“Never Again Is Now” Use of Cultural Frames in a Social Movement Organization

Introduction

One of the most prominent social movements in the 21st century of the United States is the immigrant rights movement (Paik, 2020; Pallares & Flores-González, 2010). What started with the May Day protests of 2006 against anti-immigrant legislation, general anti-immigrant attitude, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) inhumane deportation of undocumented immigrants throughout the country has grown into a national movement with activity across the country (Pallares & Flores-González, 2010). Recent years have seen increased pressure on immigrant communities under the Trump administration. This includes heightened deportations, increased border detentions, and dehumanizing rhetoric.

Founded in 2019, the Never Again Action (NAA) emerged from a call to action by Jewish activist Serena Adlerstein, urging fellow Jews to protest the inhumane detention of migrants by occupying ICE detention centers and shutting them down (Kesslen, 2019). From there, a national organization was formed to coordinate protest actions, and protests continue today, with a wide range of targets in the ICE apparatus. NAA’s social movement actions primarily focus on direct action that targets ICE, such as blocking ICE facilities, disrupting ICE operations, and pressuring companies that support ICE. They also engage in digital activism and target secondary targets like Amazon.

NAA employs direct action tactics and explicitly utilizes a “Holocaust Frame” as a metaphor, drawing parallels between the treatment of immigrants and the Holocaust. This includes using the slogan “Never Again” and referring to detention centers as “concentration camps.” NAA action is unique in some aspects and can be seen as an interesting example of a social movement using a cultural framework for allyship toward a group that is not their own. One of the other interesting facets of NAA is its ability to sustain mobilization throughout the COVID-19 crisis and the subsequent social distancing measures occurring across the country (Da Silva et al., 2020).

Based on the large amounts of information provided by the organization, this research employs qualitative methods, including interviews, participant observation, and analysis of internal NAA documents to investigate the motivations for individuals to join NAA, how they utilize the Holocaust Frame as. a metaphor, how they navigate their role as allies within the broader immigrant rights movement, and how they have adapted their activism during the COVID-19 crisis.

In doing so, this project aims to contribute to the larger literature on social movements by studying a relatively recent social movement organization and its mobilization during a time of social crisis.

Literature Review

Never Again Action (NAA) is a national Jewish activist organization that emerged in 2019, inspired by a Facebook post suggesting that Jewish people should occupy ICE detention centers (Kesslen, 2019, p. 1). This idea resonated with many Jewish activists across the US, leading to a wave of protests targeting ICE facilities, government offices, and companies that support ICE operations.

Seminal works on the foundation of cultural framing, such as Erving Goffman’s (1974) research, established a framework for understanding how individuals organize and interpret their social experiences through “frames.” Simon J. Bronner (2014) explored how Jewish identity is constructed, maintained, and negotiated through cultural frames. This exploration, along with various other influences, shaped the dynamics of the NAA’s approach to the challenge. The NAA explicitly leverages Jewish cultural identity and history, particularly the Holocaust, in its mobilization efforts. For example, over 50 protests were organized nationwide on Tisha b’Av, the Jewish day of mourning (Sales, 2019). This shows a connection between a cultural indicator and social movement action.

Never Again Action is allied formally with several organizations and informally with many groups working for immigrant rights and immigrants generally. Never Again Action’s official website cites their partnership with Movimiento Cosecha, an immigrant rights organization that uses similar protest tactics (Never Again Action, 2020; Our Movement, 2020). It also appears that NAA works closely with Organized Communities Against Deportations (OCAD) and other organizations.

Historical Context

NAA builds upon a long history of Jewish activism in the US. There is evidence of Jewish activists being involved in slave abolitionist movements before the Civil War (Cutler, 1995). Jewish activists have also been part of the Civil Rights Movement activities (Nodelman, 2019), AIDS/HIV activism (Stein, 1998), and Women’s Rights Movements (Beyerlein & Ryan, 2018).

Theorists of social movement mobilization see three main mobilization areas in successful social movements’ activities. These are political opportunity, mobilizing structures, and cultural frames. All social movements use these three mobilization techniques, but to different extents. It is widely argued that social movements arise during periods of political weakness or strength within the existing power structure (McAdam et al., 1996; Tilly, 1978).

The second theory of social movement mobilization is based on the idea that social movements emerge from organizations or groups with a structure already in place (McAdam et al., 1996). As we can see in the origin of Never Again Action, the organization gained traction from a network of Jewish activists and quickly grew (Kesslen, 2019).

Where mobilizing structures and political opportunity theories focus on systemic and structural components of social movement mobilization, cultural framing theory changes the focus to the individuals and social movement organizations’ use of frames and understanding of self in a broader society (Goffman, 1974). Individuals continuously display frames of understanding and shift between frames depending on the situation. David Snow and Robert Benfont (1988) elaborated on Goffman’s theory with a distinct connection to social movement mobilization. They defined culture frames as “conscious strategic efforts by groups of people to fashion shared understanding of the world and themselves that legitimate and motivate collective action” (McAdam et al., 1996, p. 6).

Culture and the context of when and where a social movement emerges are vital to understanding cultural frames theory. Snow and Benfont (1992) further elaborated on framing with their understanding of master framing devices and cycles of protest throughout a period of time. They use the late 1960s as an example of a time when there was a great surge in social movements based on various forms of disillusionment, and go into detail about cycles of “religious cult” movements that challenge the status quo.

Snow and Benfont (1992) call this a protest cycle, where the emergence of similar social movement organizations occurs because of overall cultural acceptance of that frame. The Never Again Action emerged from a singular Facebook post (Kesslen, 2019) within a master frame of social movement action and historical understanding of Jewish identity (Kellner, 1994).

However, Never Again Action does not use a master frame of Jewish identity but is engaging in a framework of historical and cultural understanding, specifically around “Never Again” or Holocaust rhetoric as a metaphor. This framework potentially resonates with activists and also carves out a place for these activists to engage in immigration work.

Snow and Benfont (1992) elaborate on this, saying, “Master frames can either lose their interpretative salience owing to the profusion of events and the proliferation of alternative framings or be neutralized by the repressive tactics of more powerful groups, or both. Hence, the mobilizing potency of the master frame begins to dissipate, and the cycle with which it has been associated begins to decline” (Snow & Benford, 1992, p. 151).

The first Trump administration’s anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric created a sense of urgency and provided a political opening for organizations like NAA to emerge.

The research explores how this frame resonates with individual members and shapes their participation in the movement while being aware of the potential for shifts in the cultural landscape and the need for movements to adapt their frames over time to mobilize individuals and advance their agenda.

The Holocaust as a Metaphorical Framework

Drawing on the work of Arlene Stein (1998), the Holocaust serves as a potent symbol of human suffering and evil, with strong emotional resonance in contemporary society. Various social movements, including the AIDS activism movement (ACT UP), have employed the Holocaust as a frame to juxtapose their own struggles with the persecution of Jews. This often involves drawing parallels between their own experiences of discrimination and victimization and the experiences of Jews during the Holocaust (Stein, 1998).

By invoking the Holocaust, movements such as NAA aim to tap into powerful emotional responses and generate strong public support for their cause. Stein (1998) sees that social movements use two different types of appropriation of Holocaust frames: revisionism and metaphor creation. NAA appears to primarily utilize “metaphor creation,” comparing the plight of immigrants to the persecution of Jews during the Holocaust. Unlike some other movements, NAA explicitly connects its activism to Jewish identity and history, acknowledging the historical significance of the Holocaust while using it to advocate for immigrant rights.

Participants point to themselves as having the right to use this narrative as they feel like it’s part of their shared history. Stein argues that “the Holocaust is both unique and comparable. It belongs to Jewish history, but it also belongs to human history” (Stein, 1998, p. 534).

The use of the Holocaust as a frame in social movements raises ethical concerns, particularly regarding the potential for trivializing or misrepresenting the historical experience of Jewish victims (Kellner, 1994; Marcus, 2018). NAA’s use of the Holocaust frame may be unique in that it explicitly connects the movement to Jewish identity and history while simultaneously advocating for the rights of a marginalized group (Kellner, 1994).

NAA’s approach, with its emphasis on Jewish identity and the use of the Holocaust frame, can be compared to the role of religious beliefs and institutions in the Sanctuary Movement and the Modern Immigration Rights Movement. Both movements utilize strong cultural frames to mobilize individuals and build a sense of collective purpose.

The Sanctuary Movement (1980s)

This movement, driven by religious institutions, particularly Catholic and Protestant churches, provided refuge to Central American refugees fleeing political persecution (Hagan, 2006). Sanctuary activists usually pointed to religious belief systems, or frames, as their motivating factor for participation (Wiltfang & McAdam, 1991). Churches provided safe havens for refugees, challenging government policies. From this crisis, the sanctuary movement emerged as a way to both help migrants and protest the inhumane system causing significant suffering (Hagan, 2006).

The Modern Immigration Rights Movement (Mid-2000s Onward)

The modern immigrant rights movement is commonly understood to have really come to the public’s attention in the mid-2000s (Paik, 2020). Triggered by increased deportations and anti-immigrant sentiment, the lack of immigration reform (Pallares & Flores-González, 2010), and increases in ICE enforcement (Americas: Governments Must Halt Dangerous and Discriminatory Detention of Migrants and Asylum Seekers, 2020), mass mobilizations were witnessed, particularly among Latino/a/x communities.

“The spring of 2006 will forever be marked as the Primavera de los Inmigrantes (the Spring of the Immigrants). Between late February and May 1, 2006, an estimated 3.5 Million people participated in immigrant rights marches and public demonstrations across the United States” (Pallares & Flores-González, 2010, p. 4).

NAA’s Place within the Broader Movements

NAA operates within the context of this ongoing struggle for immigrant rights, forming alliances with other organizations like Movimiento Cosecha (Never Again Action, 2020; Never Again Action [@NeverAgainAction], 2019). This allyship explains how this affects the NAA’s mobilization, how the NAA relates to a broader immigration rights movement, and what tactics the NAA is using. The long history of sustained immigration rights movements is the context in which NAA is mobilizing and viewing its own movement activity.

Methodology

This research is highly influenced by previous research on social movements, specifically Mary Erdman’s Opposite Poles (1998), and it relies on framing and cultural frames theory. To gain a better perspective of individuals involved in NAA and of the organization itself, the researcher used several qualitative study methods, including interviews with NAA members, participant observation of NAA virtual meetings, and analysis of materials that NAA created specifically for Social Media.

Framework

When designing this study, the researcher focused on a specific time and place: the summer and fall of 2020, specifically related to the NAA Chicago chapter. The decision was influenced by time constraints, as the research needed to be completed within a year. Given these limitations, a larger initial sample pool would have been impractical. Additionally, this framework worked out well due to the COVID-19 restrictions during that time.

Interviews

The most robust part of the research was the participant interviews. Because of time and budgetary constraints, the initial participants were recruited through personal contact. The researcher’s connection knew members of the NAA Chicago group and asked them to help introduce me to people involved in their activities. A snowball sampling technique was used to recruit additional contributors to the study.

All participants resided in Chicago and had prior experience in various social movements. They all identified as Jewish, with many involved in Jewish social organizations, particularly If Not Now. While participants were not obligated to disclose personal information, such as their ages, this researcher would estimate that they were all in their 20s and 30s. None of the participants were currently in college, and all were employed.

Core member interviewees were asked to include the researcher’s contact information and invitation to participate in the email list of the Chicago membership via their Slack channel, but the attempt was unsuccessful. Ultimately, personal connections and study participants helped the researcher contact all interviewees participating in this study.

Interviews were conducted over Zoom and lasted between 40 minutes and an hour and a half. These interviews were recorded on Zoom and then transcribed and coded. Recorded interviews were later destroyed, and names and specific identifying information were removed from transcriptions. Interviews were conducted with five NAA members (three core team members and two strategy circle members). All participants identified themselves as Jewish.

Observation

The second part of this research was participant observation (one online national meeting of about 250 individuals and one local chapter meeting conducted on Zoom with about 10 participants).

Material Analysis

The final methodology used in this study was an analysis of materials. This was primarily focused on NAA’s social media accounts, particularly Facebook, Instagram, and later, Twitter. Social media posts were collected and analyzed for patterns and themes from January 1st to March 1st, 2021. Over 130 social media posts were recorded in these two months.

Participants and Observations

This research was exclusively qualitative in nature and meant to collect data to answer the following question: What are the motivating factors for individuals to join NAA? How does NAA use cultural frames, specifically a Holocaust frame, to motivate individuals to join their organization? How do the NAA and individuals negotiate their roles as allies to a broader immigration rights movement? Finally, how are organizations participating in social movement actions in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis?

Participants Profile

All participants were identified as Jewish, with varying levels of involvement in Jewish organizations and communities, regardless of their background or origin.

Key roles within NAA included core team members, strategy circle members, and trainers, reflecting different levels of involvement and responsibilities. Their motivations for joining NAA varied but were often connected to a sense of moral obligation and a desire to address social injustice.

Meeting Observations

In addition to interviewing participants, this researcher attended several NAA meetings to observe and assess the participants’ comportment:

National Meeting. This meeting focused on responding to the January 6th insurrection and the implications for the NAA and its mission. The moderators utilized an interactive tool (Mentimeter) to gauge participant emotions and facilitate discussion. The collective response emphasized collective action and called for accountability for those involved in the insurrection.

Local Chapter Meeting. It discussed upcoming local actions and campaigns. It engaged in group brainstorming and planning sessions, highlighting the importance of community building and local engagement.

Results

Participants and Observation

Interviews

Interviews with five core NAA members revealed their strong motivations, experiences, and perspectives, providing valuable insights into the organization’s dynamics and its role in the immigration rights movement. These core members were highly engaged in driving NAA’s activities. However, maintaining consistent participation in meetings and other activities across the broader membership proved challenging.

Motivations for joining NAA were diverse, often stemming from a strong sense of moral obligation and a desire to combat social injustice. Participants highlighted the “Never Again” cultural frame as significant in mobilizing individuals and shaping their understanding of NAA’s mission. NAA meetings were generally relaxed and informal, encouraging participant input and discussion. Leadership appeared to be distributed among members. Both national and local meetings emphasized collective action and promoted involvement in upcoming events.

Social Media

Social media, particularly Facebook, played a crucial role in raising initial awareness of NAA and mobilizing its early members. Participants learned about the organization through online posts, groups, and recruitment campaigns, facilitating rapid information spread and nationwide mobilization.

Pre-existing Networks

All interviewed participants had connections to other social movement organizations before joining NAA. Four of the five participants were involved with If Not Now, an organization focused on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. At least two participants had prior experience working with immigrant groups or organizations supporting undocumented laborers.

Resonance of the NAA Message

Participants viewed NAA as a safe space for organizing and effectively meeting the needs of local immigrant partner organizations. They frequently mentioned NAA’s fundraising efforts as a way to leverage their privilege to support those most affected by the immigration crisis.

The data indicates that NAA is building genuine and sustainable partnerships with immigrant-led organizations, prioritizing their needs and concerns. NAA collaborates closely with partners to define roles, responsibilities, and strategies, ensuring alignment with the broader movement’s priorities.

Observation

NAA’s narrative, linking Jewish identity with the broader immigration movement, resonated deeply with participants on both personal and intellectual levels. Participants emphasized the importance of their Jewish identity in their involvement, citing the historical experience of Jewish immigration as fostering empathy and solidarity with contemporary immigrant communities.

The shared trauma of the Holocaust and other historical persecutions provided a framework for understanding the current struggles of immigrants. Drawing on a history of Jewish resistance, participants found inspiration and motivation for activism. NAA prioritizes building genuine and sustainable alliances with immigrant rights organizations, actively avoiding tokenism and ensuring immigrant voices are central.

The Holocaust

NAA’s emergence is directly linked to the debate sparked by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s use of the term “concentration camps” to describe migrant detention centers.

NAA utilizes the Holocaust as a metaphor to draw parallels between the historical persecution of Jews and the contemporary treatment of immigrants. This resonates with many Jewish individuals by connecting to shared history and collective trauma. It also serves as a way to counter the use of Holocaust imagery by the political right, reclaiming the narrative for a progressive agenda. However, concerns exist within and outside the NAA regarding the potential for trivializing or misrepresenting the Holocaust and alienating segments of the Jewish community.

Internal discussions within NAA highlight the complex and nuanced role of the Holocaust frame in its mobilization efforts. While it is a powerful tool for engaging Jewish individuals and raising awareness, NAA acknowledges its limitations and potential pitfalls. The organization is actively debating how to use this frame effectively while remaining sensitive to the Holocaust’s historical significance and the unique experiences of immigrant communities. NAA recognizes the importance of not centering Jews as victims when using a Holocaust frame, which can be challenging given the frame’s inherent focus on Jewish victimhood. This is an ongoing point of discussion within the organization.

Allyship

NAA’s approach to allyship emphasizes mutual respect, shared decision-making, and a commitment to long-term, sustainable engagement with immigrant-led organizations.

Interview data shows that NAA actively addresses concerns about “white saviorism” by prioritizing long-term commitment, resource sharing, and centering the voices and experiences of immigrant communities. NAA strives to build a more just and equitable society by acknowledging privilege and actively working to address systemic inequalities. This includes internal discussions and training sessions for members to understand their role in addressing issues of race, privilege, and power within their activism.

COVID-19

Never Again Action, formed in the summer of 2019, had to adapt rapidly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which began less than a year after its inception.

Interview responses indicate that the movement quickly reinvented itself and developed new strategies to continue pursuing its objectives despite the challenges posed by the pandemic. The pandemic period allowed NAA to engage in long-term strategic planning and build a more sustainable foundation for future organizing efforts. The shift to online organizing led to increased accessibility for members with disabilities through improvements in online meeting platforms and communication strategies.

Discussion

This research examines Never Again Action (NAA) as a social movement organization within a specific context, highlighting its identity as a Jewish organization, its complex relationship with the Holocaust narrative, and the primary factors driving its dynamism and growth. The participants’ profiles and thematic responses (Supplemental Table 1: Participants’ Profile and Thematic Overview) recap and underscore the participants’ shared profile, interest, and activity regarding the movement and its perspective.

The Holocaust

The data collected indicates that NAA leadership strategically employs a Holocaust framework as a metaphor to create a compelling narrative for both the public and its members. This aligns with the idea that groups actively use cultural frames to attract members and define their identity and actions (Morris, 1984).

NAA’s use of the Holocaust frame diverges from a simple “victim vs. perpetrator” understanding. Instead, it emphasizes the interconnectedness of historical events, linking the Holocaust to broader issues like colonialism, racism, and racial capitalism. This offers a more nuanced perspective compared to theories that assume a universally accepted interpretation of the Holocaust (e.g., Stein’s). This unique perspective is evident in NAA’s social media, which uses both direct and indirect Holocaust-related metaphors and references to shared Jewish history. By employing this frame, NAA aims to reclaim the Holocaust narrative from the political right’s often-misused interpretations.

Internal discussions among members address the ethical considerations of using the Holocaust frame, acknowledging the potential for misinterpretation and the importance of centering the experiences of immigrant communities. While the Holocaust frame is utilized, the research suggests that a broader shared Jewish identity and history are more significant drivers of member mobilization within NAA.

Jewish Identity and Shared History

One significant finding is that NAA members are strongly motivated by a sense of group identity and shared Jewish history. This includes creating a space for Jewish participation in the immigration rights movement and engaging with the collective history of its largely young, Jewish activist membership.

While some criticism of NAA comes from more politically conservative Jews (given NAA’s vocal left-leaning stance), the research indicates that NAA’s emergence and ongoing mobilization heavily rely on a shared history of the Jewish people rather than solely the Holocaust narrative. A shared Jewish history sustains NAA and its members, providing a way for Jews to bring their identity to the forefront and authentically engage in the immigrant rights movement.

NAA shows how a social movement organization can use cultural frames to mobilize individuals. By utilizing a framework of mutual understanding (a cultural frame), NAA can mobilize Jewish participants into a social movement focused on the immigrant rights movement, which did not directly affect the Jewish community at the time of the study. In a wider sense, it highlights that organizers can use different cultural frames to mobilize different groups into action for a cause that does not directly affect this group. Reframing a social movement for the target audience could help mobilize more individuals into action.

Limitations

The research on Never Again Action faced several limitations.

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted NAA’s activities and limited the researcher’s ability to recruit participants and conduct in-person observations. The research took place during a period of intense political activity (including Black Lives Matter protests and the 2020 election), which may have influenced participant responses. Despite these limitations, the collected data provides valuable insights into NAA’s organizing strategies, its use of the Holocaust narrative, and its role within the broader immigration rights movement.

Conclusion

Never Again Action (NAA) is primarily a Jewish social movement organization that stands in solidarity with immigrant communities to resist and dismantle the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the oppressive immigration system. The study reveals that the Holocaust frame is more complex than previously understood, particularly in how Jewish activists utilize it. The data provides interesting insights into how these activists engage narratives of shared history and identity to mobilize individuals. It also offers valuable information on how NAA negotiates its role as an ally within the broader immigration rights movement.

By providing valuable insights into the dynamics of social movements, the use of historical narratives in social and political mobilization, and the significance of identity and allyship in contemporary activism, this research hopes to lay the groundwork for future studies on NAA, offering insights into the dynamics of social movements, the use of historical narratives in social and political mobilization, and the significance of identity and allyship in contemporary activism.

The findings extracted from the interviews and published material challenge existing theories of social movement framing, particularly those that offer simplistic interpretations of the Holocaust. They underscore the crucial role of shared identity and historical narratives in mobilizing individuals for social and political action. They also emphasize how groups can build effective alliances across different communities based on shared experiences of oppression and a commitment to social justice.

Conducting interviews with a larger and more diverse group of NAA members may confirm this initial sampling. Additionally, a longitudinal study tracking the evolution of NAA’s organizing strategies and their impact over time will contribute to the literature on networks and ecology of leftist Jewish activism in the United States.

The NAA’s approach to social movement organizing offers valuable lessons for any group seeking to build solidarity and effect social change. Extending this information to corporate strategy and business practices may prove to be as valuable as effectively leveraging history and identity while simultaneously building bridges with other communities. NAA demonstrates the power of collective action and the importance of addressing systemic issues of inequality.