The Jarama Society
The Jarama Society is a special program for individuals who include the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA) in their estate plans. Your contribution will help assure our future and the success of our mission. Jarama has come to symbolize the courage, commitment, and bravery of the American volunteers, as well as the terrible price they paid. We ask you to make a long-term commitment to ALBA by becoming a member of our Jarama Society. You can join by including ALBA in your will or living trust, or naming us as a beneficiary of your estate. ALBA accepts legacy gifts in any amount. Your gift to ALBA will help ensure that today’s young people learn about the experiences of the volunteers in Spain, as well as their broader dedication to social justice at home. If you choose to be recognized, we will discuss with you public recognition of your generosity.
Founded in 1979, ALBA is an educational non-profit dedicated to promoting social activism and the defense of human rights. ALBA’s work is inspired by the American volunteers who fought fascism in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). Drawing on the ALBA collections in New York University’s Tamiment Library, ALBA works to preserve their legacy as an inspiration for present and future generations. The vets are all gone now. We look to them not for nostalgia but as an inspiration for today. The Covid-19 crisis has underscored the enormous racial and economic inequalities afflicting America and the larger world. And the rise of the populist right here and abroad includes eerie echoes of the 1930s. We invite you to join the Jarama Society to ensure that our urgent mission—Teaching History, Inspiring Activism, Upholding Human Rights—continues and thrives.
For more information about the Jarama Society contact ALBA at [email protected] or by phone at 212-674-5398.
A Video Message from Chair Emeritus Daniel Czitrom
What your commitment funds
What programs will your commitment help sustain? In scores of Teaching Institutes held around the country—and, starting this summer, online—ALBA faculty bring together teachers and students to draw meaningful connections between the Spanish Civil War and the Lincoln Brigade and contemporary challenges, including the rise of the populist far-right across the globe. The annual ALBA/Puffin Award for Human Rights Activism extends the legacy of the experiences, aspirations, and idealism of the Lincolns by supporting contemporary international activists and human rights causes. The 2020 recipient is No More Deaths, the Arizona-based group dedicated to ending death and suffering on the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. Previous recipients have included Judge Baltazar Garzon, United We Dream, Proactiva Open Arms, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, and Bryan Stevenson. The Volunteer, our quarterly magazine, has a print run of about 5,000 and an on-line presence with over 60,000-page views per year, reaching a broad global audience. The Volunteer began life in 1937 as a front line newsletter read in the trenches. Today we publish articles, interviews, historical features, and reviews, maintaining the strong literary and intellectual tradition of the Lincolns.
Our redesigned website (www.alba-valb.org) strengthens our online presence and promises to attract more visitors, especially among the young. It provides a comprehensive portal into ALBA’s activities and access to ALBA’s Digital Library, in addition to featuring a biographical database of all the volunteers who left for the Spanish Civil War from the United States. In 2008 ALBA unveiled the first-ever national monument to commemorate the Lincoln Brigade, located on San Francisco’s Embarcadero. Since the elements had taken their toll on the monument. ALBA has sponsored a restoration and preservation project that culminated in a rededication of the monument in September 2020. The George Watt Prize was established in 1998 to honor Lincoln vet George Watt, who helped create ALBA. It is an annual essay competition with graduate, undergraduate, and pre-collegiate designations. Students worldwide are invited to submit essays or theses chapters about any aspect of the Spanish Civil War. We have granted some $20,000 to more than 40 winners to date. The Susman Lecture, created in 1998, honors Bill Susman, Lincoln vet and co-founder of ALBA. Each year we invite a noted individual to deliver a public address, on some aspect of the Spanish Civil War or related topics. Past Susman lecturers include E. L. Doctorow, Marjorie Cohn, Antonio Munoz Molina, and Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha.
We urge you to consider stepping up to join the Jarama Society. In so doing, you will ensure that the Lincolns’ historic idealism, sacrifice, and commitment to social justice will continue nourishing us and future generations.
