Jack Nusan Porter (born Nusia Jakub Puchtik, 1944) is an American writer, sociologist, human rights activist, and former treasurer and vice-president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars. He is a former assistant professor of social science at Boston University and a former research associate at Harvard's Ukrainian Research Institute. Currently, he is a research associate at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University, where he conducts research on Israeli-Russian relations. Some of his research foci include the life of Golda Meir, the application of mathematical and statistical models to predict genocide and terrorism, and modes of resistance to genocide.

Early life and education

Nusia Jakub Puchtik was born December 2, 1944, in Rovno, Ukraine to Jewish-Ukrainian partisan parents Faljga Merin and Srulik Puchtik. The family emigrated to the United States on June 20, 1946, and their name was Anglicized to Porter. Growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Porter attended Washington High School and was active in Habonim Dror, a Labor Zionist Youth movement. He left for Israel soon after high school and worked on Kibbutz Gesher Haziv and studied in Jerusalem at the Machon L'Madrichei Chutz La'Aretz (a youth leaders institute). Porter eventually returned to Wisconsin and attended the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee from 1963 to 1967, majoring in sociology and Hebrew Studies. In 1967, he began working on his PhD in sociology at Northwestern University, studying under Howard S. Becker, Bernie Beck, Janet Abu-Lughod, and Charles Moskos. In the late 1960s, Porter was an active leader in the moderate wing of Students for a Democratic Society. However, in response to the growing anti-Zionism emanating from the black and white leftist movements, Porter and other students at Northwestern founded the activist Jewish Student Movement in 1970; it was a forerunner to all Jewish “renewal” groups and predecessor to Michael Lerner’s Tikkun movement.

Career

In 1976, Porter founded the Journal of the History of Sociology; it published its first issue in 1978. In the spring of 2012, Porter ran for United States Representative as a write-in candidate in Massachusetts' Fourth District following the departure of incumbent Representative Barney Frank. Running as a Democrat, Porter described himself as a "radical-libertarian-progressive" and aligned his views with those of Representative Ron Paul and Senator Bernie Sanders. Porter's write-in candidacy gained less than 0.1% of the vote; Joseph Kennedy III won the primary with approximately 90% of the vote and was later elected to his first term in Congress in the 2012 general election.

Selected works

Porter's books include:

Awards