Building a Jewish Union and the ILGWU
In 1900, eleven delegates representing seven major local unions in the Northeast convened to form the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union. All eleven of these delegates were Jewish men (the “ladies” in the organization’s name refers to the garments, not the constituency) who represented unions composed of primarily Jewish immigrants in major industrial cities such as New York, Newark, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. The ILGWU…