Join us for the 2016 Jewish Labor Seder, help in partnership with Kol Tzedek and Repair the World. This year’s theme is “Welcoming the Stranger”, and we will explore the current global refugee crisis through the lens of the Passover story.
Wednesday, April 27th, 6-9pm Kol Tzedek Synagogue at the Calvary Center for Community and Culture, 801 South 48th Street, Philadelphia
Suggested donation is $18 per person.
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Thursday April 17th, Kol Tzedek Congregation at the Calvary Center for Community and Culture, 801 South 48th Street, Philadelphia
Join us for the 2014 Jewish Labor seder, hosted by Kol Tzedek Synagogue and led by Rabbi Lauren Grabelle Herrmann. As we come together to break matzo, the bread of affliction, we will hear from workers who are organizing for their rights. Learn how you can support their efforts to have a greater dignity in the workplace.
October 27th at 6:30 pm at Liberties Bar, 705 North Second Street in Northern Liberties
Proponents of vouchers have made it seem like the issue is about “choice”. Please Join Senator Daylin Leach, PSEA President Mike Crossey, AFT President Ted Kirsch, and PFT President Jerry Jordan on and hear the progressive point of view about public school vouchers and what this “choice” would really mean to public education. There is no cost to attend this event.
US LABOR LAW: A Political Battlefield
Wednesday, January 9th 6:00 PM 2001 Market Street Suite 2900 Philadelphia
Appointed by President Clinton in 1997, Wilma Liebman went on to become the third longest-serving member in the 76-year history of the National Labor Relations Board, our nation’s ‘high court’ for adjudicating private-sector disputes between labor and management. This program will be of interest to anyone who wants to understand the current state of labor in our country. Few Americans are better qualified to lead this discussion than Wilma Liebman.
Thursday Feb. 16th 7:00 PM, Liberties Bar 2nd Floor, 705 North Second Street Philadelphia
After the failure of the U.S. Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform, states and municipalities have proposed and passed dozens of bills and ordinances, many of them promoted by xenophobes and premised on fears that “illegals” are “taking our jobs.”
After nearly five years in this role, I feel privileged to be the Director of the Philadelphia Jewish Labor Committee. To be frank, when I started, I wasn’t as aware as I am today about the difficulties facing so many working people in our city. I understand how now, as Jewish people have struggled and won great success and comfort in the United States, many of us have forgotten those struggles. Perhaps our grandparent’s efforts afforded us this comfort. There are two problems, and I don’t know which is more pressing. Time and again when our community has lulled itself into a sense of comfort, we’ve been shocked by incidents of anti semitism that range from the painting of a swastika on a synagogue or a home or business, to attacks on Jewish individuals, to, at the extreme, the atrocities of the holocaust. And though we say never forget, we seem to strive for the comfort that can only come with forgetting what happened in the past. If not forgetting is to be something more than words, I think it is our responsibility as a community to help those who have not yet had the good fortune that our community has had. And second, it feels wrong to me when I see my community enjoying material excess, and only wanting more when so many struggle to keep food on their tables and their electricity on. Have we forgotten that we’re talking about people, not statistics?
“When I confront a human being as my Thou and speak the basic word I-Thou to him, then he is no thing among things nor does he consist of things. He is no longer He or She, a dot in the world grid of space and time, nor a condition to be experienced and described, a loose bundle of named qualities. Neighborless and seamless, he is Thou and fills the firmament. Not as if there were nothing but he; but everything else lives in his light.”
― Martin Buber
Soon we will celebrate the holiday of Sukkot, the ancient Jewish harvest festival, which has been compared to Thanksgiving. In the Torah: “On the fifteenth day of this seventh month in the Feast of Huts, seven days for the Lord. On the first day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any menial work. Seven days you shall bring a fire-offering to the Lord…when you have gathered in the income of the land, you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of goodly tress, branches of palm trees, boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. for seven days you shall dwell in huts, so that your generations know that I made the children of Israel dwell in huts when I brought them out of the Land of Mitzrayim.” (Leviticus 23:33-44) As we celebrate Sukkot, let us remember those in our communities who are less fortunate, who have no hut over their heads and no regular supply of food. Thanks. –John Mason, Jewish Labor Committee member and Supporter
September 7th is Labor Day, the day honoring the American worker, the people who make the economy and society run. The idea of a day honoring workers was proposed by Peter Maguire, in 1882, and in that year the first Labor Day celebration took place. Oregon was the first state to officially commemorate Labor Day, and in 1894 President Grover Cleveland signed the law making Labor Day a federal holiday. Now, American workers are under attack, due to efforts to prevent workers from organizing unions, from manufacturing taken overseas and with them the jobs, from politicians who want to turn Social Security and Medicare into cash cows for hedge-fund managers. This shows a blatant disregard for the well-being of the workers who have built this country. The Jewish Labor Committee (JLC) continues to be the link between the Labor movement and the Jewish community, applying Jewish values to the issues confronting American workers and their families. –John Mason, Jewish Labor Committee Member and Supporter
March 24th | 5:30-7:30 National Museum of American Jewish History 101 South Independence Mall East Philadelphia, PA 19106
One hundred years ago on March 25th, 1911, the Triangle Waist Company in New York City erupted in flames, and the resulting deaths of 146 people, mostly Jewish and Italian women immigrant workers, many of them teenage girls, galvanized a city and a movement. The Triangle fire was a watershed moment in the history of the American Jewish labor movement and social reform.On March 24, 2011, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm, the Jewish Labor Committee, the Jewish Social Policy Action Network, the Philadelphia Council of the AFL-CIO and the National Museum of American Jewish History are joining forces to commemorate this tragic event, honor those who gave their lives and discuss the evolution of the labor and reform movements that the Triangle fire inspired.Please join us and members of your community for this extraordinary program.
Please join us at 7 PM on 12/3 at the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, 2100 Arch Street, 8th Floor for a conversation that will include an update on the fight from Senator Leach himself along with an opportunity for Q & A. Senator Daylin Leach has been leading the charge in Harrisburg for legislation that ensures a living wage for all Pennsylvanians by raising the state minimum wage to $15. Dinner will be available.
After nearly five years in this role, I feel privileged to be the Director of the Philadelphia Jewish Labor Committee. To be frank, when I started, I...
The Jewish Labor Committee often engages in civic actions designed to bring attention to specific labor and social justice issues. These actions...
Letter to CEO of Barneys New York
Letter In Support of Teva Janitors
JLC Perelman Statement
Rabbi’s Letter to Gov. Elect Tom Wolf
Remember The Triangle Fire?
Immigration Reform
US Labor Law: A Political Battlefield
Public School “Choice Vouchers” And The Attack On Public Education