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Sweet and Good New Year
L'Shana Tova u'Mtukah
Gut Yuntif, Gut Yohr
All of us at the Jewish Labor Committee
wish you, your family, relatives,
co-workers, friends and neighbors
a good and sweet year - a more peaceful,
more just, fairer and better year.
September 28, 2016: New York, NY - Jewish Labor Committee President Stuart Appelbaum issued the following statement on the passing of Shimon Peres, former President of the State of Israel:
The Jewish Labor Committee joins with the people of Israel in mourning the passing of Shimon Peres. We send our heartfelt condolences to his family, and indeed to the entire country to which he devoted his life.
He was one of the last of the giants of Israel's founding generation. As a young man, he served as a key aide to David Ben-Gurion, Israel 's first prime minister. He served Israel in numerous capacities, including twice as prime minister and finally as president of the State of Israel.
In the 1980s, he is credited with having ended Israel's rampant inflation and to have stabilized the economy, an achievement of special significance for Israel's working and middle classes, and the country's labor movement. He supported a vision for the future of Israeli society that helped develop that country's breakthrough hi-tech industry.
Among his many achievements while in government, he can be remembered not only for having strengthened Israel's security in a variety of posts including as Defense Minister, but more significantly for his work in his in later years as a leading voice for peace. His efforts for peace continued as he as he presided over the withdrawal of Israeli forces from most of Lebanon in the mid-1980s, and he subsequently worked to forge a peace agreement with the Palestinians in a just way. His efforts in forging the Oslo Accords earned him the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, but tragic and violent events undermined his efforts
Over seven decades of public service in key positions, Shimon Peres conducted himself with dignity and civility, a shining example for the world, and, for many of us, a keeper of the dream of humanism, of discourse, and of dialogue.
He will be missed, but his vision continues.
Spencer Beswick, Hannah Nahar, Lior Appel-Kraut, Joanna Dimas and others at Boston Common
September 10, 2016: Boston, MA - The New England JLC stood with 3,000 janitors, faith leaders, students, and community members to call for a good contract for 13,000 janitors in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren spoke out about the need for fair wages, health insurance, and respect on the job for 32BJ SEIU janitors and all workers. She told demonstrators that their plight was personal to her "because her father was a janitor.
" `I saw firsthand how hard he worked," she said. "I saw how backbreaking it was and I saw how underappreciated his work was. I also saw how important a paycheck is to keep a family together.' "
"Unfortunately workers in this industry still struggle to make ends meet they are among the lowest paid workers in Massachusetts," noted Roxana Rivera, Vice President, SEIU.
"The industry in Massachusetts is still heavily part-time," Rivera added, "so workers have to pile up other jobs in order to make ends meet."
Thanks to Tufts Labor Coalition students for coming out in the rain and marching with us!