The Jewish Labor Committee Story

The Jewish Labor Committee publicize opposition to Hitler’s institutions. Working with the was founded in 1934 by leaders of regime in Germany. -language Jewish Daily the International Ladies' Garment Forward and New York radio Before and during America's Workers' Union, the Amalgamated station WEVD, the JLC was able entry into World War II, the JLC Clothing Workers of America, the to renew ties between family established communication chan- Workmen's Circle, the Jewish members disrupted by the war and nels to underground anti-Nazi Daily Forward Association and help bring these scattered labor, socialist and Jewish forces other kindred groups in response remnants back into the fold of the in occupied Europe, including to the rise of in Europe. larger Jewish world. groups and individuals in From our first days, we have had Germany, France, Poland, For many decades, we helped recognition from and close ties Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Jewish and non-Jewish survivors with the American Federation of Holland and Italy. We raised in their struggles to rebuild their Labor and the Congress of emergency funds for partisan lives after the war. Many of those Industrial Organizations (and, forces, and organized an Amer- from Western Europe who were since the merger, the AFL-CIO). ican coordinating committee of rescued by the JLC returned to Today, the Jewish Labor European leaders their countries, and established Committee is recognized by the operating in exile from New York. democratic institutions, parties organized Jewish community and Working behind the scenes, using and trade union movements. organized labor as the bridge extensive contacts with the labor As early as 1944, the JLC between these two vital sectors of movement, the Jewish community, started educational activities American society. and other agencies, the JLC was against prejudice among Amer- able to rescue well over a During its first decade, the ican workers. This effort received thousand Jewish and non-Jewish JLC's priorities were initiating and the strong backing of the leader- political and cultural leaders. strengthening anti-Nazi and anti- ship of the AFL, the CIO and the Fascist activities of the two U.S. After the war, the Jewish Labor Canadian CLC. In the 1950s, our labor federations (as well as their Committee was actively involved organization focused more Canadian counterparts) and the in relief and rehabilitation work energies and resources on this more than 500,000 members of for the survivors. JLC staff important work, spearheading the the Jewish labor movement of worked with displaced persons in development of civil rights North America. Developing post-war DP camps, special programs in U.S. and Canadian relations with diverse Jewish "children’s homes," and other unions. The JLC established organizations, the JLC, together newly-reestablished Jewish nearly two dozen local com- with the American Jewish Image courtesy mittees to combat intolerance Congress, initiated a successful across the and anti-Nazi boycott, designed to Canada. These local committees raise consciousness among became the foundation for the

Americans as well as to create Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, NYU AFL Civil Rights Department. economic difficulties for Nazi The JLC distributed tens of Germany. thousands of pieces of literature, showed filmstrips, and ran "rumor When the efforts to persuade clinics" to combat racism. In time, the United States Olympic the JLC helped a number of the Committee to withdraw from the largest national unions establish 1936 Berlin Olympics failed, the their own civil rights departments. JLC organized a "counter- Olympics" (entitled the World The JLC played a key role in Labor Athletic Carnival), held on national and state campaigns for New York's Randall's Island, in civil rights legislation, in the which athletes, who refused to historic civil rights marches of the compete in that Nazi showcase, 1950s and '60s, and in the actively participated. The event Leadership Conference for Civil provided a focus for labor's anti- Rights. The JLC office was called Nazi sentiment, and also helped Bill Seaman - Labor Reports, April 1963. on to coordinate local campaigns

This four-page history was originally prepared as a supplement to the 70th Anniversary Commemorative Journal of the Jewish Labor Committee (1934-2004) Image courtesy 70 Years Strong: The Jewish community and the churches, as well It soon became clear to the JLC that Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, NYU as the Jewish community. Our efforts the Soviet regime, in addition to its during that era included a key role in suppression of efforts to form the founding of the United Farm independent free trade unions, was Workers, the passage of the Fair engaged in a policy of discrimination Employment Practices Act in against Jews. They discriminated California, and staffing and support against Jews in employment, of the historic 1963 March on education, culture or any form of Washington. Canadian branches of religious expression allowed to other the JLC were recognized as the recognized ethnic and religious spearhead of the civil rights effort in groups in the multi-ethnic Soviet that country as a whole, not only population. We raised our voices in within the organized labor protest in the arena of public opinion. movement, but in the general For a number of years, the JLC community as well. Intergroup carried this issue alone. We raised Graphic by veteran labor cartoonist and community relations is still a major our concern in both the Yiddish- illustrator, Bernard Seaman, from the JLC priority, even as the number of tasks speaking Jewish community and in news service Labor Reports, November on our agenda has grown with the the halls of the American labor 1957. The service was sent to – and reprinted times. movement. JLC received support by – hundreds of trade union publications At the close of World War II, the from the two American labor throughout the United States and Canada. JLC, as a principled opponent of Seaman, considered one of the best labor federations, the AFL and the CIO, cartoonists of his time, was the editorial totalitarianism on the left as well as even before their merger in 1955. cartoonist for the newspapers of the ILGWU the right, provided material and the Seafarers International Union. assistance in liberated areas to many Shortly thereafter, the JLC brought He passed away in September, 1998. of the financially-stranded European a report on the discriminatory labor movements in their efforts to treatment of Soviet Jews to the world for civil rights in many cities, reestablish themselves in the face of congress of the International because we had the confidence of Soviet-backed Communist efforts to Confederation of Free Trade Unions labor, liberals, the African-American strengthen their presence in Europe. (ICFTU) at a meeting in West Berlin; the ICFTU then took up the cause. In Image courtesy its position as a consultative body to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, the ICFTU submitted a lengthy report, which Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, NYU was the first document on this issue circulated through the official channels of the U.N. The following year both the U.S. and Israel raised the cry at the U.N. By then, it had attracted the support of the general Jewish community in North America, Israel and elsewhere, and the Jews in the Soviet Union began speaking up for their own cause. In the early 1960s, the JLC was a founding member of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry. Two decades later, the JLC formed a special Trade Union Council for Soviet Jewry, headed by , through which American trade unions "adopted" refuseniks, Labor Committee Story Image courtesy protested non-delivery of mail to knowledge of the Soviet Jews, and demanded full Holocaust – the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, NYU rights for Jews living in the USSR – awareness of which including the right to leave if they so had so shaken the wished. In time, this led to the world at the close of unprecedented action of the Soviet World War II and Union allowing hundreds of contributed to a firm thousands of Soviet Jews to leave the commitment to demo- USSR. (This took place before cracy and popular glasnost and perestroika.) revulsion at racism. As the United Nations was We understood that it debating the creation of what would was very important ultimately be called the State of that public schools, in Israel, the Jewish Labor Committee particular, should be played a little-known behind-the- teaching the facts and scenes role, working with socialist, the lessons of the labor and trade unionist allies in a Holocaust. The Edu- Civil rights and labor activist Bayard Rustin, chairman of the number of countries to secure their cators Chapter of the board of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, addressing Conference representatives' support. It was with JLC, together with the on Polish Anti-Semitism, sponsored by the JLC National Trade some private satisfaction that the JLC United Federation of Union Council for Human Rights, 1968. office listened with the rest of the Teachers of New York, prepared teaching material on this thousands of additional copies to Jewish world as the historic positive teachers in other parts of the country. vote took place in 1947. The JLC lent subject, which the teachers' union put support and sent aid to cooperatives in the hands of 230,000 teachers in In this same period, the in the young country, assisted a New York State and . JLC initiated discussions with our number of labor-related and cultural Local Jewish communities distributed colleagues in the Federal Republic of institutions, and did what we could to assist in the resettlement and absorption of some of the remnants of European Jewry. Through the years, we have maintained ties of solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Israel, with an emphasis, of course, on "Labor Israel." Israel is a country founded and built by organized labor. Younger American trade unionists often do not know the history of Israel's birth and early years. To maintain and strengthen close relations between the labor movements of these two countries, the JLC organized Trade Union Seminars in Israel, sending up-and-coming U.S. labor leaders to learn about the people and State of Israel, the peace process, and to see and meet their fellow trade unionists, Jews and Arabs, kibbutzniks and city folk. Nearly two decades ago, the JLC Stuart Appelbaum, President of Jewish Labor Committee and President of RWDSU, joins realized that a new generation was JLC at New York's 2003 Labor Day Parade up Fifth Avenue. With him are Steve Pezenik (with beard, left, Local 338, RWDSU), Carolyn De Paolo (Coordinator, - growing up without any meaningful New York JLC), Mark Kaufman (Local 3, IBEW). 70 Years Strong: The Jewish Labor Committee Story

Germany - the Socialist Party and Image courtesy Milton Williams, AFT the West German teachers' union - about how the history of the Nazi era was being taught in West German schools. In the summer of 1985, the Educators Chapter of the JLC, together with the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and the UFT and soon thereafter, the American Fed- eration of Teachers, initiated what has become an interna- tionally-renowned intensive three-week summer teacher- training program on the Holocaust and Jewish resistance. The program takes a group of selected teachers to Poland for JLC activists from Eastern Seaboard at National Rally in Solidarity with Israel, one week and then to Israel for Washington DC, April 15, 2002. AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney, representing two weeks. In Poland. the 13 million U.S. trade unionists, addressed the massive demonstration. teachers visit the Warsaw Ghetto, concentration camps, and hear sweatshops within blocks of our For seven decades, the Jewish testimony directly from sur- offices. Labor Committee's program has included strengthening and vivors. In Israel. the teachers In April, 2000, the JLC study at the two prime focusing Jewish community published a special Passover institutions in the field, the support for labor's domestic Haggadah , now in its third Ghetto Fighters House of economic and social positions, Kibbutz Lohamei HaGhettaot, edition. At the same time, we working with unions in their and the Yad Vashem Holocaust initiated a growing number of support for the security of the Research and Documentation local "Labor Seders" held in State and people of Israel, Center in Jerusalem. As of communities across the U.S. maintaining the cultural heritage September, 2003, over 700 They are now a tradition in such of the secular Jewish com- educators have completed the places as , MA; Wash- munities of Europe (including training. We estimate that ington, DC; , LA; support for Yiddish language, approximately 140,000 – one Cedar Grove, NJ; Philadelphia, literature and cultural expres- hundred and forty-thousand! – PA; , IL; and Detroit, sion), support for a range of students are reached by "our" MI. Often cosponsored with local, national and international teachers annually. local Jewish Federations and labor causes, and doing whatever with the assistance of local we can when a Jewish presence - For years, the JLC has Central Labor Councils, these or a labor presence - can help encouraged the continued use of resolve a conflict or support the union-made goods and services special festive meals are unique disenfranchised, the weak, the by Jewish institutions. We have opportunities for local Jewish defenseless or the oppressed. been called upon from time to community leaders and local time to secure the support of the trade union leaders to meet, eat, The Jewish Labor Committee, Jewish community for labor recount the story of the Exodus from its first day to this day, campaigns for social justice, from ancient Egypt – and relate involves itself in all aspects of whether it has been agricultural that story to the never-ending labor-related causes that touch workers in grape vineyards and story of the struggle for basic upon the survival and life of the strawberry fields, truckers or workers' rights, from sweat- Jewish people, and acts as a nurses or teachers, or to focus shops a century ago to today's clear Jewish voice in the house attention on those who labor in workplaces. of labor. Jewish Labor Committee • 25 East 21 Street • New York, NY 10010 tel (212) 0477-0707 • fax (212) 477 1918 • e-mail [email protected]