In 1900, eleven delegates representing seven major local unions in the Northeast convened to form the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union. All eleven of these delegates were Jewish men (the “ladies” in the organization’s name refers to the garments, not the constituency) who represented unions composed of primarily Jewish immigrants in major industrial cities such as New York, Newark, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. The ILGWU was an industrial union, meaning it served all workers in the ladies’ garment industry, rather than being separated by job or skill set. From the beginning, the ILGW ..read more

As Chanukah transformed in 20th century America from a smaller, home-based festival to a popular public holiday, businesses saw an opportunity to manufacture and market decorations and gifts to Jewish consumers. In the mid-19th century, new waves of German Jewish immigrants focused on Christmas as a winter holiday, in order to feel and appear more American in a country where it was celebrated as a national tradition, in addition to a religious one. Jewish leaders lamented this change, saying some Jews didn’t know when Chanukah occurred each year. By the 1920s, however, children and grandc ..read more

In response to the massive waves of Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe around the turn of the 20th century, leaders of the German-Jewish community in New York City founded the rather forbiddingly named Industrial Removal Office (IRO) to relocate new arrivals from teeming cities on the East Coast to Jewish communities in smaller cities and towns. Hoping to meet the industrial demands of an expanding nation, the IRO would secure jobs and arrange for room, board, and transportation. A largely philanthropic effort to relieve poverty, unhygienic conditions, and overcrowding in urban slums, the ..read more

Death masks, molded from plaster in the first hours after death before the features have stiffened or atrophied, were used for centuries to preserve the appearance of nobility and other eminent persons as models for posthumous sculptures or painted portraits. In the 19th century, these unnervingly accurate impressions came to be prized in their own right, and the practice of creating death masks as mementos spread to middle and upper-middle class families. To create a death mask, thin layers of plaster bandages were applied to the face and head of the deceased, which was oiled or greased to al ..read more

The commercial greeting card industry grew rapidly around the turn of the last century in Europe after the introduction of the picture postcard along with technical innovations that permitted cheaper mass production of color prints. Pre-printed cards became commonplace for holidays like Valentine’s Day, Christmas, and New Year’s. This holiday custom was quickly adapted by German Jews, who began sending cards bearing good wishes for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and the practice soon spread to Jews throughout the continent and the United States, where the mass immigration of Jews from Eas ..read more

Today, many think of summer camp as a uniquely Jewish phenomenon. In reality, Jewish educational camps developed as a branch of American organized camping. At the turn of the 20th century, camping was a major tenet of American Progressivism and the Fresh Air Movement, which sought to provide relief for poor immigrants in overcrowded cities during the summer, while also assimilating them into American culture. The first Jewish camp was established in 1893 by the Jewish Working Girls’ Vacation Society, then called Camp Lehman and later renamed Camp Isabella Freedman, now owned by the Jewish envi ..read more

Convicted of passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed 70 years ago on June 19, 1953, the first and only American civilians to face the death penalty for espionage. At the time, many believed the Rosenbergs to be innocent victims of antisemitism and Cold War hysteria, or at the very least that they had received an overly harsh sentence. Prominent defenders included Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, Pope Pius XII, W.E.B. DuBois, Linus Pauling, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Nobel Prize-winning chemist Harold Urey. The American Jewish Committee (AJC) Collection at ..read more

The Jewish population in the U.S. currently makes up just under 2.5% of the total population, with an even lower percentage keeping kosher. Yet, over 40% of the packaged food produced in the U.S. is labeled as kosher, and American food production companies dominate the global kosher market. Many of the brands that we see on the shelves, such as Coca Cola, Kraft, and Nabisco, all produce kosher products. If such a small portion of the population eats strictly kosher, how has it become such a large industry? When 23 Sephardic Jewish immigrants arrived in the U.S. and settled in what was then cal ..read more

Food is a way to maintain cherished traditions and connect to ancestors, particularly for marginalized groups. It can also be a method to adapt to a new environment. The American South has a rich Jewish history dating back to the 17th century. Port cities like Charleston, which until about 1820 had the largest Jewish population in the U.S., were home to some of the earliest Jewish Americans. Southern Jews have built Jewish communities within a specific regional context, sharing spaces and recipes with other Diaspora groups with the advantage of greater mobility. Culinary encounters between Sep ..read more

The late 1960s and early 1970s were, in part, characterized by the counterculture that swept through the United States during those years. Catapulted by the growth of social movement activism was an increased awareness of and desire to fix the problems plaguing American society, such as racism, sexism, poverty and the exploitation of labor. This period of American history was full of new and effective modes of political action built by groups that popped up all around the globe; many of which are not commonly referenced in popular discussions of activism during that period. One group that aros ..read more