~Bella~ Recent Environmentalists Mini-Series #5
Bella Abzug
(July 24, 1920-March 31, 1998)
Advocacy for Women and the Environment
BELLA SAVITSKY ABZUG
OFFICE: U.S. Representative
STATE/TERRITORY: New York
PARTY: Democrat
CONGRESS(ES): 92nd (1971–1973); 93rd (1973–1975); and 94th (1975–1977)
—Bella Abzug Leadership Institute (BALI)
Refers to a time when women were often assigned to the all-female “typing pool” as employment. Most men did not type.
Bella Savitzky was born on July 24, 1920, in New York City.[6]
Both of her parents were Jewish immigrants from Chernihiv, Russian Empire (now Ukraine).[7][8][9]
Her mother, Esther, was a homemaker. Her father, Emanuel Savitzky, was a butcher who ran the Live and Let Live Meat Market on Ninth Avenue. Bella ran the cash register at her father's deli as a young girl.[10]
As Andrew Szanton described her in an article in 2021: “She was a strong, outgoing girl, a natural leader. She climbed trees, collected baseball cards, was good at checkers, great at marbles. Both idealistic and streetwise, she insisted that adults take her seriously and was fierce when challenged by bullying or injustice.”[1]
The Wikipedia article, “Bella”, describes the birth of her initial feminist insight and her life:
Her religious upbringing influenced her development into a feminist. According to Abzug, ‘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.‘[13]
When her father died, Abzug, then 13, was told that her Orthodox synagogue did not permit women to say the (mourners') Kaddish, since that rite was reserved for sons of the deceased.[5][14]
Cook writes: Prohibited by tradition from saying kaddish for her father in synagogue, Bella did it anyway. Every morning for a year before school she attended synagogue, and dovvened.
The congregants looked askance, and never did approve. But nobody ever stopped her. She just did what she needed to do, for her father, without a son; and learned a lesson for life: Be bold, be brazen; be true to your heart.[1]
Abzug graduated from Walton High School in the Bronx, where she was class president.[9]
She went on to major in political science at Hunter College of the City University of New York and simultaneously attended the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
At Hunter College, she was student council president and active in the American Student Union.
She first met [her longtime friend and co-activist] Mim Kelber (who would go on to co-found WEDO with her) at Walton High School and they went on to attend Hunter College with one another.
STOP HERE!
The strangest moment just happened. I had completed writing this post when I realized that—in the last few hours before publishing it—that I had not included a photo of Mim Kelber.
So I began an internet search for Mim, and in the process of searching—lo and behold—there was a C-Span video of the funeral of Bella Abzug.
I watched the entire funeral —over two hours. Bella was brought to life through the stories told, the laughter, the tears, the applause, and the final standing ovation by all her family and friends. If you wish to get a sense of Bella Savitsky Abzug, of her outer world and of her inner world, from those close to her and who loved her, I strongly recommend watching it. It is an experience.
See and hear Mim speak of her friend at Bella’s beautiful and wonderful fumeral on the day after her death, a celebration of life, with the heartfelt words and Bella stories of all the other eulogists, including Shirley MacLaine, Jane Fonda, Hon. Geraldine Ferraro. Marlo Thomas and Phil Donohue, Gloria Steinem, Robin Morgan, and Bella”s daughters Eve and Liz.
https://www.c-span.org/program/public-affairs-event/bella-abzug-funeral/140790
Bella, they said, loved music: she played the violin; the bugle, the mandolin; and she loved to sing with her beautifu voice. She did a great imitation of Marlene Dietrich and her rendition of “Falling in Love Again.”
NOW, WE MAY RESUME!
and here is Mim Kelber:
"In 1944, Bella earned a law degree from Columbia University where she specialized in labor law and became editor of the Columbia Law Review.”[2][6] “She went on to develop a civil rights and labor law practice.”[1]
Bella authored two books, Bella: Ms. Abzug Goes to Washington (1972) and The Gender Gap (1984), the latter co-authored with Mim Kelber.
On meeting her future husband, Cook described it this way:
Bella Savitsky met Martin Abzug while visiting relatives in Miami after her graduation from Hunter. At a Jehudi Menuhin concert for Russian War Relief, she saw this young man staring and smiling at her. Love, chemistry, magic. They met; they dated; he left for the service; they corresponded. Upon his return, he wanted to party. She wanted to study. He would meet her at midnight at the law library. A writer, novelist, he knew how to type; she never did. Martin typed Bella's briefs, promised even when they married and had children she would continue to work -- her major hesitation to the idea of marriage.
Bella and Martin Abzug
The son and partner of an affluent manufacturer (the Better Blouse Company), who published two novels and later became a stock broker, Martin encouraged all Bella's interests and ambitions --including those that were demonstrably dangerous during the McCarthyite years of the Cold War.
Married on June 4, 1944, he admired her integrity, vision, combative style, and until his death remained her most steadfast supporter. For 42 years their marriage, based on love, respect, and a generosity of spirit, unrivaled in political circles, enabled Bella's activities.
During that time [their] two daughters Eve Gail called Eegee (May 1949), now a sculptor and social worker, and Isobel Jo called Liz (June 1952), now an attorney, and political consultant, were being raised in Mount Vernon, a suburb which Martin believed the girls benefited from, and which Bella longed to leave. When they returned to NYC, to Greenwich Village particularly, everybody was happier.[1]
Advocacy for Women and the Environment:
Bella recognized the interconnectedness of women's rights, human rights, and environmental integrity.
However, she has been recognized more prominently, both inside and outside of feminist circles, for her advocacy on women’s rights.
In the first phase of her career as a feminist activist, she focused solidly, and successfully, on rights for women.
During that first career phase, in 1971, with Gloria Steinem and Shirley Chisholm, Abzug cofounded the National Women’s Political Caucus, which aimed at increasing the participation of women in government. [2]
In 1985 she organized a panel for the U.N. Women’s Conference in Nairobi, Kenya. The panel was entitled “What If Women Ruled the World?” and was attended by thousands of women.[3]
In the second phase of her career, Abzug became concerned with global women’s issues and the environment.
WOMEN’S ENVIRONMENT & DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION (WEDO)
HTTPS://wedo.org
In 1990, in the last decade of her life, Bella co-founded, with her friend and colleague Mim Kelber and other women activists, the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), one of the largest non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in the United Nations and internationally to achieve full economic rights and equal representation for women.
WEDO grew out of a group of women that included Bella and Gloria Steinem and who started Women USA in 1979.
Bella led WEDO until her death, at age 77, in 1998.
Headquartered at 147 Prince Street in Brooklyn, NY, WEDO’s power lies in its ability to facilitate and connect diverse movements to global processes, ensuring that women’s voices are heard and women’s leadership is advanced in these spheres.
Among its early successes was the World Women’s Congress for a Healthy Planet, held in Miami in 1991, where 1,500 women from 83 countries produced the Women’s Action Agenda 21, a comprehensive plan outlining priorities for social justice and environmental action—a blueprint for incorporating women’s concerns into development and environmental decision-making at all levels.
WEDO continually played a leading role at the U.N.
Bella’s work with WEDO significantly influenced the UN's agenda, pushing for greater attention to women's issues and their role in environmental and development policies.
WEDO also became specifically engaged in health issues, cosponsoring a groundbreaking hearing in 1993 on the links between breast cancer and environmental pollution.
Attracting international attention, the hearing gave rise to an ongoing WEDO campaign, “Women, Health and the Environment: Action for Cancer Prevention,” which cosponsored the First World Conference on Breast Cancer in Ontario, Canada in 1997.
In 2006 WEDO was awarded the Champion of the Earth award by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), which is the U.N.’s leading global authority on the environment.
UNEP focuses on driving transformational change on the triple planetary crisis: the crisis of climate change, the crisis of nature, land and biodiversity loss, and the crisis of pollution and waste.
UNEP cited WEDO as “a champion in the field of women’s economic, social and gender rights and a beacon for the empowerment of women across the environmental and development debate.”
In 2010, WEDO was awarded by the National Council for Research on Women (NCRW) for outstanding advocacy to integrate a gender perspective into climate change arenas.
Bella returned to private law practice in 1980, but continued her political and public activities. She presided over Women USA, a grassroots political action organization; was a contributor to Ms. magazine; and worked as a daily news commentator for CNN.
—Gender Gap: Bella Abzug’s Guide to Political Power for American Women, cowritten with Mim Kelber, 1984.
Recognitions:
After playing a prominent role at the National Women’s Conference in Houston, Texas, in November 1977, Abzug was named cochairman of the National Advisory Committee on Women by President Jimmy Carter. She was dismissed in January 1979 for openly criticizing the Carter administration.[2]
In 1994, Bella was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls.[2]
She was honored on March 6, 1997, at the United Nations as a leading female environmentalist.[6] She received the highest civilian recognition and honor at the U.N., the Blue Beret Peacekeepers Award.[49]
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.
In 2017, Time magazine named Abzug one of its 50 Women Who Made American Political History.[51]
In 2024, as part of Women's History Month, NYC Mayor Eric Adams issued a proclamation for her work as a pioneering Congresswoman and feminist Leader, leading the fight for women's and civil rights.
Various landmarks in New York City bear Abzug's name:
On March 1, 2019, within the recently built Hudson Yards complex in New York City, the formerly named Hudson Park and Boulevard, was renamed Bella Abzug Park as a tribute to women's history month and its location in her former Congressional district.[52]
In a 2018 article, Brigid Bergin described a New York City honor:
In recognition of an outspoken champion for women’s rights and progressive causes, the city is permanently renaming the southeast corner of Bank Street and Greenwich Avenue on Thursday as “Bella Abzug Way” – not far from the Bank Street home where she lived, worked and fought for nearly four decades.
—Published (May 29, 2018) by WNYC News: Greenwich Village Street Renamed for Legendary[53]
On the Occasion of her death:
BELLA ABZUG'S LEGACY SHALL ENDURE.
SECRETARY-GENERAL PLEDGES A TRIBUTE CELEBRATING HER LIFE
Press Release
SG/SM/6537
19980424
24 April 1998
Following is the text of [United Nation’s] Secretary-General Kofi Annan's statement delivered today at a tribute to Bella Abzug, who died on 31 March:
It is my great privilege and honour to welcome you to this tribute to the remarkable Bella Abzug.
Bella Abzug was a fixture at the United Nations during this past decade. She was here first and foremost to ensure that women are not confined to the kitchen table, but are present at every table: the table that deals with economics, the table that copes with globalization, the table where peace negotiations take place.
She liked to say that since Noah we have done everything in pairs, except government. As I look around this hall, I can see the change she has done so much to bring about. As Secretary-General I am committed to furthering that change at all levels of the United Nations.
Bella Abzug was also passionate about safeguarding our environment. Unable to find sufficient references to women in the work leading up to the 1992 Earth Summit, she made sure that Rio [Earth Summit] will always be remembered as the United Nations Conference where women were recognized as full partners in our quest for environmental security and as a force to be reckoned with at the United Nations.
All of us here today know the Women's Environment and Development Organization [WEDO], which Bella Abzug co-founded and co-chaired.
All of us here today also know about the 1991 Congress for a Healthy Planet convened by WEDO in Miami, Florida, which produced the Women's Action Agenda for the 21st Century and led to the creation of the International Women's Caucus.
It was at Rio that the Caucus carved out political space for non- governmental organizations within the United Nations, and then seized that space.
There has been no turning back. At Vienna, Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing and Istanbul, the Women's Caucus has provided ordinary women, non-governmental organizations and others with a voice they never had before.
As we look forward to Rome, a Women's Caucus is working to ensure gender justice in the proposed international criminal court.
There are many ways to celebrate the life of Bella Abzug. She was a fine lawyer, a loving wife and mother, a fearless politician, a loyal friend and a woman of vision and integrity.
Like her, I believe in a partnership between non-governmental organizations and the United Nations and in a "peoples' United Nations".
In welcoming you here today, I see a gathering made possible largely because of Bella's efforts to open our doors. I pledge to do my utmost to guarantee that those doors remain open from this day forth.
Bella's legacy shall endure.
Bella’s Global Impact:
Her efforts extended beyond the UN, galvanizing a transnational women's movement for social and environmental justice, with a focus on education, political involvement, and women's leadership.
Bella’s Legacy:
Bella Abzug's legacy continues to inspire activists and policymakers to integrate gender perspectives into environmental and development initiatives, ensuring a more just and sustainable future.
BELLA ABZUG QUOTES:
ALL ISSUES ARE ‘WOMEN’S ISSUES’. WE MUST EACH WEAR THE HAT OF AN ADVOCATE.”—Bella Abzug
“The test for whether or not you can hold a job should not be the arrangement of your chromosomes.”
"This woman's place is in the House—the House of Representatives.
“I prefer the word 'homemaker' because 'housewife' always implies that there may be a wife someplace else.”
“I always had a decent sense of outrage.”
“I began wearing hats as a young lawyer because it helped me to establish my professional identity. Before that, whenever I was at a meeting, someone would ask me to get coffee."
“I am not elevating women to sainthood, nor am I suggesting that all women share the same views, or that all women are good and all men bad.”
In the face of so much pain, I remain an incurable optimist. I am fueled by the passion of the women I have been privileged to meet and work with, buoyed by their hope for peace, justice, and democracy.
“Women's struggle for equality worldwide is about more than equality between men and women. Our struggle is about reversing the trends of social, economic, political, and ecological crisis - a global nervous breakdown! Our struggle is about creating sustainable lives and attainable dreams.”
Our struggle is [against] violence, intolerance, inequality, injustice."
“Our call is to scale the great wall around women everywhere."
Notes:
Szanton, Andrew (November 3, 2021) “The Pioneering Congresswoman Bella Abzug” Medium, an internet venue.
2. “Bella Abzug, American politician,” www.brittanica.com, Last Updated: Jul 20, 2025
3. “Bella Abzug”, Teaching Tolerance, written by the staff of Learning for Justice, a community education program of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)
Notes from Wikipedia article: “Bella Abzug”
5. Mark, Jonathan (April 3, 1998). "Bella Abzug's Jewish Heart". jewishweek.timesofisrael.com.
6. Kathryn Cullen-DuPont (August 1, 2000). Encyclopedia of women's history in America.
7. All New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820–1957
9. Barbara J. Love (2006). Feminists who changed America, 1963-1975. Univ. of Illinois Press. p. 3.
10. "PERSONALITY: Bellacose Abzug". Time. August 16, 1971. ISSN 0040-781X.
13. Ziegler, Mel (1972). Bella!: Ms. Abzug Goes to Washington. New York: Saturday Review Press. p.85.
14. Jaffe-Gill, Ellen (1998). "Bella Abzug, No One Could Have Stopped Me". The Jewish Woman's Book of Wisdom. Citadel Press. pp. 4, 74.
49. "Bella Abzug Leadership Institute - BALI". www.abzuginstitute.org. Archived from the original on February 25, 2012.
51. Zorthian, Julia (March 8, 2017). "International Women's Day: 50 Who Made US Political History". Time. Retrieved May 24, 2018.
52. "Bella Abzug Park”, NYC Parks, www.nycgovparks.org, March 1, 2019.
53. "Bella Abzug Street co-naming Flyer" (PDF).
IN YOUR OWN WORDS:
Previous Post: First Female President of Ireland & Climate Activist, Written by Anne Anderson on August 15, 2025
— I very much enjoyed reading the article on Mary Robinson. Believe it or not, she was born in a town very close to where my mother was born. Amazing! —EM
—Good work as usual, Anne. —E
—Thank you, Anne! Good to know more about Mrs Mary Robinson. Look forward to seeing the documentary. —JW
—Wonderful to see this! —MET
—Thanks Anne! Such an interesting article about this trail blazer! —MI
—Thank you. I especially appreciated the quotes. —RE
New C:WED Section!
“WOMEN SPEAK OUT. BELIEVE THE WOMEN.”
To the victims: We are listening to you because we care!
TODAY’S FEATURED WOMAN: Maria Farmer
Maria Farmer was one of the first women to speak out about the abuses of Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
Maria talks with MSNBC’s Jen Psaki, host of the cable television show The Briefing with Jen Psaki, in a two-part interview on July 24, 2025.
MARIA FARMER, EPSTEIN ACCUSER, SPEAKS OUT:
https://youtu.be/XEh__2C2vbA
MARIA FARMER, EPSTEIN ACCUSER, SPEAKS OUT:
https://youtu.be/-ZLhlQBzG8s?si=5CvnE-UXDTRtFwuZ
______________________________-
“Missing from [governmental discussions of the Epstein/Maxwell story] is the voice of any survivor who has been willing to speak out about the crimes against her.
“These people have suffered in ways that we can’t possibly imagine.” —Alex Wagner, MSNBC political analyst 8/6/25
And that is just it: in ways that we cannot possibility imagine!
So…
TO HELP CHANGE THAT LACK OF INSIGHT: For some posts going forward, when we obtain audio, video, or written words of a victim, we will include just one story at the end of a post.
The featured woman’s story will be accessible through a link or URL only.
In this way you can choose to listen, read, or watch, at your own discretion.
Also, if you wish to know more:
Here is the link to the 2020 Netflix original four-part docuseries (and its trailer), Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich, which presents a detailed account of Epstein’s abuse and those who enabled him—if you wish to view it.
https://www.netflix.com/title/80224905
WISH TO BE MORE PROACTIVE?
Perhaps you might feel like doing something more. You might wish to urge your Federal government leaders to act on behalf of the victims.
Here is an easy-to-use guide for finding your member in the U.S. Congress by entering your zip code.
CONTACTING U.S. SENATORS:
https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm
FIND YOUR REPRESENTATIVE:
https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
AND PAPER STILL WORKS:
Handwritten or typed letters mailed in the U.S. Post Office are still considered an effective way to communicate with your representatives, according to the U.S. Capitol - Visitor Center.
https://www.visitthecapitol.gov/sites/default/files/2023-05/CVC_CraftVideo_FollowAlong_Letters.pdf
The link offers guideline on how to format, address, compose, and mail a letter to your member of Congress
C:WED Wish List:
—If you have any environmentalists whom you would like to highlight, please send their stories to us (with their permission, of course) at:
info@cwed.org
