81. Speech by R. Saltzman at Hotel Diplomat on IWO Legal Issues

Description:

Speech delivered at New York City meeting at the Hotel Diplomat with IWO branches in other cities participating by conference call to discuss the impact of the IWO being put on the Red List, the removal of its tax-exempt status, and the ensuing legal difficulties ensuing from the charge of "disloyalty." Saltzman response is "Our Order has distinguished itself in its devotion to democracy and the welfare of the American people." (4) Speech invokes the threat that this anti-IWO campaign poses to the Bill of Rights and American democracy and calls for immediate action. "[H]istory has taught us that you meet reactionary acts with counter-offensives...When we are speaking about attacks on the Order we are speaking of fascism - nothing less." (1) "We will mobilize our membership and leaders - for a fight that the enemies of democracy will never forget. We are going to court. We will mobilize our membership and friends for mass action in defense of the Order." (4). "As a Jew I am especially sensitive to the full meaning of the word verboten. My people know that an attack on the Order is an attack on them." (2) Lastly, "Victory will be ours." (5)

Date:

1948-06-30

Creator:

Zaltsman, R. (Reʾuven) (Rubin Saltzman, Reuben Zaltzman)

Identifier:

International Workers Order (IWO) Records #5276, Box 63, Folder 8

82. Minutes of General Executive Board (G.E.B.) of the IWO,Plenary Session Meeting

Description:

Max Bedacht, General Executive Board (G.E.B.) Meeting 2/12-2/13/44. Item 1 and resolutions stress organizing Negro masses and advocating for their rights, positing the role of the National Societies on this pivotal issue as garnering support for FDR and the IWO: "Winning masses of Negro Americans for this society will be a tremendous stimulus to the involvement of our national groups in the struggle for Negro rights as an integral part of their fight for the preservation and extensions of democracy in our country. Such a society, rooted in the Negro community, will likewise help to bring the full implications of Teheran as they apply to the Negro people into that community and thereby assist in rallying them for support to President Roosevelt and the complete realization of his win-the-war-and-the peace program." (4) Minutes are followed by numerous resolutions including those by Sam Milgrom in a "Call for National Unity" promoting the re-election of FDR, by June Gordon on the proposed founding of the Jewish People's Fraternal Order's (JPFO) women's Emma Lazarus Division, by the Slavic Sections on Slavic communities, the World War II effort and hoped-for European and American outcomes that include the proposed complete reorganization of the national sections. Notably Louise Thompson Patterson on the founding of a Black, Frederick Douglass Section, and resolutions condemning Antisemitism and the British White Paper are approved. FEPC (Fair Employment Practices Committee) resolution passed notes: "While our Negro citizenry is taking an increasing part in the war effort both as flghting men & as soldiers of production, the practice of many employers in discriminating against Negroes in industry has not been abandoned. This shameful practice constitutes an insult to a great part of our nation & a breach of the elementary principles of democracy." (16) Attendees: Altieri, Bacich, Bedacht, Billy, Bloom, Brodsky, Candela, Chaunt, Colon, Den, D'Inzillo, Dmytryshyn, Doroshkin, Eberhardt, Eiseman, Gebert, Gill, Goldman, Gordon, Gordon, Grosfield, Hamburger, Haracz, Harisiades, Hanusiak, Hochberg, Kasustchik, Kelner, Komlos, Konecky, Kruth, Lawry, Littinsky, Logoyda, Maccallini, Mann, Marinos, Melamed, Middleton, Miles, Milgrom, Mintus, Musil, Nelli, Nelson, Nikolauk, Paivio, Papas, Papas, Pevzner, Pilutik, Polak, Poleschuk, Rajkovich, Rakocky, Rody, Rotenberg, Rymer, Salerno, Saltzman, Sandler, Schachter, Schiffel, Schiller, Seligson, Shipka, Slocum, Smotrich, Soorko, Star, Stein, Steinberg, Thompson, Tkach, Vail, Vines, Vocila, Vrabel, Vukcevich, Vuorela, Weiner, West, Wood. This text uses the term ‘Negro’ and/or 'Negro Labor' to refer to the concerted efforts made primarily in the 1920s-1940s to fight racial discrimination so as to ensure the fair employment of Black people, in union and other jobs including those in the private sector, civil service, as well as advocacy for the full integration of Black people into the armed services. Black unemployment and under employment were extremely high due to racial barriers. While the term ‘Negro’ might be read as pejorative today, the term was then used in a positive regard, including by Black leftists.

Date:

1944-02-12 to 1944-02-13

Creator:

Bedacht, Max, 1883-1972

Identifier:

International Workers Order (IWO) Records #5276, Box 1, Folder 11

83. Address by the Honorable James E. Murray to the Sixth National Convention of the Jewish-American Section, IWO

Description:

Press release announcing forthcoming speech by Senator James E. Murray (D-Montana) to be given at the Jewish American Section, International Workers Order's Sixth National Convention, the evening of July 4, 1944 at Madison Square Garden. The redacted text of the speech is provided. Topics include the Declaration of Independence, democracy, World War II, Social Security, the JPFO's purchase of four Air Force Bombers with $1 million of War Bonds, Nazi genocide against Jews, universal health care, and envisioned postwar economy and society.

Date:

1944-05-04

Creator:

Murray, James E. (James Edward), 1876-1961

Identifier:

International Workers Order (IWO) Records #5276, Box 27, Folder 2

84. Solomon Mikhoels and Itzik Feffer to Rubin Saltzman in Thanks

Description:

Mackay Radio Postal Telegraph sent to IWO following Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee of the USSR (JAFC) U.S. fund-raising tour. SOLOMON MICHOELS, ITZIK PEFFER [Usually 'Feffer' or 'Fefer' in English] to Rubin Saltzman. "UPON LEAVING THE UNITED STATES AFTER A VISIT THAT WILL FOREVER REMAIN WITH US AS A MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE. WE WANT TO THANK YOU AGAIN FOR EVERYTHING YOU DID FOR US. THROUGH YOU WE WISH ALSO TO EXPRESS OUR THANKS TO THE OTHER LEADERS OF THE IWO. THROUGH THE EFFORTS OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF WE WERE ABLE TO TALK WITH HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE. BOTH JEWS AND NON JEWS. AND WE TRUST WE HAVE MADE A CONTRIBUTION TO THE UNITY OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE IN THE FIGHT AGAINST HITLERISM. THE JEWISH ANTI- FASCIST COMMITTEE OF THE USSR WHICH SENT US HERE HAS MADE UNITY ITS WATCHWORD, FOR THAT IS THE SUREST BASIS FOR A SPEEDY VICTORY. WE RETURN WITH MANY FIRM FRIENDSHIPS AND WITH THE MEMORIES OF CLOSE PERSONAL ASSOCIATION WITH SO MANY PEOPLE WHO ARE TAKING ACTIVE LEADERSHIP IN THE UNITED WORLD STRUGGLE AGAINST FASCISM SO THAT FREEDOM AND CIVILIZATION MAY SOON TRIUMPH= SOLOMON MICHOELS ITZIK PEFFER."

Date:

1943-10-18

Creator:

Mikhoėls, Solomon Mikhaĭlovich, 1890-1948 Fefer, Itzik, 1900-1952 (Feffer)

Identifier:

International Workers Order (IWO) Records #5276, Box , Folder

85. Marc Chagall to Lionel Vasse Requesting Aid to Rubin Saltzman in Regard to Jewish Children's Orphanage in France

Description:

Translated Summary: Autographed letter in French warmly recommending that Lionel Vasse, Consul de France, meet with and help Rubin Saltzman regarding the children's home [orphanage] in France [Andrésy, Yvelines, Île-de-France]. The Jewish war orphans home is built with JPFO money and run by the Commission Centrale de L’Enfance, [Siége Sociale, Rue 21 Francois-Debeurge, Montreuil-s-Bois, France, adresser le courrier: 14 Rue de Paradis, Paris 10] as part of their work with the Union des Juifs pour la Résistance et l'Entraide. See larger correspondence between Saltzman and Chagall.

Date:

1945-12-29

Creator:

Chagall, Marc, 1887-1985

Identifier:

International Workers Order (IWO) Records #5276, Box 29, Folder 7

86. Telegram sent from Calgary, Canada reporting Dr. Chaim Zhitlowsky's May 6, 1943 death while on IWO wartime support tour

Description:

Telegram sent from Calgary, Canada reporting Dr. Chaim Zhitlowsky's sudden death on May 6, 1943 while lecturing on an IWO wartime tour. The telegram to the New York City Yiddish Communist newspaper, Di Morgn Frayhayt, movingly recounts Dr. Zhitlowsky's successful talks in Calgary and his sudden fatal medical decline, and details the funeral train to New York City. According to Louis Pearlman from the UJPO (United Jewish Peoples Order) who writes the four page telegram, Zhitlowsky, possibly not fully understanding the seriousness of his condition, said: "When I suggested sending a wire to his wife he said 'please do not disturb her, inform Zaltsman.'” Rubin Saltzman was the General Secretary of the Jewish American Section of the IWO (JPFO) and had arranged the tour.

Date:

1943-05-06

Creator:

Louis Pearlman

Identifier:

International Workers Order (IWO) Records #5276, Box 30, Folder 16c

87. Brochure: A Gift from the Jewish People to the Red Army

Description:

Trade Union Committee for Tanks and Airplanes. "Russia calls, America answers." Address, bottom of page nine is of Morris Muster, president, United Furniture Workers. Long list of contributors with their titles and union affiliations. The brochure is part of the IWO/JPFO's war effort campaign to buy Jewishly named tanks for the Soviet Union to support the appeal made by the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee of the USSR (JAFC).

Date:

1942

Creator:

Unknown

Identifier:

International Workers Order (IWO) Records #5276, Box 45a, Folder 9

88. Cartoon with Tanks and Jewish Heroes

Description:

Cartoon depicting Hitler cringing before a company of tanks labeled "American Jews," "Soviet Jews," "Canada Jews" "English Jews," and "Palestinian Jews". The tops of the tanks have varied Jewish heroes: Bar Kokhba, Yehuda Maccabi, Haym Solomon, Baruch Spinoza and Hirsh Lekert. Cartoon is signed "Gropper". The drawing is part of the IWO/JPFO's war effort campaign to buy Jewishly named tanks for the Soviet Union to support the appeal made by the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee of the USSR (JAFC).

Date:

1942

Creator:

Gropper, William, 1897-1977

Identifier:

International Workers Order (IWO) Records #5276, Box 45a, Folder 9

89. Radio Broadcast to the Jews of Soviet Russia

Description:

The Jewish Council for Russian War Relief, Inc. is part of Russian War Relief, Inc.. Bound as a booklet with a form printed on the back cover to be torn off and included with donations to the Jewish Council for Russian War Relief. Translated Summary: Pamphlet has transcript of a New York City broadcast by NBC short-wave back to Soviet Jews as an American Jewish response to the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee's (JAFC, JAC or EKA) April 7, 1942 appeal to “Jews throughout the world.” That appeal was followed by a JAFC May 24 meeting and radio appeal to Jews worldwide to support buying tanks. Booklet contains speeches from prominent American Jewish leaders in politics, education, philanthropy, religion, and Labor Zionism. The response starts with "Dear Brothers." Historically significant.

Date:

1942-05-24

Creator:

Isaacs, Stanley M. (Stanley Myer), 1882-1962 Goldberg, Abraham, 1883-1942 Goldmann, Nahum, 1895-1982 Goldstein, Israel, 1896

Identifier:

International Workers Order (IWO) Records #5276, Box 45a, Folder 9

90. What Russia Means to Us: A Speech by Albert Einstein. English Version

Description:

Fundraising leaflet with Einstein's address from the October 25, 1942 dinner in his honor at the Hotel Commodore in New York. The Jewish Council for Russian War Relief, Inc. is part of Russian War Relief, Inc. Einstein praises Russia's scientific, technological and economic progress, reviews Russia's pre-war foreign policy, and offers some words of mitigation for the lack of internal political freedom. Implies the U.S.S.R is doing a better job of treating minority nationalities equally, which he calls, "a fact of peculiar and decisive importance for us Jews". Finally he turns to the crux of the argument, that if Russia fell, England and America would be "in a very bad way." Drawing by Morris J. Kallem.

Date:

1942-10-25

Creator:

Einstein, Albert, 1879-1955

Identifier:

International Workers Order (IWO) Records #5276, Box 45a, Folder 9