Jewish Labor Committee

The Jewish Labor Committee (JLC) was founded in February 1934 in the Lower East Side of New York as an umbrella organisation of several Jewish trade unions (e.g. United Hebrew Trades) and various other organisations (i.a. Workmen’s Circle, Jewish Daily Forward Association etc.). Its main goals were to support the Jewish labour movement and to mobilise labour against fascism and its effects, both in Europe as in America. The JLC, emphasizing its labour orientation and non-sectarianism, provided support to refugees and progressive (especially Bundist and Linke Poale Zion) anti-fascist groups, educated the labour movement and the general public on Nazism, supported Jewish civil rights and human rights in general, etc. The Joint Boycott Council (1938-1941, together with the American Jewish Congress) and the World Labor Athletic Carnival (the ‘Counter-Olympics’) of 1936 are just a few examples of its accomplishments. During the Second World War, the JLC established contacts with resistance groups (i.a. in Belgium), raised funds for their activities and helped rescue hundreds of Jewish and non-Jewish labour and socialist leaders. After the war, the JLC became highy involved in rescue and relief work in Europe, notably from its offices in Stockholm and Brussels, ranging from immediate relief for Shoah victims (food, clothing, medical supplies), care for displaced persons and refugees, immigration assistance, help with regards to housing and employment, to financial support of cooperative workshops, Yiddish schools and libraries, clinics, … Through its child adoption program, homes all over Europe (i.a. in Belgium) were financed and thousands of destitute children were helped. In the post-war period, the JLC dedicated its work more and more to general anti-discrimination efforts and ‘domestic’ work – such as the American Jewish community, the American labour movement, the civil rights movement, … Major international themes include the issue of reparations for Shoah victims from the German and Austrian governments in the 1950s, the plight of Soviet Jewry and especially (departing from its earlier anti-Zionist stance, originating from the influence of Bundism) support for and education on the State of Israel. Today the JLC still aims to represent Jewish interests in the wider American labour movement, and labour in the organised Jewish community. It is a member of several Jewish communal organisations such as the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, the Claims Conference, …