Jerome Segal

{{Short description|American philosopher and activist (born 1943)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Jerome Segal

| image = Jerome Segal(Cropped).jpg

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1943|11|25}}

| birth_place = {{nowrap|New York City, U.S.}}

| education = City College of New York (BA)
University of Michigan (MA, PhD)
University of Minnesota (MPA)

| party = Democratic (before 2018, 2021–present)
Bread and Roses (2018–2021)

}}

Jerome Michael Segal (born November 25, 1943) is an American philosopher, political activist, and perennial candidate{{cite news |last1=Moore |first1=Jack |title=Md. gov results: Trump-backed Cox wins GOP race for governor, AP projects; Wes Moore leads Dems |url=https://wtop.com/maryland/2022/07/md-gov-results-9-dems-vying-for-nomination-trump-looms-large-in-gop-race/ |access-date=May 18, 2023 |work=WTOP-FM |date=July 20, 2022}}{{cite news |last1=Hogan |first1=Jack |title=Alsobrooks joins field of Md. Democrats seeking U.S. Senate seat in 2024 |url=https://thedailyrecord.com/2023/05/09/alsobrooks-joins-field-of-md-democrats-seeking-u-s-senate-seat-in-2024/ |access-date=May 18, 2023 |work=The Daily Record |date=May 9, 2023}} who resides in Silver Spring, Maryland. He was the founder of the socialist, progressive, and somewhat libertarian{{Cite web |title=Bread and Roses : A Humanist Organization with a Strong Utopian and International Orientation, One in Pursuit of a New American Dream and a World of Peace and Justice |url=https://www.breadandroses.us/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007072246/https://www.breadandroses.us/ |archive-date=2024-10-07 |access-date=2024-10-07 |website=Bread and Roses |language=en-US}} Bread and Roses Party, which achieved ballot access in Maryland in January 2019,{{Cite web |date=March 11, 2022 |title=Bread and Roses Party / Bread & Roses Party |url=https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/40party/html/bread.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240422070455/https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/40party/html/bread.html |archive-date=2024-04-22 |access-date=2024-10-07 |website=Maryland State Archives}} and which Segal ran from 2018 to 2021.

Segal is a research scholar at the University of Maryland, College Park, and the president of the Jewish Peace Lobby.{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/newssearch/?datefilter=All%20Since%202005&query=jerome%20m.%20segal&sort=Relevance|title=Search – The Washington Post – Jerome M. Segal|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=2017-12-13}} He was a candidate in the Democratic Party primary in the 2018 United States Senate election in Maryland.{{cite news|last1=Portnoy|first1=Jenna|title=How a defiant Chelsea Manning could upend the race for U.S. Senate in Maryland|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/how-a-defiant-chelsea-manning-could-upend-the-race-for-us-senate-in-maryland/2018/01/16/3e77685c-fabf-11e7-a46b-a3614530bd87_story.html|access-date=January 24, 2018|newspaper=Washington Post|date=January 17, 2018}} He unsuccessfully ran in the 2020 United States presidential election{{cite news |last= Chason|first=Rachel |date= 28 August 2019|title=Jerome Segal, of Maryland socialist Bread and Roses party, to run for president |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/jerome-segal-of-maryland-socialist-bread-and-roses-party-to-run-for-president/2019/08/28/26a02ce8-c8f7-11e9-a4f3-c081a126de70_story.html?arc404=true |newspaper= Washington Post |access-date=28 August 2019 }} and the 2022 Maryland gubernatorial election.

Early life and education

Segal was born and raised in The Bronx. His father, a socialist and member of the Jewish Labor Bund, was born in Poland and immigrated to the United States, where he found employment as a factory worker in the garment industry.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/08/24/us/washington-talk-foreign-affairs-jewish-father-for-palestinian-state.html|title=Washington Talk: Foreign Affairs; Jewish Father for Palestinian State?|last1=Pear|first1=Robert|date=1988-08-24|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=2018-01-15|issn=0362-4331}} After graduating from the Bronx High School of Science, Segal went to City College of New York, where he received honors in philosophy and economics, and was awarded the Brittain Prize in Moral Philosophy.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/06/17/graduation-is-set-at-city-college.html|title=Graduation Is Set at City College|date=1964-06-17|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=2018-01-15|issn=0362-4331}} Segal went on to receive a PhD from the University of Michigan, and taught in the philosophy department of the University of Pennsylvania. He later received an MPA from the Hubert Humphrey School of the University of Minnesota.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gphQlwxB-GAC&q=jerome%20m.%20segal%20city%20college&pg=PA239|title=Agency, Illusion, and Well-being: Essays in Moral Psychology and Philosophical Economics|last=Segal|first=Jerome M.|date=2009|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=9780739129692}}

Career

After receiving his MPA from the University of Minnesota, Segal moved to Washington, D.C. in 1974 to work as an aide to Congressman Donald M. Fraser and administrator of the House Budget Committee's task force on distributive impacts of economic policy. In 1979, he became Coordinator for the Near East in the policy bureau of the US Agency for International Development and, later, Senior Advisor for Agency Planning. After leaving government, he joined the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy at the University of Maryland as Senior Research Scholar.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jSKgBbTXzZQC&q=%22MPA%20from%20the%20Hubert%20Humphrey%20School%20of%20Public%20Affairs%20before%20moving%20to%20Washington%20DC%20to%20work%20for%20Congressman%20Donald%20Fraser.%20During%20the%20Carter%20administration,%20he%20became%20Coordinator%20for%20the%20Near%20East%20in%20the%20policy%20bureau%20of%20the%20US%20Agency%20for%20International%20Development%20and,%20later,%20Senior%20Advisor%20for%20Agency%20Planning.%20%22&pg=PA27|title=Less is More: Embracing Simplicity for a Healthy Planet, a Caring Economy and Lasting Happiness|last1=Andrews|first1=Cecile|last2=Urbanska|first2=Wanda|date=2009-09-01|publisher=New Society Publishers|isbn=9781550924312}}

Segal has been a leader of the American Jewish peace movement, starting in 1982 with Washington Area Jews for Israeli-Palestinian Peace (WAJIPP), a group that opposed the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. In 1987, he traveled to Tunis to meet Yasser Arafat and leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization. No American Jewish delegation had ever met with the PLO, which the U.S. government officially considered a terrorist organization at the time.{{Cite news|url=https://jewschool.com/2015/02/34088/jerome-m-segal-israel-palestine-peace-pioneer/|title=Jerome Segal: Visionary who led Congress to establish $10 Million Annual Peace Fund|date=2015-02-26|work=Jewschool|access-date=2018-01-16}} In August 1988, Israel raided the offices of Faisal al-Husseini, a Palestinian militant, and discovered a plan, based in part on earlier writings by Segal, for a ''declaration of Palestinian independence."{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/08/24/us/washington-talk-foreign-affairs-jewish-father-for-palestinian-state.html|title=WASHINGTON TALK: FOREIGN AFFAIRS; Jewish Father for Palestinian State?|last1=Pear|first1=Robert|date=1988-08-24|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=2018-01-16|issn=0362-4331}} That plan, along with other writings by Segal in Palestinian papers such as Al-Quds, were a catalyst for the Palestinian Declaration of Independence later that year and the Palestinian peace initiative in which Israel's right to exist was recognized.{{Cite web|url=https://professorsheehan.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/med-2013-speakers.pdf|title=Middle East Dialogue 2013 Conference Presenters – About The Authors|website=professorsheehan.files.wordpress.com|access-date=2018-01-16}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-55652-055-6|title=Nonfiction Book Review: Creating the Palestinian State: A Strategy for Peace by Jerome M. Segal, Author Lawrence Hill Books $9.95 (177p) ISBN 978-1-55652-055-6|work=PublishersWeekly.com|access-date=2018-01-16}}

In May 1989, Segal founded the Jewish Peace Lobby, which he envisioned as acting as a counterweight to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).{{Cite news|url=http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1989-07-23/news/8902220287_1_aipac-palestinian-state-liberal-american-jews|title=Liberal U.S. Jews Lobby for Israel-PLO Talks|work=tribunedigital-sunsentinel|access-date=2018-01-16|archive-date=2018-01-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180123190534/http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1989-07-23/news/8902220287_1_aipac-palestinian-state-liberal-american-jews|url-status=dead}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BCH9_gvhdjcC&q=jerome%20m%20segal%20jewish%20peace%20lobby&pg=PA514|title=American Jewish Year Book|last1=Adler|first1=Cyrus|last2=Szold|first2=Henrietta|date=1995|publisher=VNR AG|isbn=9780874951080}} The Peace Lobby remains active today, with about 5,000 members (including 400 rabbis).{{Cite web|url=http://www.jewishpeacelobby.org/#|title=The Jewish Peace Lobby|website=www.jewishpeacelobby.org|access-date=2018-01-16}}

As a candidate

File:2020 United States presidential election in Maryland - Percentage of votes cast for Jerome Segal by county.svg

Segal ran for a seat in the US Senate against incumbent Senator Ben Cardin in the 2018 midterm elections. After losing in the Democratic primary to Cardin, he attempted to be included in the general election under the Bread and Roses party, but was prohibited due to the "sore loser" statute of Maryland state law, which prohibits candidates from running in the general election after losing a primary.

= Bread and Roses Party =

After the 2018 election, Segal founded a new socialist political party called "Bread and Roses", after submitted a petition with more than 15,000 signatures to the Maryland Board of Elections. The party is named after a slogan used by striking workers during the 1912 Lawrence textile strike.{{cite web|url=https://www.heraldmailmedia.com/instant/ex-us-senate-candidate-asks-maryland-to-sanction-a-socialist/article_0117ad9c-a3ec-11e8-964d-cfed059e34b2.html |title=Ex-US Senate candidate asks Maryland to sanction a socialist party |publisher=Herald-Mail Media |access-date=2018-08-27}}

The Board certified the Bread and Roses party in January 2019, allowing its candidates to run for office in Maryland in the 2020 election.{{Cite news |title=Bread and Roses socialist party certified in Maryland |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/bread-and-roses-socialist-party-certified-in-maryland/2019/01/17/42a04468-1aa2-11e9-9ebf-c5fed1b7a081_story.html |access-date=2019-03-19}}

In August 2019, Segal announced a run in the 2020 United States presidential election under the Bread and Roses party banner. He said that he would not compete in swing states to avoid taking votes from a Democratic candidate running against Donald Trump.

The Bread and Roses party identified itself as "socialistic" in nature, distinguishing itself from "traditional socialism". The party advocated socialist ideals such as "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs" while also advocating democratic principles of limited government, individual liberty and rule of law. Their website also advertised ideals like "plain living, high thinking and a Utopian future".{{Cite web|url=https://www.breadandroses.us/|title=Bread and Roses|website=Bread and Roses|access-date=2019-03-19}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-socialist-party-certified-20190117-story.html|title=Bread and Roses Party, a self-identified socialist group, is certified in Maryland|last=Tkacik|first=Christina|website=baltimoresun.com|access-date=2019-03-19|archive-date=2019-02-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190204161005/https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-socialist-party-certified-20190117-story.html|url-status=dead}}

== Disbanding ==

File:JS4P_-_Logo_-_Plain.png

In December 2021, Segal disbanded the Bread and Roses party to seek the Democratic nomination for the 2022 Maryland gubernatorial election.{{cite news |last1=Kurtz |first1=Josh |title=Bread and Roses Party Marches Into the Sunset; Founder Runs for Governor as a Dem |url=https://www.marylandmatters.org/2021/12/16/bread-and-roses-party-marches-into-the-sunset-founder-runs-for-governor-as-a-dem/ |access-date=December 16, 2021 |work=Maryland Matters |date=December 16, 2021 |archive-date=December 16, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211216120602/https://www.marylandmatters.org/2021/12/16/bread-and-roses-party-marches-into-the-sunset-founder-runs-for-governor-as-a-dem/ |url-status=dead }} His running mate was Justin Dispenza, a member of the town council of Galena, Maryland.{{cite news |last1=DePuyt |first1=Bruce |last2=Kurtz |first2=Josh |title=Political Notes: Elrich's Endorsements, Pippy's Plans, Segal's LG, and CD-4 News |url=https://www.marylandmatters.org/2022/02/10/political-notes-3/ |access-date=April 7, 2022 |work=Maryland Matters |date=February 10, 2022}} After conceding in the Democratic primary on July 20, 2022, Segal started a campaign for 2024 United States presidential election as a Democrat.{{cite news |last1=Cohn |first1=Meredith |title=Some concede, others watch and wait in Maryland Democratic primary race for governor |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/politics/bs-md-pol-jain-latest-to-concede-20220720-vf4b4tql5rcmng332ugkhggf4m-story.html |access-date=July 20, 2022 |work=The Baltimore Sun |date=July 20, 2022}}

In July 2022, Segal, announced he would challenge Joe Biden in the 2024 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Segal dropped out in May 2023 to run for the vacant senate seat in Maryland.{{cite web |url= https://www.newsweek.com/jerome-segal-announces-2024-presidential-run-democratic-nomination-1727751 |title= Joe Biden Gets First Challenger for 2024 Democratic Nomination |last= Fung |first= Katherine |date= July 25, 2022 |website= Newsweek |access-date= March 9, 2023}}{{Cite web |last=More • • |first=Maggie |date=2023-05-06 |title=Activist Jerome Segal Enters Race for US Senate |url=https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/activist-jerome-segal-enters-race-for-us-senate/3343159/ |access-date=2023-09-20 |website=NBC4 Washington |language=en-US}}

On May 1, 2023, after U.S. Senator Ben Cardin announced that he would not run for re-election in 2024, Segal ended his presidential campaign and instead started a campaign to succeed Cardin.{{cite news |last1=Kurtz |first1=Josh |title=Tributes pour in for Cardin, whose seat becomes the main prize of 2024 in Md. |url=https://www.marylandmatters.org/2023/05/01/tributes-pour-in-for-cardin-whose-seat-becomes-the-main-prize-of-2024-in-md/ |access-date=May 1, 2023 |work=Maryland Matters |date=May 1, 2023}} Segal never filed to run for the U.S. Senate with the Maryland State Board of Elections and did not appear on the ballot.{{cite web |title=2024 Candidate Listing |url=https://elections.maryland.gov/elections/2024/Primary_candidates/gen_cand_lists_2024_2.html |website=elections.maryland.gov |publisher=Maryland State Board of Elections |access-date=February 10, 2024}}

Books

Creating the Palestinian State{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/creatingpalestin0000sega|title=Creating the Palestinian state : a strategy for peace|last=Segal|first=Jerome M.|date=1989|publisher=Lawrence Hill Books|isbn=9781556520556|edition=1st|location=Chicago, Ill.|oclc=18779422|url-access=registration}}
Agency and Alienation{{Cite book|title=Agency and alienation : a theory of human presence|last=Segal |first=Jerome M.|date=1991|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=9780847676286|location=Savage, Maryland|oclc=23356376}}
Negotiating Jerusalem{{Cite book|title=Agency and alienation : a theory of human presence|last=Segal|first=Jerome M.|date=1996|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=0847682072|edition= 1st paperback |location=Lanham, Maryland.|oclc=35295628}}
Graceful Simplicity{{Cite book|title=Graceful simplicity : the philosophy and politics of the alternative American dream|last=Segal|first=Jerome M.|date=2003|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=0520236009|edition= Paperback|location=Berkeley, California.|oclc=49531032}}
Joseph's Bones{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/josephsbonesunde0000sega|title=Joseph's bones : understanding the struggle between God and mankind in the Bible|last=Segal|first=Jerome M.|date=2007|publisher=Riverhead Books|isbn=978-1594489396|location=New York|oclc=76261878|url-access=registration}}
Agency, Illusion, and Well-Being{{Cite book|title=Agency, illusion, and well-being : essays in moral psychology and philosophical economics|last=Segal|first=Jerome M.|date=2009|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=978-0739129692|location=Lanham, Maryland|oclc=243674284}}
85 Rochdale Road{{Cite book|title=85 Rochdale Road |last=Segal|first=Jerome M.|date=2023|publisher=Author's Republic|isbn=9798823466011}}