Nathan Kleinman

Nathan Kleinman is a human rights activist and political organizer. He is mainly noted for undertaking two political fasts and for his role as a top aide to former Congressman Joe Sestak during his 2010 campaign for the U.S. Senate.

Human Rights and Political Work

Sudan

From June 30, 2005 to July 11, 2005, he undertook a water-only hunger strike outside the White House to raise awareness of the situation in Darfur. On July 10th he was joined by another hunger striker, Jay McGinley, who fasted for eight days.

In April 2006, Kleinman participated in the first Sudan Freedom Walk, a three-week march from the United Nations in New York to the US Capitol in Washington, D.C. organized by Simon Deng, a former child-slave from Southern Sudan, and David Bredhoff. In addition to being a featured speaker at events along the way, Kleinman also organized a large rally outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia (featuring the late Manute Bol, among others), midway through the walk.

In August 2006, Kleinman organized the Philadelphia Darfur Festival, a celebration of Darfuri culture featuring traditional music, dance, food, and poetry readings. It was held at the Arden Theatre Company in Philadelphia's Old City neighborhood, with proceeds benefiting the Philadelphia-based Darfur Human Rights Organization.

In December 2006, Kleinman and Deng organized a 2nd Sudan Freedom Walk, from NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, The Netherlands. One day after the walk ended, the ICC announced for the first time that it would indict members of the Sudanese government for crimes against humanity. Deng and Kleinman later organized in a one-day march and rally with Sudan Sunrise in Des Moines, Iowa, on January 1, 2008 (Sudanese Independence Day), two days prior to the 2008 Iowa caucus. Bol and Samantha Power were featured speakers.

Latin America

Kleinman's first-hand report "Something Beautiful in Remote Oaxaca: Real Democracy" is the only English-language account of the election of former political prisoner Agustin Sosa Ortega as mayor of the remote city of Huautla de Jimenez, Oaxaca, Mexico, and the APPO-affiliated struggle for human rights in the Sierra Mazateca. It was originally published on Kleinman's short-lived blog, The International Aurora, and later by the Philadelphia Independent Media Center.

On October 6, 2009, Kleinman began his second water-only political fast in support of the non-violent resisters to the Honduran coup regime of Roberto Micheletti along with an international group of fasters coordinated by the National Resistance Front Against the Coup d'Etat in Honduras. Other participants in the fast began while besieged in the Brazilian embassy with ousted President Manuel Zelaya, following his secret return to Honduras a few weeks earlier. After two weeks of fasting, Kleinman suspended his fast at the request of President Zelaya, relayed to him by Andrés Thomas Conteris, following a change in strategy.

Kleinman became involved in the Honduras fast after taking part in a human rights delegation to the country organized by Witness for Peace in September 2008. The delegation met with some of the most prominent resisters to the military coup regime including Bertha Oliva de Nativí, Dr. Juan Ángel Almendares Bonilla, Father Ismael Moreno, S.J., poet Blanca Guifarro, Via Campesina leader Rafael Alegría, and Father José Andrés Tamayo Cortez (known as Andrés Tamayo, or Padre Tamayo), who was in hiding at the time. He had aimed to fast a day for each of those killed by the coup regime, using the latest count at the time from the Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras (or COFADEH).^[1][2][3]

U.S. politics

Kleinman was first a volunteer then a staff member in Barack Obama's presidential campaign of in Pennsylvania. He was also elected and served as an Obama Delegate to the Democratic National Convention from Pennsylvania's 13th Congressional District, which is located in eastern Montgomery County and Northeast Philadelphia.

In 2010, Kleinman served as a top political and communications aide to former Admiral and Congressman Joe Sestak during his successful primary campaign against then-Senator Arlen Specter and his unsuccessful general election campaign against Patrick J. Toomey.

Personal Background

He is a graduate of Abington Friends School in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania (2000), and a graduate of Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, with a degree in Culture & Politics (2004). His professors at Georgetown included Madeleine K. Albright, Donna Brazile, and the late Jeane J. Kirkpatrick. He was very active in campus theater groups, especially the Mask and Bauble Dramatic Society and Nomadic Theatre. He later studied Archaeology and Native American History at Leiden University from 2006 to 2007.

Current work

Kleinman presently serves as a Legislative Assistant to Pennsylvania State Representative Josh Shapiro. He is also an active board member of the Philadelphia-based Jewish Social Policy Action Network (JSPAN), and runs the Baederwood Cultural Heritage Garden Project, an all-volunteer effort to preserve rare food plants from around the world, with a focus on cultivars indigenous to Philadelphia and the mid-Atlantic region.

Sources

• Wells, Jane The Huffington Post
• DeBrosse, Jim Dayton Daily News
• Sudanese Online Freedom Walk information
• Website Sudan Freedom Walk (April 2006)
• Ayuno Por Honduras Fast for Honduras webpage
• Witness for Peace Witness for Peace
• Kleinman, Nathan The International Aurora
• Kleinman, Nathan Hunger Strike for Darfur
• Kleinman, Nathan Something Beautiful in Remote Oaxaca: Real Democracy

References

1. ^ Kovalik, Dan (2009-07-23). "The Urgency of Restoring Democracy to Honduras -- and What You Can Do to Help". Huffington Post. Archived from the original on 2009-07-29. http://www.webcitation.org/5idm0IEVz. Retrieved 2009-07-30. 
2. ^ "Historia". Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras. 2009. Archived from the original on 2009-07-29. http://www.webcitation.org/5idm4TSu0. Retrieved 2009-07-30. 
3. ^ COFADEH, (Spanish) Quienes Somos, accessed 26 July 2009

Persondata
Name	Kleinman, Nathan
Alternative names	Nate
Short description	Political and social activist/organizer
Date of birth	May 31, 1982
Place of birth	Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Date of death
Place of death