“I have always believed that the only way to challenge injustice is by organizing people for change,” Appelbaum told The Huffington Post on June 18. “That's why I first became involved in the labor movement. But change also requires being honest with each other and ourselves. For me, that means recognizing that the time has long passed for me to step forward and say: `yes, I'm gay.’”

Sybil Sanchez, Executive Director of the Jewish Labor Committee, congratulated President Appelbaum on his openness. “Stuart is a leader above the fray for the labor movement and the Jewish community, and now for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered people in their fight for equal rights,” noted Ms. Sanchez. “His bravery in publicly connecting his personal life story with his political beliefs is to be admired and emulated and we are proud of him.”

In Philadelphia, the traditionally secular organization has organized something distinctive: a rabbinic appeal to Senator Arlen Specter. JLC Philadelphia Director Rosalind Spigel has enlisted 25 local rabbis plus rabbinical students to sign an open letter urging Pennsylvania’s newly minted Democratic senior senator to put Jewish values to work and help safeguard the rights of employees who wish to secure union representation.{Additional signatories are of course welcome – see here.} Congress is currently considering the Employee Free Choice Act. While Sen. Specter previously supported the legislation, most recently he indicated a disinclination to support this legislation.

On Tuesday, June 9, a rabbinic delegation of the Philadelphia JLC met Senator Arlen Specter to urge his support for the Employee Free Choice Act. Included in the delegation were Rabbis Anna Boswell-Levy, Reba Carmel, Leonard Gordon, and Alan LaPayover; also participating were Philadelphia JLC Vice President William Epstein {who is communications director for Local 1776 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, and board member of the Jewish Social Policy Action Network}, Philadelphia JLC President Jeff Hornstein {who is district organizing coordinator of SEIU Local 32 BJ}, and Philadelphia JLC Director Rosalind Spigel.

(l-r: AWU President Paul Howes, RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum, and NYC City Council Members Melinda Katz and Eric Goia.)

In remarks from the New York event, Stuart Appelbaum noted that "support for boycotting, divesting from and sanctions against Israel appears to be growing by leaps and bounds.

Dear Senator Specter:

We, the undersigned rabbis and rabbinical students, write to express our strong support for the Employee Free Choice Act.

Every major religion is sympathetic to the laborer. Judaism was early among the major religions in its assertion that labor involved more than mere economic activity. The commandment to observe the Sabbath was as much an affirmation of human dignity as of divine authority. “Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work.” But the seventh day was to be holy—holy in the eyes of God, but equally important—holy in its respect for all who work. As it is written in Deuteronomy: “You shall not abuse a needy and destitute laborer, but you must pay him his wages on the same day, for he is needy and urgently depends on it.” (24:14-15)

It is not always easy to translate the sanctity of labor into terms that have meaning today, a time in which the marketplace seems to have been elevated above all other holy altars. We believe that the Employee Free Choice Act presents an opportunity to give concrete meaning to the often frustrated dream of a just society.

Your participation would be very helpful - and simple. Please print out this petition {note: 8-1/2" x 14"} and background article {8-1/2" x 11"} - you may want to print more than one of each - and add your name to our petition. If you can secure the support of others willing to sign on, that would be great. But please send the petitions -- even if not all of the spaces are filled in, even if it's just one person - you - signing onto the sheet -- back to us soon. Send it back to us via fax -- 1-212-477-1918.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy
317 Russell Senate Building
Washington D.C. 20510

Dear Senator Kennedy,

On behalf of the Jewish Labor Committee, I am writing to encourage the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee to expedite the appointment of Congresswoman Hilda Solis as Secretary of Labor. Please share this letter with committee members.

Representative Solis has repeatedly demonstrated her dedication to working men and women and we believe she is the right choice for Secretary of Labor. Her work in Congress has advanced Americans’ needs on issues related to environmental justice, health care, education, and veterans’ benefits. She is an advocate for women’s rights and civil rights.

As early as 1996, JLC awarded Congresswoman Solis the Abe Levy Chaver Award for her contributions. We would be especially proud as American Jews in labor to welcome Solis as the nation’s first Latina cabinet member.

NEW YORK, February 6, 2009 – Mayor Michael Bloomberg today joined Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Jewish Labor Committee, Greg Rosenbaum, owner and CEO of Empire Kosher and Wendell Young, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776 to present a large donation of 50,000 pounds of poultry to the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty (Met Council) for needy families and the frail elderly who rely on kosher food pantries. The presentation took place at the Oneg Shabbos Food Pantry in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn. William Rapfogel, president of the Met Council accepted the food donation on behalf of the anti-poverty organization.
Empire Kosher, the Jewish Labor Committee and the Met Council are working together to provide emergency food for thousands of needy New Yorkers. Empire Kosher Poultry, Inc. is the largest kosher poultry producer in the world with facilities in central Pennsylvania. Empire produces kosher chickens and kosher turkeys for the North American market through a fully integrated process starting with breeder farms, egg hatchery, feed mill, grow out houses and processing facilities.

Hamas has sent thousands of rockets of different ranges over the border into Israel, including those that can strike Israeli cities as far as Ashdod. These attacks have been launched by Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist and has over two years violated the de facto cessation of hostilities with Israel.

Israel has taken great lengths to avoid this sort of escalation, including an appeal by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Arab television to stop the firing of rockets and mortar shells so that a military response could be avoided. No country can be expected to tolerate continuous and unrelenting attacks against its civilian population. With a terrorist group engaged in active warfare and an international community that failed to intervene, and with Hamas formally ending the cease fire that it regularly violated, Israel was left with no choice but to defend itself and dismantle Hamas's ability to launch more missiles.

Sydney New South Wales, December 18: The shared values of the trade union movement and the Jewish community were highlighted on International Migrant Workers Day when the Australian Workers' Union and the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies co-sponsored the first ever `Union Chanukah' celebration. Representatives of both the trade union community and the Jewish community came together to light Chanukah candles, dedicated to, among other values, Solidarity, Justice, Empowerment, Trust and Freedom. Chanukah, which lasts eight days, began at sunset, December 21.

On December 7th, fifth-grade students from the Workmen’s Circle Jewish Sunday School in Brookline, MA marched down Harvard Street to protest the practice of Commercial Cleaning Services, a Boston area company. More than 50 people from the Jewish Labor Committee, Brookline PAX, SEIU Local 615, MassCOSH, and the Moishe/Kavod Jewish Social Justice House joined the students, whose statement can be found here.
{Note: This march was highlighted on the front page of the December 12 issue of Boston's Jewish Advocate.}

JLC Chicago Chair Mike Perry demonstrates on December 10th against Bank of America after the bank cut off credit to the Chicago-based Republic Window and Door factory, forcing the company to close, and lay off all 260 workers, members of Local 1110, United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America.
Some 200 workers at Republic conducted a six-day occupation of the shuttered factory.
Community pressure led to a settlement this evening, totaling $1.75 million. It will provide the workers with

Thank you for your interest in our Summer Seminar Program on Holocaust and Jewish Resistance, initiated by Vladka Meed in 1984. This year's program is scheduled for July 5 - 23, 2009. Our seminar includes educational activities in Poland and Israel with the participation of scholars from Israel's Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and the Study Center of the Ghetto Fighters' House at Kibbutz Lohamei HaGeta'ot. On this web site, there is an online application for you to print out, complete and send back to us. [Just hit "continue reading", below, and scroll down]

The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is critical Federal legislation that would help protect the rights of workers in the U.S. to organize and form unions. The law would give more workers a way to form unions and negotiate for better wages, health care and working conditions.*
The Jewish Labor Committee has joined in a multi-organizational coalition to support the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) and we urge you to join the campaign to give American workers the rights that they deserve!
You are invited to sign our petition, that will be presented to the new President and Congress, by clicking here.

Questions? Here are some resources we've prepared:
>> A basic backgrounder that debunks some of the anti-EFCA arguments floating around. Download file
>> An article by Sybil Sanchez, our Executive Director, and Jonathan Zimet, our rabbinic intern. Download file

*The EFCA, when passed, would amend the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, by requiring employees to recognize a union when a majority of workers sign cards authorizing union representation [so-called card-check]. When passed, EFCA would also strengthen penalties for companies that coerce or intimidate their employees and establish binding arbitration mechanisms when employers and workers are unable to agree on a first contract.

On Sept. 10, 2008, Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Jewish Labor Committee, issued the following statement on the latest developments regarding the Agriprocessors kosher slaughterhouse and meat processing plant in Postville, Iowa:

The 9,311 child labor violations issued by the Iowa Attorney General yesterday confirms our opposition to Agriprocessors’ workplace practices for over two years.

The Jewish Labor Committee hopes that all appropriate legal penalties be applied to the firm. The public must know that the need to respect all labor laws – including, but not limited to, child labor laws -- is taken seriously by the relevant government agencies as well as by employers, and that violations of these laws will be taken seriously as well.