“The Whole Wide World, Without Limits”: International Relief, Gender Politics, and American Jewish Women, 1893-1930

5. The Feminization of the Workmen’s Circle, 1920–1930

157 Like women in the NCJW and Hadassah, those in Arbeter Ring worked vigorously to raise relief funds during the war, putting aside their earlier attempts to achieve equality through the separate ladies’ branches. After the war some women in the Circle returned to their interests in gender issues and attempted once again to construct a coherent way of reconciling their often conflicting positions as socialists, workers, and mothers. In the 1920s many of them formed voluntary ladies’ auxiliaries and women’s clubs. These groups provided women with greater flexibility than did formal branch membership, allowing them to pursue work of immediate concern to many women, including social welfare and education projects. The women who launched these groups sought ways to combine their interests in class and gender issues, and be active publicly while continuing to care for home and children. Creating their own groups enabled women to address their problems by offering an alternative to the regular branch and membership modeled on men’s work lives. The women’s groups provided female companionship, sociability, and an agenda attuned to women’s needs. Constrained by the socialist movement’s reluctance to deal with gender difference, Circle women used their own groups to create a distinct space for themselves within the organization itself. Their actions resembled those of middle-class women’s organizations , where separate female organizing also persisted even after chapter 5 The Feminization of the Workmen’s Circle, 1920–1930 6 Chapter 5 158 the attainment of suffrage. 1 Yet while these women willfully separated themselves, they were far from marginalized. The women’s groups in the Circle ultimately formulated a new type of involvement —one that recognized gender difference while still firmly supporting the broader socialist agenda. 2 By engaging in work traditionally associated with women, and which was receiving greater attention nationally due to the efforts of middle-class women’s social reform initiatives, these socialists not only delineated a space for themselves within the Circle but ultimately succeeded in expanding the order’s overall mission. Arbeter Ring in the Postwar World Following the war the Workmen’s Circle, like other Jewish organizations , continued its interest in overseas relief. Members sent support to Jews in Poland and Russia through the People’s Relief Committee, and the landsmanshaft branches gave financial aid to family members and relatives still residing in Eastern Europe. In addition to providing short-term financial and material assistance, the Circle also built children’s schools and helped adults gain the skills necessary to learn a trade. 3 Just as they had during the war, the Circle’s female members stayed in the trenches, raising funds and preparing clothing for shipment overseas but rarely appearing in prominent leadership positions. While the relief agenda remained substantially the same, other issues began to attract members’ interests. Zionist topics crept into the pages of the Circle’s monthly paper Der fraynd with greater regularity after the war, particularly in the late 1920s, although the organization continued to adhere to its anti-Zionist posture. At the same time it affirmed the development of the labor movement in Palestine, the Circle continued to abjure direct support for the nationalist and political goals of the Zionist movement as a whole. In October, 1927, for instance, Der fraynd reported on the Fifteenth Zionist Congress as an example of the “abnormal” modern Jewish condition. The most straightforward renunciation of the Zionist cause appeared following the Arab riots in 1929, when Der fraynd published Bundist Yakov Pat’s negative assessment of events taking place in Palestine. Pat harshly criticized Zionist interpretations of the riots, arguing that the Zionists had helped inflame tensions by ignoring the Arab nation- Feminization of the Workmen’s Circle 159 alism inherent in the conflict. Sharply denouncing the attacks on Jewish settlers, Pat nevertheless insisted that although these Jews were innocent victims, the Zionists most definitely were not. He asserted that the only way to solve the current standoff was for Zionists to abandon their desire for a Jewish homeland and make peace with Arabs. Continuing in this vein, in 1930 the Workmen’s Circle urged members to support the workers’ movement in Palestine , arguing that it provided the only practical solution to the problems of that land. Leaders maintained that political Zionism had long ago proven its futility and that the time had come for workers in Palestine to reach a compromise with their Arab neighbors and...