Norman Fruchter

Prior to becoming a member of Newsreel which was founded in 1967, Fruchter and Robert Machover made 'Troublemakers', an award-winning documentary about an organizing effort by members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in the Black wards of Newark, New Jersey.[6] As part of their mission to instigate social change, members of Newsreel would present films to political organizations and community groups across the United States.[7] The retrospective, Exit Art / The First World had Newsreel members Norman Fruchter, Roz Payne and Lynn Phillips discuss the films.[8] He was a member of SDS along with Tom Hayden, Jesse Allen, Robert Kramer, also full-time organizers for the group: Carol Glassman; Terry Jefferson; Constance Brown; Corinna Fales; and Derek Winans. He was investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee.[9] He co-founded and co-directed Independence High School, an alternative high school for drop-outs in Newark, New Jersey, throughout most of the 1970s.

Fruchter recommended Christine Choy to the Newsreel group, after meeting her at Ironbound neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey.[10][11]

Fruchter was a member of School Board 15, in Brooklyn from 1983–94. He helped to form Campaign for Fiscal Equity, which sued the city of New York over inadequate school funding. He co-founded and headed the Institute for Education and Social Policy at New York University from 1987–1996.[12][13]

Fruchter married Rachel G. Fruchter (died 1997), who was member of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology State University of New York for nearly 25 years.[14] After her untimely death he married Heather Lewis, a former Newsreel member and school board colleague. Fruchter had two children and four grandchildren.

Fruchter died on January 4, 2023, at the age of 85, from injuries sustained in a traffic collision on December 22.[15]

• Coat Upon a Stick. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. 1962. ASIN B000O3Q0HU.
• Single File. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf. 1970.

• "Restructuring and Multiculturalism: A New Alliance To Shift the Power Balance?". Celebrating Diverse Voices: Progressive Education and Equity. Thought and Practice Series. Corwin Press. 1993. ISBN 0-8039-6039-5.
• John Mollenkopf; Ken Emerson, eds. (2001). Rethinking the Urban Agenda. Century Foundation. p. 248. ISBN 0-87078-465-X.

• Fruchter, Norman (May–June 1961). "Jews and others". New Left Review. New Left Review. I (9).
• Fruchter, Norman (March–April 1961). "Where is the ginger man?". New Left Review. New Left Review. I (8).

Profile of The Ginger Man's author J. P. Donleavy.

• Fruchter, Norman (March–April 1960). "The Savage Eye". New Left Review. New Left Review. I (2).

Review of the film The Savage Eye.

• Fruchter, Norman (February 1972). "SDS: In and Out of Context". Liberation. David Dellinger and A. J. Muste.

Cited in: Breines, Wini (1989), "Politics as community: participatory democracy", in Breines, Wini (ed.), Community and organization in the New Left, 1962-1968: the great refusal, New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, pp. 61–62, ISBN 9780813514031. Preview.

• Fruchter, Norman (May 1971). "Movement Propaganda and the Culture of the Spectacle". Liberation. David Dellinger and A. J. Muste: 4–17.

Cited in: Lazere, Donald (1987), "Introduction: entertainment as social control", in Lazere, Donald (ed.), American media and mass culture: left perspectives, Berkeley, California: University of California Press, p. 9, ISBN 9780520044968. Preview.

• Race Against Prime Time - ( Narrator(- Narration) / 1984 / Released / Albany Video )
• The People's War - ( Director / 1970 / Released / )[17]
• WE GOT TO LIVE HERE, Robert Machover & Norman Fruchter, (1965, 16mm B&W/sound, 20 min.)
• Troublemakers, Robert Machover & Norman Fruchter, (1966, 16mm B&W/sound, 54 min.)[18]
• FALN (1965), Peter Gessner, Norman Fruchter and Robert Machover, Robert Kramer
• Summer '68 (1969)[19][20]