Baruch Charney Vladeck
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Baruch Charney Vladeck (1886 - 1938) was an American Jewish labor leader, manager of the Jewish Daily Forward for twenty years, and a New York City Councilman. His son was civil rights lawyer Stephen C. Vladeck (1920 - 1979) and his daughter-in-law was renowned labor lawyer Judith Vladeck. A collection of his historical papers are at the Tamiment Library at New York University. A rather succinct yet comprehensive biographical essay can be found in the online finding aid for the Baruch Charney Vladeck Papers can be found online here [1]
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[edit] Early life
Vladeck was born in Dukora, a small village near Minsk, in what is now Belarus in 1886. In the early 1900s, Vladeck was drawn to revolutionary movements and was imprisoned in 1904 for conducting classes in liberal politics for young working people. He would have several more brushes with the Czarist authorities due to his labor organizing and revolutionary activity; ultimately Vladeck sought refuge in the United States.
[edit] With the Forward
Vladeck joined the staff of the Jewish Daily Forward in 1912 as manager of its Philadelphia branch while also studying at the Teachers' College of the University of Pennsylvania. In 1918 Vladeck became manager of the paper, and remained in that position until his death. He was also a member of the National Press Club
[edit] Political career
In 1917 Vladeck was elected to the New York Board of Aldermen as a Socialist. He was defeated in 1921 but was re-elected in 1937 to the newly formed New York City Council running on the American Labor Party ticket. Vladeck was also at the forefront of establishing public housing for low-income residents and in 1934 was named by Mayor LaGuardia to the New York City Housing Authority. Today the Vladeck Houses on the Lower East Side bear his name, as does the nearby Vladeck Park, bounded by Madison, Water, Jackson, and Gouverneur Streets.[2]
[edit] Anti-Nazi Activism
In 1933 Vladeck laid the groundwork for the Jewish Labor Committee, which was formed by Jewish trade unionists, socialists, and kindred groups and individuals to oppose the rise of Nazism in Germany. The JLC had its founding convention the following February, in New York's Lower East Side; Vladeck was the organization's president from the convention until his death. He, together with Jewish trade union leaders, successfully convinced the American Federation of Labor to support a national boycott of German goods at the labor federation's 1933 convention.
[edit] Death
Vladeck died at the age of 52 from a coronary thrombosis. His funeral procession through the Lower East Side and ending outside the Forward building drew 500,000 mourners. Among the speakers at the service were Governor Herbert Lehman, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, Senator Robert F. Wagner and Socialist leader Norman Thomas.
[edit] Sources
1. "B.C. Vladeck Dies; City Councilman" New York Times 31 Oct. 1938: p. 1.
2. "Half Million See Vladeck Funeral" New York Times 3 Nov. 1938: p. 28.
[edit] Additional Bibliographical Resources
Epstein, Melech, PROFILES OF ELEVEN (Detroit: Wayne State University Press 1965; reprinted Lanham, MD: University Press of America 1987)
Herling, John. "Baruch Charney Vladeck," in AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK 41 (New York: American Jewish Committee 1939-1940).
Hunting, Harold B. "A Revolutionist Devoid of Hate," DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN JEWS, ed. by Philip Henry Lotz (New York: Associated Press 1945; reprinted Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press 1970)
Jeshurin, Ephraim, B. C. VLADECK: FIFTY YEARS OF LIFE AND LABOR, (New York 1932)
Jonas, Franklin L. The Early Life and Career of B. Charney Vladeck. (Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1972).
Vladeck, Baruch Charney. B. Vladeck in Leben un Shafen (New York: Forverts, 1936).
[edit] External links
1. Our Campaigns Profile [3]
2. Labor and the Holocaust: The Jewish Labor Committee and the Anti-Nazi Struggle (Origins)[4]
3. Labor and the Holocaust: The Jewish Labor Committee and the Anti-Nazi Struggle (Anti-Nazi Activity 1930s)[5]
