Today in Labor History December 19, 1900: French parliament gave to amnesty everyone who participated in the scandalous army treason trial known as the Dreyfus affair. The scandal began in 1894 when the state convicted Captain Alfred Dreyfus of treason. He was a 35-year-old French artillery officer of Jewish descent, falsely convicted for espionage and imprisoned in Devil's Island in French Guiana. Émile Zola's open letter “J'Accuse” helped build a movement of support for Dreyfus, putting pressure on the government to reopen the case. In 1899, Dreyfus was returned to France, retried and convicted again, but was pardoned and released. They eventually reinstated him as a major and he served during the World War I. Roman Polanski made a film about the affair called “J’Accuse,” after the Zola letter. However, much of Europe and the U.S. banned screenings of the film due to Polanski’s U.S. rape conviction.
Today in Labor History November 20, 1896: Rose Pesotta, anarchist labor activist and the only woman on the General Executive Board of the International Ladies' Garment Workers (ILGWU), from 1933-1944, was born on this date, in Ukraine, to a Jewish family. She learned about anarchism by reading books by Bakunin in her father’s library. Her parents set up an arranged marriage for her, which she did not approve. So, she emigrated to the U.S. in 1913, joining the ILGWU the next year. Her local, #25, was filled with militant women veterans of the 1909 Shirtwaist Strike. She wrote regularly for the New York Anarchist press, in both English and in Yiddish. She was friends with Italian-American anarchist Bartolomeo Vanzetti. In 1933, she organized immigrant Mexican garment workers, leading to the Los Angeles Garment Workers Strike. She also organized workers in Canada and Puerto Rico. Later in life, she worked briefly for the B’nai B’rith. She also wrote two memoirs, Bread Upon the Waters (1944),[6] and Days of Our Lives (1958).
#CfP for the "USHMM Faculty Seminar: #Jewish Responses to the #Holocaust: Dispossession, #Restitution, and Reconstructing the Home", which will take place at the United States Holocaust #Memorial Museum (#HolocaustMuseum) in Washington, DC on January 8-12, 2024.
🗓️Extended Deadline for Abstracts: October 31, 2023
America's Jewish Women
A History from Colonial Times to Today
What does it mean to be a Jewish woman in America? In a gripping historical narrative, Pamela S. Nadell weaves together the stories of a diverse group of extraordinary people—from the colonial-era matriarch Grace Nathan and her great-granddaughter, poet Emma Lazarus, to labor organizer Bessie Hillman and the great justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, to scores of other activists, workers, wives, and mothers#America #Jewish#women@bookstodon
The Providence College #Jewish-#Catholic Theological Exchange will host a lecture on Oct. 11 by Dr. Benny Bar-Lavi, Inaugural Scholar-in-Residence in #JewishStudies and Jewish-Christian Relations
In a fascinating article, Andrea Addobbati and Francesca Bregoli use a recently discovered play in French from 1786 to mine into the rapidly shifting place Livornese #Jews had in the Tuscan public sphere, in the context of ransoming captives across the Mediterranean.
"Krakover built a fun world and developed an action-packed story with an engineer’s meticulousness, a sci-fi aficionado’s imagination, a child’s playfulness, and a Jew’s devoted curiosity." - Jewish Book World
I had a need to visit X a moment ago. I am pretty shocked by the amount of overt and explicit racism going on there. It seems to have become a point of pride.
I will likely be deleting the app soon, which breaks my heart, and I won’t see it, but knowing that millions of people are being steeped in that behavior and content is alarming.
TIL that the term "Mizrahi" is a reclaimed term, originally a racist term and slurrish, it's since been reclaimed by those Jews as a way to self-identify, especially for those Jews who live in Israel.
I've only heard it in the context of its reclaimed use, but knowing the history is important.
This picture book is deliciously adorable ! Buckwheat the black and white dog is very hungry ! Exploring Jewish food, the animal counts each of the tantalizing dishes : one golden challah, two matzo balls, three matzos, four kugels, five knishes, and so on.
The preamble to the Program called for establishment of a "home in #Palestine for the #Jewish people, secured under public law," thus leaving open the question of statehood but affirming that the result required international support
Today in Labor History August 16, 1933: The anti-Semitic Christie Pits riot took place in Toronto, Canada. At the time, Toronto’s Jewish community was predominantly poor and working-class. During the summer, they would go to the predominantly Anglo Beaches to swim. Some of the locals formed a "Swastika Club" and openly displayed the Nazi symbol to intimidate the Jews. The riot broke out after a baseball game when people displayed a blanket with a large swastika painted on it. A number of Jewish and Italian youth rushed the Swastika sign to destroy it, resulting in a melee with fists and clubs. A mob of more than 10,000 joined in, amidst cries of Heil Hitler. Miraculously, no one died. However, scores were injured. Many required medical and hospital attention.
The incident was depicted in two graphic novels: “Christie Pits” (2019) written by Jamie Michaels and illustrated by Doug Fedrau, and “The Good Fight” (2021) by Ted Staunton and Josh Rosen.
Today in Labor History August 12, 1952: The Soviet authorities murdered 13 prominent Jewish intellectuals and writers in the Night of the Murdered Poets. All were members of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, which fought for the USSR against Nazi Germany. They were falsely accused of espionage and treason, and then imprisoned, tortured, and isolated for three years before being formally charged.