| | Dear Friend, At the Workers Circle, we have been having a busy summer. Our most urgent work right now is actions we are taking to defend voting rights. The right to vote, the cornerstone of our democracy, is being decimated state by state, as over 48 state legislatures have proposed hundreds of bills to restrict voting rights, with voters of color particularly impacted.
Through online activist trainings, weekly phone banking and virtual events, our community is speaking and taking critical action in support of the For the People Act, which will protect the freedom to vote for all Americans and mitigate the harm being done by many state voter suppression laws.
Senate Republicans recently filibustered debate on the For the People Act, but they did not kill the bill. We know that to make real progress on voting rights and other critical issues, the Senate must end or surmount the filibuster. That is why as part of our summer of action, we are calling on the Senate to end the filibuster — which has for too long been used as an obstructionist tool to block the strengthening of our voting rights and other urgent reforms. In this edition of The Call, you will read more about our Summer of Action for Voting Rights and how you can join in to help us make progress on this important issue.
This summer we also continue to lift up Yiddishkayt and Jewish culture through our annual Trip to Yiddishland and as well as our upcoming 2022 Jewish Journey to Eastern Europe. You will learn more about this one-of-a-kind experience in this edition of The Call. I hope I will see you at these events or at our other upcoming virtual and in-person event programming this year.
In friendship, | | | | | | | | Summer of Action for Voting Rights Our democracy is genuinely at stake. Hundreds of bills to restrict voting rights have flooded state legislatures — nearly 30 have already been signed into law. The Supreme Court’s Brnovich v. DNC ruling weakened the Voting Rights Act, making it more difficult to bring a case of racial discrimination in voting, at a time when voters of color are being targeted by these new state voter suppression laws. The Workers Circle is marshalling our power to fight back against these anti-Democratic laws through targeted phone banking to voters of color in Arizona, visits to key senators, public vigils, and direct action. Your voice is needed NOW. Join our Summer of Action for Voting Rights. | | | | Noa Baron, Named to Jewish Week’s 36 Under 36 We are so proud that Noa Baron, one of our college organizers and our Summer Voting Rights Organizer, was named one of Jewish Week’s 36 under 36, an accolade reserved for young Jewish people whose work is impacting our world for the better. Noa is a rising senior at NYU and they particularly distinguished themselves last September when they drew attention to NYU’s shameful quarantine program that had in-coming students quarantined in dorms without proper meals available. It was their action that raised emergency funds to help the students and also brought critical pressure on NYU to change their practices. Their activism was featured in Buzzfeed, Jewish Week, and New Voices. Mazel tov, Noa! | | | | Watch and Share: Live from the Front Lines of the Fight for Voting Rights with Journalist Ari Berman As challenges to our fundamental right to vote are coming with a speed and magnitude not seen before in our lifetimes, the Workers Circle welcomed Ari Berman, journalist and author of Give Us the Ballot, for a conversation with our Director of Social Justice Noelle Damico earlier this month which reached over 1,000 people. Watch and share this in-depth conversation which covers the nature and number of state-based voter suppression bills, the For the People Act, the filibuster, the Brnovich v. DNC Supreme Court decision and more. This video provides an up-to-the-minute view on the fight for voting rights and how you can take meaningful action in support of this critical issue. | | | | In the Midst Revisited: Panelists Discuss Your Questions! The Workers Circle recently revisited In the Midst, our three-part series on systemic racism as viewed through moments in Yiddish culture. In our follow-up, In the Midst Revisited: An Interactive Program, producer and moderator Anthony Russell rejoined our panelists with further questions from our viewers about Mississippi, an avant-garde Yiddish play written about the Scottsboro Boys trial, Ven Kh’Volt in Alabama Zayn, a Soviet Yiddish poem about the American Civil Rights movement, and writings about race and racism in the Yiddish press. In a political climate where acknowledgement of historical racism is increasingly under attack, this series and its follow-up gives us an opportunity to engage with the undeniable reality of systemic racism in the US — a reality Yiddish artists, writers and journalists wrestled with through their work. Watch and share the whole series. | | | | | | | | The Workers Circle 2022 Jewish Journey to Eastern Europe Travel with the Workers Circle, May 22-31, 2022, and experience the Jewish legacy of resistance, resilience, commemoration, and culture. On this immersive trip led by our CEO, Ann Toback, and our partners at Taube Jewish Heritage Tours, you will have the chance to explore a thousand years of Jewish life in Lithuania and Poland. This trip will include a focus on our activist roots, starting in Vilnius, where we will visit the birthplace of the Jewish Labor Bund.
We will connect to the Jewish cultural tradition of art, literature, music, and food with the help of scholar-in-residence, Professor Tomasz Cebulski, Ph.D., of Krakow and Professor Dovid Katz, Ph.D., special guest scholar in Lithuania. It will truly be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and we hope you will consider joining us in May! Early bird rate available until November 1, 2021. | | | | | | | | Unwavering Courage: The Workers Circle Virtual Benefit To show our gratitude to those who helped us through the pandemic, we are paying tribute to frontline workers for their unwavering courage, presenting our inaugural Heroes of the Workforce/Arbeters Heldn Award to the New York Professional Nurses Union (NYPNU) on Thursday, October 7, 2021 at our first-ever Virtual Benefit. NYPNU represents the nurses of New York City’s Lenox Hill Hospital. Because of workers like those represented by NYPNU, many more people are alive today.
To register, for more details on how to become a sponsor, or learn about ways you can honor the frontline workers in your life or pay tribute to the memory of someone you lost to COVID, visit our Virtual Benefit web page.
And stay tuned, as we will be sharing more details on what promises to be a memorable and moving evening! | | | | | |  | Subscribe to Social Justice Activism! Become a Workers Circle Advocate for Change, our monthly giving initiative. For a minimum of just $5 a month, less than the price of your favorite streaming service, you can help us connect more teens and college students around social justice activism, organize for important and critical advocacy, and enhance our College Network and Youth Stand Up for Justice programs. Add us as your new monthly subscription and receive a free Workers Circle water bottle. Become a monthly donor today! | | | | | | A Groysn Dank! Thanks to our members, allies, and supporters. And thanks to the following Foundations for your contributions to the Workers Circle: Atran Foundation, Marinus and Minna B. Koster Foundation, Inc., The Michael and Alice Kuhn Foundation, The Slomo & Cindy Silvian Foundation, Chaim Schwartz Foundation, Merle S. Cahn Foundation, Charles and Mildred Schnurmacher Foundation, The Jewish Education Project/UJA Federation of New York, Jewish Social Justice Roundtable/UJA Federation of New York, Sidney S. Stern Memorial Trust, R&S Strauss Family Foundation, and Sonya Staff Foundation. Questions? Email us at info@circle.org or call 212.889.6800. 247 West 37th Street, 5th floor | NY, New York 10018 | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
