Arbeter Ring (Workmen's Circle)

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The Arbeter Ring (אַרבעטער־רינג) (Workmen’s Circle) is a Yiddish language-oriented American Jewish fraternal organization committed to Social Justice, Jewish Community, and Ashkenazic Culture. The Arbeter Ring provides old age homes for its aging members, as well as schools, camps, retreats, affordable health insurance, and year-round programs of concerts, lectures, and secular holiday celebrations. Having shrunk from the days when it was the largest organization of its kind in the country, it is now struggling to reinvent itself before its rapidly shrinking membership disappears completely. The newspaper affiliated with the Arbeter Ring, The Forward (פֿאָרװערטס forverts), was at one time reputed to have had the largest national circulation of any non-English language newspaper in the United States. The Forward has recently reemerged in an English language edition (as well as a Russian version; the Yiddish version also continues to be published) and appears to be growing in readership. All Arbeter Ring members now receive the magazine Jewish Currents ^[1].

The Ring was at one time influential in the labor movement through its participation in and leadership of the Jewish Labor Committee.

While strongly socialist (Bundist) and labor-oriented at its inception, the political perspective of the Arbeter Ring has moved slightly to the right; on the American political spectrum it would generally be described as liberal with centrist influences and occasional conservative tendencis (eg the organization's vocal support for the Vietnam War). Today the Circle opposes the Iraq war and unfair labor practices, and supports comprehensive immigration reform, single-payer universal healthcare, and women's rights to reproductive freedom.

The current president of the organization is longtime labor activist Peter Pepper. A new president will be elected by the organization's National Executive Board at its 2008 Biennial Convention, to be held June 13-15 at the Circle Lodge retreat in Hopewell Junction, NY.

The organization has District offices in New York, New Jersey, Boston, Michigan, and Los Angeles. There are approximately 10,000 surviving members nationwide. They own and operate a Jewish summer camp located in Hopewell Junction, New York called Camp Kinder Ring. An additional camp, Circle Lodge, shares the camp grounds and has bungalows and cottages. It features a annual programming.

1 Programs for young people
2 See also
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Programs for young people

The Arbeter Ring runs many "shules," or schools of Jewish culture, for elementary through middle schoolers. Shules emphasize the teaching of Jewish history, from Abraham onward. Jewish culture, including klezmer music and traditional Jewish cooking, is also emphasized, along with the Yiddish language and surrounding culture. Often, students learn to sing traditional songs in Yiddish, as well as those in English and Hebrew. At the end of a student's time at shule, when he or she reaches age 12, a secular bar/bas mitzvah ceremony, called a commencement, is held. Commencement students prepare a research paper, a family history paper, and a writeup on community service they have performed through the year. At the commencement itself, students (the ceremony is held en masse) give a talk on their research topic of choice, often also telling their family history.

The Workmen's Circle is a nonprofit 501(c)(3).