Farband

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The Jewish National Workers Alliance or Farband was an early Yiddish-speaking labor Zionist landsmanshaft in North America. Its official organ was the Yiddishe Kempfer or Jewish Fighter. The Farband operated as a mutual-aid society parallel to the political party Poale Zion, organizing cooperative insurance and medical plans and an extensive Yiddish and Hebrew educational system, as well as having developed in the 1920s a cooperative housing building in the Bronx, New York. The Farband even developed and maintained cemeteries for movement members. While mainly based in New York, the Farband was active throughout the United States and Canada, forming local chapters and summer camps in many cities with significant Jewish communities. The summer camp for the New York chapter was called Camp Kinderwelt, located in upstate New York, and had an adjoining adults camp called Unser Camp. In 1931 the Farband Yugnt Clubs, their youth wing, joined with Young Poale Zion to form the Young Poale Zion Alliance as the official youth wing of the entire labor Zionist movement in America.

The Farband eventually joined with the Poale Zion Party to form the Labor Zionist Alliance, which later became Ameinu.

[edit] See also

• The Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring
• International Workers Order
• Habonim Dror

[edit] References

• "First Steps (1911-1929)" by Moshe Cohen in Arise and Build: The Story of American Habonim
• Jew vs. Jew: The Struggle for the Soul of American Jewry by Samuel G. Freedman.
• Museum of the City of New York