

Further Reading

Bella Abzug has written her own autobiography, Bella, edited by Mel Ziegler and published by the Saturday Review Press in 1972. While it chronicles Abzug's political career up to that time, she remained in Congress four more years and was active later. There is a biography of her by Doris Faber, Bella Abzug (William Morrow, 1976). She is listed in Political Profiles: The Nixon/Ford Years, Facts on File, v. 5 (1979). She has also been written up in the New York Times Biographical Service in February and December, 1978. Numerous contemporary articles have appeared about her in publications such as Time, Newsweek, The New Republic, and Life.

Bella Abzug
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 19th and 20th district
In office January 3, 1971 – January 3, 1977
Preceded by	Leonard Farbstein
Succeeded by	Theodore S. Weiss
Born	July 24, 1920 New York City, New York
Died	March 31, 1998 (aged 77) New York City, New York
Political party	Democratic
Religion	Judaism

Bella Savitsky Abzug (July 24, 1920 – March 31, 1998) was an American lawyer, Congresswoman, social activist and a leader of the Women's Movement. In 1971 Abzug joined other leading feminists such as Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan to found the National Women's Political Caucus. She famously declared "This woman’s place is in the House—the House of Representatives" in her successful 1970 campaign to join that body when she became the first Jewish woman in the United States Congress. She was later appointed to chair the National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year and to plan the 1977 National Women's Conference by President Gerald Ford and led President Jimmy Carter's commission on women.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Legal and political career 3 Legislative career 4 Later life 5 Family 6 Legacy 7 Bibliography 8 Further reading 9 References 10 External links

Early life

Bella Savitsky was born on July 24, 1920. Both of Bella’s parents were Russian-Jewish immigrants in the United States. Her mother, Esther was a homemaker and her father, Emanuel ran the Live and Let Live Meat Market.

When Ms. Abzug was 13, her father died and she was told she would not be allowed to say the Mourner's Kaddish for her father in synagogue as is the tradition/requirement only for sons in her Orthodox Jewish community (for 11 months after the death of a parent although in Conservative and Reform communities both sons and daughters fulfill this duty). However, she did so as one of her first feminist actions because her father had no son. ^[1]

Abzug graduated from Walton High School in New York City, and went on to Hunter College of the City University of New York, later earning a law degree from Columbia University. She then went on to do further post-graduate work at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

Legal and political career

Abzug with New York Mayor Ed Koch (left) and President Jimmy Carter (1978)

Abzug was admitted to the New York Bar in 1947, and started practicing in New York City at the firm of Pressman, Witt & Cammer, particularly in matters of labor law. She became an attorney in the 1940s, a time when very few women did so, and took on civil rights cases in the South. Abzug was an outspoken advocate of liberal causes, including support for the Equal Rights Amendment, and opposition to the Vietnam War. Years before she was elected to the House of Representatives, she was active in the organization Women Strike for Peace.^[2] Her political stands placed her on the master list of Nixon political opponents.

Abzug was a supporter of the Zionist movement. In 1975 she led the fight against United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379 (revoked in 1991 by resolution 46/86) which

"determine[d] that Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination."

She supported various international peace movements, which in Israel was led by Shulamit Aloni and others.

In 1976, Abzug ran for the U.S. Senate, but was narrowly defeated in the Democratic primary by Daniel Patrick Moynihan. She was also unsuccessful in a bid to be the Mayor of New York City in 1977, and in attempts to return to the U.S. House from the East Side of Manhattan in 1978 and from Westchester County in 1986. Abzug then founded and ran several women's advocacy organizations, in 1979 Women U.S.A., and continued to lead feminist advocacy events, for example serving as grand marshall of the 1980 August 26 Women's Equality Day New York March. ^[3]

Legislative career

Abzug served the state of New York in the United States House of Representatives, representing her district in Manhattan, from 1971 to 1977. For part of her term, she also represented part of The Bronx as well. She was one of the first members of Congress to support gay rights, introducing the first federal gay rights bill, known as the Equality Act of 1974, with fellow Democratic New York City Representative, Ed Koch, a future mayor of New York City.^[4]

Later life

In 1990, she co-founded the Women’s Environment & Development Organization to mobilize women’s participation in international conferences, particularly those run by the United Nations and appeared in the WLIW video A Laugh, A Tear, A Mitzvah, Woody Allen's Manhattan (as herself), a 1977 episode of Saturday Night Live, and the documentary New York: A Documentary Film.

After battling breast cancer for a number of years, she developed heart disease and died on March 31, 1998 from complications following open heart surgery. She was 77.^[5]

Family

Congresswoman Abzug was married to Martin Abzug, whom she met on a bus in Miami on the way to a concert by Yehudi Menuhin, from 1944 until his death 1986. The couple had two children: Eve and Liz.

Legacy

In 2004, her daughter, Liz Abzug, an adjunct Urban Studies Professor at Barnard College and a political consultant, founded the Bella Abzug Leadership Institute (BALI) to mentor and train high school and college women to become effective leaders in civic, political, corporate and community life.

To commemorate the 30-year anniversary of the first National Women’s Conference, a ground-breaking event held in Houston in 1977 and over which Bella Abzug presided, BALI hosted a National Women’s Conference on the weekend of November 10-11, 2007, at Hunter College, NYC. Over 600 people from around the world attended. In addition to celebrating the 1977 Conference, the 2007 agenda was to address significant women’s issues for the 21st century.^[6]

There was also a reference to her on The Simpsons. In an episode where Marge cuts out all of the naked photos in Homer's Playboy magazines, Bart finds them and while Milhouse was reading over his shoulder he says, "look there's a woman." Bart replies, "that's Congresswoman Bella Abzug." Milhouse then says, "Ciao Bella."

Bibliography

• Bella! Ms. Abzug goes to Washington, Bella S. Abzug (edited by Mel Ziegler), Saturday Review Press, 1972 (ISBN 0841501548)
• Gender gap : Bella Abzug’s guide to political power for American women, Bella S. Abzug and Mim Kelber, Houghton Mifflin, 1984 (ISBN 0395361818)

Further reading

• Bella Abzug: How One Tough Broad from the Bronx Fought Jim Crow and Joe McCarthy, Pissed Off Jimmy Carter, Battled for the Rights of Women and Workers, ... Planet, and Shook Up Politics Along the Way, authored by Suzanne Braun Levine and Mary Thom, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007, (ISBN 0374299528)

References

This article includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (December 2008)

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Bella Abzug

1. ^ Jaffe-Gill, Ellen, editor The Jewish Woman's Book of Wisdom, Citadel Press, 1998 Abzug, Bella "No One Could Have Stopped Me" p.74
2. ^ Faber, Doris. Bella Abzug. Lothrup, Lee and Shepard,1976.pages 61-69. Juvenile book.
3. ^ editor's personal experience with Congresswoman Abzug as co-director of this event.
4. ^ "Narrative: The Task Force’s commitment to ending discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans has a long history". National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. http://www.thetaskforce.org/issues/nondiscrimination/narrative. 
5. ^ Mansnerus, Laura (April 1, 1998). "Bella Abzug, 77, Congresswoman And a Founding Feminist, Is Dead". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9904EFDF1F3BF932A35757C0A96E958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all. 
6. ^ BALI News and Events published online, Fall 2007.

External links

• Bella Abzug at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• BALI, The Bella Abzug Leadership Institute
• Blanche Wiesen Cook, an entry about Bella Abzug from the Jewish Women's Archive
• Worries About a Bloodbath, an article from Time Magazine where Bella Abzug comments on Indochina.
• Bella Abzug at Find a Grave
• Bella Abzug at the Internet Movie Database

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Leonard Farbstein	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 19th congressional district 1971-1973 (District moved)	Succeeded by Charles B. Rangel
Preceded by William Fitts Ryan	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 20th congressional district 1973 – 1977	Succeeded by Theodore S. Weiss

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