JEWISH EMPLOYMENT, BUSINESS, & THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN THE EARLY 1900s

Peddling became our profession - selling tinware, notions, fish, fruit, milk.  The profits from these endeavors were used to open shirt factories, the beginning of the garment industry.  Jewish farming enterprises were rare and short-lived due to a combination of floods, malaria. labor shortages, and financing difficulties.

The Educational Alliance tried to "Americanize" Eastern Europeans but adult education of Jewish immigrants was a difficult proposition.  The effect of Americanization on family life in the 1900s was adverse in many aspects.  Husbands deserted families.  Physical play vs. study became a battleground, which caused the beginning of a "generation gap".  Prostitution and gambling became the "Jewish vices".

The Jewish labor movement began to rise in the 1900s.  The Jewish Socialist Federation was the forerunner of the union/collective bargaining movement, teaching its members how to conduct meetings, effective speaking, and socialist theory.  They considered Zionism to be "a utopian fantasy".  However, they compromised with the Zionists over Labor Zionism's stance in favor of unrestricted immigration.  Some of the Jewish Socialists left the Federation to form the American Communist Party in support of the Bolshevik revolutionaries.  The Jewish Communists were very strong, publishing a daily newspaper, building housing projects, and offering health and life insurance.

United Hebrew Trades was a federation of 41 Jewish trade unions in 5 industries.  One of the member unions was the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), which went on strike for 3 months in 1909, affecting 20,000 workers.  This was followed by the Cloakmakers strike, in July 1910.

Workmen's Circle was a pioneer in social reform.  It provided its membership with health and burial benefits, lectures, schools, and its own social security.