At the turn of the 20th century, New York City was the largest Jewish community in the world. Men, women, and children, working in the sweatshops of the rapidly industrializing garment industry, began laying the foundations of the modern labor movement. Working-class immigrant Jews also established mutual aid organizations, schools, summer camps, and Yiddish and Ladino daily newspapers, nurturing a multi-faceted Jewish civic identity grounded in secular humanism, culture, and language. We’ll explore how this unique moment in American history became what one historian has called the "largest, most creative upsurge in American Jewish history," and how this cultural and political phenomenon still impacts our world today.

Jennifer Young is an educator, writer, and historian. She has worked at the Tenement Museum, the New-York Historical Society, and the YIVO Institute, and currently works at the Yiddish Book Center.

In person and on livestream.