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Records of the Workmen's Circle

 Collection
Identifier: I-304

Scope and Content Note

The records of the Workmen’s Circle consists of material pertaining to the organization’s administration, services, separate branches, and schools. The majority of the collection is publications of the Workmen’s Circle relating to conventions and education. A large portion of the collection is in Yiddish.

Dates

  • Creation: 1903-1993

Access Restrictions

The collection is open to all researchers, except items that may be restricted due to their fragility, or privacy.

Use Restrictions

No permission is required to quote, reproduce or otherwise publish manuscript materials found in this collection, as long as the usage is scholarly, educational, and non-commercial. For inquiries about other usage, please contact the Director of Collections and Engagement at mmeyers@ajhs.org.

For reference questions, please email: inquiries@cjh.org

Historical Note

The Workmen’s Circle (Arbeiter Ring), founded in 1892, became a national order in 1900. It was established as a social and cultural Jewish labor fraternal order. Its purpose was to provide members with mutual aid and health and death benefits and to support the labor and socialist movements of the world. Historically, the Workmen’s Circle was closely tied to Jewish unions, the Yiddish labor press, and the Socialist Party. The Circle was highly dedicated to raising the education levels of members and bringing social change in America. Workmen’s Circle functions provided a place for Jewish radicals of different ideals to mingle.

In its early years, the Workmen’s Circle remained true to its radical origins by building radical ideals into membership requirements. Prospective members had to belong to a union and to vote only for working-class parties. One branch was dissolved because its members were thought to be too religious.

The Workmen’s Circle, dedicated to the promotion of progressive Yiddish culture, established a wide array of cultural activities including the publication of books, adult education and singing and drama clubs. It also promoted Jewish education for young people by opening afternoon schools for Jewish children in 1916. In addition, the Workmen’s Circle established homes for the aged, camps, Yiddish theater clubs, and several choirs.

The first convention of the Workmen’s Circle took place on March 29-30, 1901, in New York City. With increased Jewish immigration to the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century, the Workmen’s Circle became ever increasingly popular. In 1905 membership was at 6,776. Just eight years later membership rose to 45,666. Peak membership was reached in 1925 with 87,000 members. Such a high increase is partially explained by the growing number of Jews on the political left and a lack of major competing organizations in the field. Membership began dropping after 1929 to approximately 55,000 in 1978. Despite beginning as a working-class organization, more and more of the Circle’s members were middle class. The average member age also rose dramatically from 28.7 in 1909 to 55.4 in 1970. Along with changes in membership, the focus of the Circle changed from dominating ideological concerns to Jewish cultural activities.

Two enduring activities of the Workmen’s Circle were education and the Folksbiene. The Folksbiene was a theater group organized in 1915 and still performs Yiddish theater in New York City. The educational system of the Workmen’s Circle was designed to “teach children to read, write, and speak Yiddish; to acquaint them with Yiddish literature; to acquaint them with the history of the Jewish people; to cultivate in them a feeling for social justice; and to develop their aesthetic abilities.” By 1950, the Arbeiter Ring taught approximately 38,000 students.

More recently, the Workmen’s Circle describes itself as a “progressive-liberal organization committed to advancing democratic frontiers, eliminating poverty, strengthening civil rights, promoting universal health care and opposing bigotry, tyranny and totalitarianism.”



References

  1. Michael N. Dobkowski. “Workmen’s Circle (WC),” Jewish American Voluntary Organizations (New York: Greenwood Press, 1986), p. 492.
  2. Workmen's Circle Web Site

Extent

5 Linear Feet (10 manuscript boxes, 3 oversized folders)

Language of Materials

Yiddish

Hebrew

English

Abstract

The records of the Workmen's Circle include administrative papers, publications concerning social services provided by the organization, publications from various branches worldwide, and a large amount of educational material pertaining to schools run by the Workmen's Circle. Much of the educational material is from schools in the New York City area.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged into four series, and Series IV has two subseries. Series I, II, and IV are arranged alphabetically; Series III is arranged numerically by branch number.

  1. Series I: Administration, undated 1903-1991
  2. Series II: Services, 1910-1954
  3. Series III: Branches, undated, 1912-1967
  4. Series IV: Education, undated, 1921-1993
  5. Subseries A: General
  6. Subseries B: Schools

Provenance

The Workmen’s Circle Collection was accessioned in several accretions from the Workmen’s Circle and Brandeis University Goldfarb Library.

Related Material

Related material can be found in the Photographs of the Joseph Family, the Recordbook of the Brockton, MA Labor Lyceum Workmen’s Circle, the Minute Book of the Radomer Culture Center, and the Workmen’s Circle Records located at the YIVO Institute.

Title
Guide to the Records of the Workmen's Circle, undated, 1903-1993 I-304
Status
Completed
Author
Processed by AJHS staff
Date
© October 2001
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Description is in English.
Edition statement
This version was derived from WorkmensCircle02.xml

Revision Statements

  • April 2005.: Converted to EAD 2002. Revised as WorkmensCircle02.xml by Tanya Elder. Removed deprecated elements and attributes, updated repository codes, added language codes, changed doctype declaration, etc.
  • January 2006.: Entities removed from EAD finding aid.
  • December 14, 2016: Added donated materials.
  • March 2021: RJ: post-ASpace migration cleanup.

Repository Details

Part of the American Jewish Historical Society Repository

Contact:
15 West 16th Street
New York NY 10011 United States