Bella Abzug activist and stateswoman – Honorary Oakley

Bella Abzug is quite possibly a name that may not be familiar to you, this is one of the reasons we have chosen to highlight this amazing woman in the archives of the Honorary Oakley. Bella Abzug was an amazing woman who fought her entire life for civil rights, social justice, women’s rights and peace (amongst other things). It is these qualities of goodness and unshakable courage that have landed her square in the archives of the Honorary Oakley.

Now let’s take a closer look at the lady herself…..

Bella Abzug – A quick bio:

Full Name: Bella Savitsky (Married – Abzug)
Born: Bronx, USA
Parents: Esther Tanklefsky & Emanuel Savitzky (Russian Immigrants)
Birthdate: July 24th 1920 – 1998
Best Known as: Activist and Stateswoman – Big Heart Big Hat!

Background Information:
Bella Abzug was an amazing woman and one little known outside the United States. An attorney, author, lecturer, news commentator, and former U.S. Representative from New York she fought her entire life for the things humanity should hold dear: civil rights, equal rights for women, and peace. In the 60’s Bella helped start the nationwide ‘Women Strike for Peace’ which spoke out against U.S. and Soviet nuclear testing, she also became a strong voice against the War in Vietnam. By the 1970’s Bella had become the first woman elected to Congress on a women’s rights and peace platform. By 1990, she had co-founded an international advocacy network called the ‘Women’s Environment and Development Organization’ which represented the culmination of her lifelong career as public activist and stateswoman. Bella was never shaken from her beliefs for not only women’s rights but also social and economic justice for all.

Land of the Free:
When Bella was questioned about what America meant to her she replied that America “was a place of opportunity and a place to be able to be free”. This appears to have been something that this amazing woman truly believed in, anti-Semitism was fairly rife in Russia and America offered a new sense of freedom. Bella suggested that New York is considered to be a more forward-thinking city than other cities in the country, as many since would attest to. The strength of character of the city itself appears to have played a large role in Bella’s free thinking and greater sense of social justice and freedom, but even amidst this great country there was injustice and it was this that Bella worked hard to iron out.

The Early Signs of a Feminist Rebel:
According to the [Jewish Womens Archive] even as a little girl, Bella was attuned to inequality in her religious heritage. “We were a religious family. My grandfather went to the synagogue twice a day, and whenever I wasn’t in school, he took me along. I learned to recite the solemn Hebrew prayers like such a wizard that he always made it a point to show me off to his friends…. It was during these visits to the synagogue that I think I had my first thoughts as a feminist rebel. I didn’t like the fact that women were consigned to the back rows of the balcony.”

When her father died Bella was only 12. Although the custom of saying Kaddish is traditionally reserved for sons, she stood by herself in synagogue each day for a year to say the mourning prayer. “In retrospect, I describe that as one of the early blows for the liberation of Jewish women. But in fact, no one could have stopped me from performing the duty traditionally reserved for a son, from honoring the man who had taught me to love peace, who had educated me in Jewish values. So it was lucky that no one ever tried.”

Harvard – Men Only Please:
According to the Jewish Women’s Archive at the age of ten Bella had decided she wanted to become a lawyer, she had also decided to go to Harvard.. the best Law School in the land. Bella later applied to Harvard and received a letter stating it did not accept women. “In 1942 only 3 percent of the nation’s lawyers were women. I was outraged (I’ve always had a decent sense of outrage), so I turned to my mother. In those days there was no women’s movement, so you turned to your mother for help. ‘Why do you want to go to Harvard, anyway?’ she asked. ‘It’s far away and you can’t afford the carfare. Go to Columbia University. They’ll probably give you a scholarship, and it’s only five cents to get there on the subway.’

Columbia gave Bella a scholarship, the subway did indeed only cost only five cents and that, according to the lady herself is how she became an advocate of low-cost public transportation.

Equality for ALL:
As previously mentioned Bella helped to set up WEDO, the Women’s Environment & Development Organization. WEDO set out to increase the power of women worldwide in policy making institutions, such as the United Nations. The overall hope was to achieve worldwide economic and social justice, and a more peaceful and healthy planet. Bella championed women’s rights, human rights, gay and lesbian rights, equality, peace and social justice, she worked as an attorney in civil rights and labor law, working often without pay to represent the poor.

Suffering from both breast cancer and heart disease, Bella was an inspiration to women leaders from all over the world at the UN conference on women in Beijing in 1995. In 1998 just prior to her death Bella predicted that in the twenty-first century “women will change the nature of power, rather than power changing the nature of women.”
Well we can but hope Bella.

The more you read about Bella Azbug the more you become a devotee to her way of thinking, she was an amazing woman with foresight into what the human spirit should be, she wanted what is best for humanity and was willing to fight for this. There appear to be no double edged beliefs with Bella, she wanted equality and fairness for everyone regardless of gender, economic status, sexuality etc. Her undying belief and inner goodness are why we at Thumb Bandits Salute her! She is everything the Honorary Oakley stands for and more. She was a strong woman who has made fantastic achievements to help those with less freedoms and rights than others.

And that is why Bella Azbug is now in our Thumb Bandits Honorary Oakley archive (originally published August 2005).

Thanks to Artist Richard Gelernter and Sandy Rapp of the LGCMA for permissions to use the picture herein.

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