Why the Fight for 15? Why JLC? Why Me?
By Martin Abramowitz * - (originally published in Jewish Boston, posted Aug. 21, 2015)
September 7, Labor Day, is the launch of the New England Jewish Labor Committee (JLC)'s campaign to mobilize support within the Jewish community for the Fight for 15, as part of the RaiseUp Massachusetts coalition. As a member of the Boston Jewish community, and as an activist with JLC New England, I support this call for a living wage for the working people of our state and across the nation, and ask for the support of others in the Jewish community.
So what brings a 75-year-old middle-class retiree from a professional career in the Jewish community to the JLC as a volunteer activist and modest financial supporter?
In part, I'm acknowledging my 1940's roots in working-class Jewish Brooklyn, where I was the child of a labor "intermarriage": Rose sewed labels on men's ties, which made her a member of the "Amalgamated" Clothing Workers Union of America, while Isidore cut patterns for women's dresses, as a charter member of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. That Isidore, at age 18, had been on site at--and lived to testify about--the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, further underscored my feeling of responsibility for the well-being of working people. I've always felt that I owe my very existence to the fact that my father survived this terrible industrial tragedy only by random luck. Working on the Fight for 15 campaign is therefore a way of honoring my parents' memory.
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* Martin Abramowitz is the former VP for Planning with the CJP, Greater Boston's Jewish Federation. Currently, he serves as a volunteer consultant to JLC New England Board and as the CEO of Jewish Major Leaguers, Inc.
This piece is the first in a JLC New England blog series From Passion to Action.