Jerry Clyde Rubin (July 14, 1938 – November 28, 1994) was an American social activist, anti-war leader, and counterculture icon during the 1960s and early 1970s.

[1][2][3] In the 1960s,[4] during his political activism heyday, he was known for being one of the co-founders of the Youth International Party (YIP) whose members were referred to as Yippies, and standing trial in the Chicago Seven case.

When relatives threatened to sue to obtain custody of Gil, Jerry decided to take his brother to Israel instead, settling in Tel Aviv.

Rubin also ran for mayor of Berkeley, on a platform opposing the Vietnam War, and supporting Black power and the legalization of marijuana,[9] receiving over 20 percent of the vote.

He took part in planning the world's largest teach-in against the war, organized rallies and demonstrations that attempted to stop a train transporting troops to the Oakland Army Base, as well as trucks carrying napalm.

[11] Rubin was one of the founding members of the Youth International Party (YIP) or Yippies, along with social and political activist Abbie Hoffman and satirist Paul Krassner.

They were influenced by Marshall McLuhan's ideas on the importance of electronic communication and believed that if radical events were made more entertaining the media, especially television would give them greater coverage.

As Rubin recollected: ... [T]he more visual and surreal the stunts we could cook up, the easier it would be to get on the news, and the more weird and whimsical and provocative the theater, the better it would play.

[13]Rubin's appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings is a good example of the Yippies’ emphasis on conducting political protest as theater, and drawing as much attention as possible to their dissent by turning it into a spectacle.

Rubin was subpoenaed by HUAC in Washington but instead of pleading the Fifth Amendment as was common, he entered the room dressed in a rented 18th-century American Revolutionary War uniform, proudly claiming to be a descendant of Jefferson and Paine.

[14] Rubin, showing a total lack of concern or worries, lightheartedly blew soap bubbles as members of Congress questioned his Communist affiliations.

He subsequently appeared before the HUAC as a bare-chested guerrilla in Viet Cong pajamas, with war paint and carrying a toy M-16 rifle, and later as Santa Claus.

[15][16] As Martin A. Lee and Bruce Shlain remark in their book Acid Dreams: It was a political ploy designed to make a mockery of the HUAC proceedings; the congressmen were caught off guard, and Rubin's stunt became page-one news throughout the country.

[17]Another media stunt that gave the Yippies free publicity, not only in United States but all over the world, was when Rubin, Hoffman and others brought the New York Stock Exchange to a halt by tossing money into the air and watched gleefully as stockbrokers scrambled to collect bills.

[13] Yet another successful act in Yippies "guerrilla theater" was when during the Democratic National Convention of 1968 the Youth International Party nominated their own candidate for the presidency.

The nominee was Pigasus the Immortal, a 145-pound (66 kg) pig that they felt was an appropriate alternative to Richard Nixon, Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Alabama governor George Wallace.

At the official introductions at Pigasus' first press conference, Rubin, while holding the candidate in his arms, demanded he be given Secret Service protection and be brought to the White House for a foreign policy briefing.

[24]Rubin later played an instrumental role in the anti-war demonstration that accompanied the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago by helping to organize the Yippie "Festival of Life" in Lincoln Park.

He spoke along with Hoffman at an anti-war rally at the Grant Park bandshell on August 28, 1968, and instructed demonstrators to resist if a riot broke out.

Rubin, Hoffman and other defendants made a mockery of the court, widely covered by the press, with The New York Times and The Washington Post reporting on it.

Among other things, Judge Hoffman ordered for Black Panther leader Bobby Seale to be bound, gagged, and chained to his chair for a sizable portion of the trial.

[10]: 12 The Vietnam War politicized marijuana, turning it from a sign of an immoral or corrupt person, suffering from amotivational syndrome (psychological condition associated with diminished inspiration to participate in social activities) into deliberate, calculated civil disobedience.

After barbs in both directions, it ended abruptly when Jerry famously dropped an "F-bomb" and Ellis took leave to lead the locals out in a protest of their own.

[35] Despite no longer maintaining the more radical counterculture views he once held and being regarded as a sellout by some of his former 1960s associates, it has been acknowledged that Rubin sought to use his business investments to promote social awareness.

Rubin's argument in the debates was that activism was hard work and that the abuse of drugs, sex, and private property had made the counterculture "a scary society in itself."

As explained in Growing (Up) at Thirty-Seven Rubin experimented with many self-improvement techniques to overcome his own personal defects, everything from the est training, hypnotism, meditation and yoga to rolfing, acupuncture, the Arica School, Gestalt therapy and the bioenergetic analysis of Wilhelm Reich's pupil Alexander Lowen.

Friend and fellow Yippie Stew Albert claimed Rubin's new ambition was giving capitalists a social consciousness.

[48] “In 1991, he and his family moved to Los Angeles,” according to an Observer.com profile of him,[49] “where he became a successful independent marketer for a Dallas-based firm that sold a nutritional drink called Wow!, made with kelp, ginseng, and bee pollen.

Ironically, Bobby Seale became one of his salesmen.”[50] On November 14, 1994, Rubin was struck by a motorist as he attempted to cross Wilshire Boulevard, in front of his penthouse apartment[8] in the Westwood area of Los Angeles, California.

State Senator Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) and fellow Chicago Seven member said after Rubin's death: He was a great life force, full of spunk, courage and wit.