Vos iz eydish vegn Leyber Dei?

What’s Jewish about Labor Day?

From the Desk of Lynn Davis, Director, Rabbi Joseph H. Gumbiner Community Action Project

In November 1909, New York’s Cooper Union hall was packed with exhausted garment workers, most of them young Jewish immigrant women. After hours of speeches, 23-year-old Clara Lemlich, a recent arrival from Ukraine, demanded the microphone. In Yiddish, she shouted, “I am tired of talk. I move that we go on a general strike!”

Lemlich had struck a nerve. Within days, more than 20,000 shirtwaist workers walked off the job in the largest strike by women in U.S. history. For 13 weeks that winter, they picketed factories, faced arrest and beatings, and demanded dignity on the job.

The Uprising of the 20,000, as the strike became known, demanded relief for the thousands of immigrants suffering from long hours, low pay, and unsafe conditions in garment district sweatshops. Out of these struggles arose strong unions like the ILGWU and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers – led by Jewish organizers - which secured many of the protections we now consider basic: a 40-hour week, child labor laws, and safer workplaces. (The Triangle Shirtwaist Company refused to accede to the demands of the Uprising, setting the stage for the tragic fire a year later that killed 146 women, most of whom were Jewish and Italian.)

 It's no accident that Clara Lemlich’s call to action was in Yiddish. The mame-loshn or “mother tongue,” was an integral part of the early 20th century immigrant Jewish experience, including labor organizing. The Yiddish-language newspaper Forverts (now The Forward, which many of us still read) reached hundreds of thousands of readers and connected Jewish values to the labor struggle, emphasizing the importance of tzedek (justice): demanding fair treatment for all workers; b’tzelem Elohim (human dignity): affirming every person’s worth; and arevut, or the responsibility to stand up for one another. Yiddish, whether it was spoken in union halls, sung on picket lines, or printed in newspapers, gave voice to those values and helped knit immigrant workers into a movement for justice.

As we mark Labor Day today, we not only remember those struggles, but also recognize today’s ongoing fights for fair wages, safe conditions, immigrant rights, and dignity for all workers. Just as our ancestors drew on Jewish values to build a more just society, we heed the call to carry that vision forward.

Interested in learning more? Check out The Workers Circle. For 125 years, this national Jewish social justice organization has worked to build an inclusive democracy and social equality. Rooted in Jewish values and activist history, the organization offers strategic and impactful social justice initiatives, vibrant Yiddish language classes and programs, and interactive educational activities centered around creating a multiracial, multicultural democracy for all.

Mourners from the Ladies Waist and Dressmakers Union Local 25 and the United Hebrew Trades of New York march in the streets after the Triangle fire. ( Photo courtesy of the Kheel Center, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)