The Workers Circle or Der Arbeter Ring ( Yiddish : דער אַרבעטער־רינג ), formerly The Workmen's Circle , is an American Jewish nonprofit organization that promotes social and economic justice, Jewish community and education, including Yiddish studies, and Ashkenazic culture. It operates schools and Yiddish education programs, and year-round programs of concerts, lectures and secular holiday celebrations. The organization has community branch offices throughout North America, a national headquarters in New York City.
67-507: Formed in 1900 by Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe , The Workmen's Circle at first acted as a mutual aid society , helping its members to adapt to their new life in America. It provided life insurance, unemployment relief, healthcare, social interaction, burial assistance and general education through its branches throughout the US as well as through its national office. Soon,
134-468: A mutual aid society, it operates seven schools for children (kindershuls) and offers the largest adult Yiddish language instruction program in the world, which also collaborates with New Yiddish Rep. to teach a Yiddish language through theatre class. Its social justice activism includes opposing unfair labor practices, genocide and racism and supporting comprehensive immigration reform, single-payer universal health care , gun control , strong relations between
201-400: 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 group commencement itself, students give a talk on their research topic of choice, often also telling their family history. Pale of Settlement The Pale of Settlement
268-604: A secular alternative to synagogue attendance and Zionist groups in its preservation of Ashkenazic Yiddish culture. By 1996, the Circle's membership had declined to 28,000. By then, it considered itself the only organization promoting Eastern European Yiddish culture. It continued to teach Yiddish language and literature, to promote secular Jewish community and Jewish arts, music and culture, to provide its aid and insurance programs, to operate its old age homes, schools, camps and to host "holiday observances interpreting Jewish history in
335-449: Is "a way of opening their minds and souls to something in our collective past that it is extremely important to connect to." In 2012, the Circle commissioned a study that showed that one in six American Jews "are actively seeking Jewish expression and engagement outside of synagogue life." The Circle continues to sponsor holiday and community events, coordinate its branches around the country and partner with Jewish school programs. No longer
402-410: Is co-chaired by Sandra Cahn and Carol Levin. Folksbiene ( Yiddish : פֿאָלקסבינע , IPA: [ˈfɔlksˌbɪnə] , People's Stage ) was founded in 1915, under the auspices of the fraternal and Yiddish cultural organization Workmen's Circle , on New York City’s Lower East Side , as an amateur theatre group with high artistic ideals. It is the oldest consecutively producing theater company in
469-608: Is now the western Russian Federation . It extended from the eastern pale , or demarcation line inside the country, westwards to the Imperial Russian border with the Kingdom of Prussia (later the German Empire ) and Austria-Hungary . Furthermore, it comprised about 20% of the territory of European Russia and largely corresponded to historical lands of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , Cossack Hetmanate ,
536-789: Is the New Yiddish Rep, and the others are in Bucharest , Warsaw and Tel Aviv . In late 2017, National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene announced that it would stage the American premiere of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, which has not been staged since its world premiere production in Israel more than 50 years ago. It was announced in a March 2018 issue of Forbes Magazine that Academy Award winner-and-Tony Award winner Joel Grey would direct
603-526: Is to reboot by offering something [the Circle] feels religious Judaism has failed to provide: an education toward a cultural Jewish identity that uses religion as a trigger for activism and connects with a legacy of progressivism and commitment to universal values." The organization sold its former East side building and moved to new offices in the Garment District of New York City in 2011. By 2010,
670-579: The Communist Party initiated a power-struggle in the Circle's national organization and many of its branches around the country, but they were rejected in 1929 and formed a separate organization, taking with them about 5,000 members and some of the Circle's establishments, like Camp Kinderland. In 1930, the International Workers Order split off form The Workmen's Circle as a parallel Communist fraternal benefit society. In
737-726: The First Partition of Poland . At the time, most Jews (and in fact most imperial subjects) were restricted in their movements. The Pale came into being under the rule of Catherine the Great in 1791, initially as a measure to speed colonization of territory on the Black Sea recently acquired from the Ottoman Empire . Jews were allowed to expand the territory available to them, but in exchange Jewish merchants could no longer do business in non-Pale Russia. The institution of
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#1732802368149804-602: The Imperial Russian Army , dispensed free medical treatment for the poor, offered dowries and household gifts to destitute brides, and arranged for technical education for orphans. According to historian Martin Gilbert's Atlas of Jewish History , no province in the Pale had less than 14% of Jews on relief; Lithuanian and Ukrainian Jews supported as much as 22% of their poor populations. The concentration of Jews in
871-613: The National Fraternal Congress of America mortuary table, and by 1920 it established a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients at Liberty, New York , where members could receive free treatment for nine months. In the 1920s, the organization reached its peak of 84,000 members, 125 schools nationwide and numerous branches nationwide; for example, the Philadelphia district had 17 branches in 1924. But during that decade, members of The Workmen's Circle sympathetic to
938-519: The Ottoman Empire (with Yedisan ), Crimean Khanate , and eastern Principality of Moldavia ( Bessarabia ). Life in the Pale for many was economically bleak. Most people relied on small service or artisan work that could not support the number of inhabitants, which resulted in emigration, especially in the late 19th century. Even so, Jewish culture , especially in Yiddish , developed in the shtetls (small towns), and intellectual culture developed in
1005-547: The abdication of Nicholas II , and as revolution gripped Russia . On March 20 (April 2 N.S. ), 1917, the Pale was abolished by the Russian Provisional Government decree, On the abolition of religious and national restrictions . The Second Polish Republic was reconstituted from much of the former territory of the Pale in the aftermath of World War I. Subsequently, most of the Jewish population of
1072-656: The pogroms in the 1880s and succeeding decades , more than 2 million Yiddish -speaking Jews fled Eastern Europe with their families, and most immigrated to the United States, many to New York City. They usually arrived penniless, and the bulk of them entered the fast-growing, but exploitative garment industry. Others found work as peddlers, jewelers, launderers, Hebrew tutors and even shopkeepers. To assist each other in adapting to their challenging new life in America, they formed several mutual aid societies . The Workingmen's Circle Society of New York formed in 1892 thanks to
1139-410: The yeshivot (religious schools) and was also carried abroad. The Russian Empire during the existence of the Pale was predominantly Orthodox Christian , in contrast to the area included in the Pale with its large minorities of Jewish, Roman Catholic and until mid-19th century Eastern Catholic population (although much of modern Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova are predominantly Eastern Orthodox). While
1206-490: The 1923 operetta The Golden Bride in 2015/16 drew press attention as a New York Times Theatre Critics Pick and garnered Drama Desk awards as well. The Folksbiene was a producer on the 2015/16 Broadway play " Indecent ." In the Fall of 2017, the company staged an enhanced production of Abraham Goldfadn's The Sorceress as part of their restoration project – an endeavor that will restore lost or nearly lost Yiddish works to
1273-801: The Circle became influential in the American labor movement through the United Hebrew Trades , later helping to found the Jewish Labor Committee . Members of The Workers Circle helped found such labor unions as the International Ladies Garment Workers Union and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America . At the same time, the Workmen's Circle continued its role as a mutual aid society. In 1917 it adopted
1340-400: The Circle had 10,000 members and 20 branches. It used proceeds from the sale of its building to begin to regrow its membership and community and school network, and to hire more educators. Toback said, "Our expression of Judaism is through activism, and we also believe that young people come to activism through being literate Jews. The two things go together." Continuing to teach children Yiddish
1407-790: The Jewish population lived and worked, the courts of Hasidic dynasties flourished in the Pale. Thousands of followers of rebbes such as the Gerrer Rebbe Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter (known as the Sfas Emes ), the Chernobyler Rebbe , and the Vizhnitzer Rebbe flocked to their towns for the Jewish holidays and followed their rebbes' minhagim ( Hebrew : מנהגים , Jewish practices) in their own homes. The tribulations of Jewish life in
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#17328023681491474-541: The Northeastern US and Chicago. Kindershuls 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. Students learn to sing traditional songs in Yiddish, as well as in English and Hebrew. At the end of a student's time at kindershul, when he or she reaches age 12,
1541-551: The Pale became more significant following the Second Partition of Poland in 1793, since, until then, the empire's (former Muscovy's) Jewish population had been rather limited. The dramatic westward expansion of the Russian Empire through the annexation of Polish–Lithuanian territory substantially increased the Jewish population. At its height, the Pale had a Jewish population of over five million, and represented
1608-454: The Pale of Settlement were immortalized in the writings of Yiddish authors such as humorist Sholem Aleichem , whose novel Tevye der Milkhiger ( Yiddish : טבֿיה דער מילכיקער , Tevye the Milkman , in the form of the narration of Tevye from a fictional shtetl of Anatevka to the author) forms the basis of the theatrical (and subsequent film) production Fiddler on the Roof . Because of
1675-561: The Pale, and were thus predominantly merchants, artisans, and shopkeepers. This made poverty a serious issue among the Jews. However, a robust Jewish community welfare system arose; by the end of the 19th century nearly 1 in 3 Jews in the Pale were being supported by Jewish welfare organizations. This Jewish support system included, but was not limited to, providing free medicine to the poor, giving dowries to poor brides, kosher food to Jewish soldiers, and education to orphans. One outgrowth of
1742-510: The Pale, and reignited the study of the Talmud in Russia. After 1886, the Jewish quota was applied to education, with the percentage of Jewish students limited to no more than 10% within the Pale, 5% outside the Pale and 3% in the capitals of Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Kiev. The quotas in the capitals, however, were increased slightly in 1908 and 1915. Amid the difficult conditions in which
1809-710: The Pale, coupled with Tsar Alexander III 's "fierce hatred of the Jews", and the rumors that Jews had been involved in the assassination of his father Tsar Alexander II, made them easy targets for pogroms and anti-Jewish riots by the majority population. These, along with the repressive May Laws , often devastated whole communities. Though attacks occurred throughout the existence of the Pale, particularly devastating Russian pogroms occurred from 1881 to 1883 and from 1903 to 1906, targeting hundreds of communities, assaulting thousands of Jews, and causing considerable property damage. Jews typically could not engage in agriculture due to restrictions on Jews owning land and farming in
1876-441: The Pale, which led many Jews to believe that the Pale might soon be abolished. These hopes vanished when Alexander II was assassinated in 1881 . Rumors spread that he had been assassinated by Jews, and in the aftermath anti-Jewish sentiment skyrocketed. Anti-Jewish pogroms rocked the country from 1881 through 1884 . The reactionary Temporary regulations regarding the Jews of 1881 prohibited any new Jewish settlement outside of
1943-557: The Pale. The laws also granted peasants the right to demand the expulsion of Jews in their towns. The laws were anything but temporary, and would be in full effect until at least 1903. In 1910, Jewish members of the State Duma proposed the abolition of the Pale, but the power dynamic of Duma meant that the bill never had a realistic chance to pass. Far-right political elements in the Duma responded by proposing that all Jews be expelled from
2010-476: The Recruit Charter of 1810), and their families had the right to live outside the Pale of Settlement. In some periods, special dispensations were given for Jews to live in the major imperial cities, but these were tenuous, and several thousand Jews were expelled to the Pale from Moscow as late as 1891. The extremely restrictive decrees and recurrent pogroms led to much emigration from the Pale, mainly to
2077-707: The Russian Empire. At times, by imperial decree Jews were forbidden to live in agricultural communities, or certain cities, (as in Kiev , Sevastopol and Yalta ), and were forced to move to small provincial towns, thus fostering the rise of the shtetls . Jewish merchants of the First Guild ( купцы первой гильдии , the wealthiest sosloviye of merchants in the Russian Empire), people with higher or special education, university students, artisans , army tailors, ennobled Jews, soldiers (drafted in accordance with
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2144-594: The Russian interior to escape the invading German army, and then ultimately in 1917 with the end of the Russian Empire as a result of the February Revolution . The archaic English term pale is derived from the Latin word palus , a stake, extended to mean the area enclosed by a fence or boundary. The territory that would become the Pale first began to enter Imperial Russian hands in 1772, with
2211-531: The US and Israel, humanitarian relief, human rights, environmental conservation, women's equality, an increased minimum wage and separation of church and state. On December 2, 2019, the organization unveiled its new name: the Workers Circle. This name embraces the tenor of the times in gender-neutral fashion and with a nod to the organization's century of activism at the fore of the labor movement, supporting worker rights to this day. On September 28, 2023,
2278-462: The United States and Western Europe. However, emigration could not keep up with birth rates and expulsion of Jews from other parts of the Russian Empire, and thus the Jewish population of the Pale continued to grow. During World War I, the Pale lost its rigid hold on the Jewish population when large numbers of Jews fled into the Russian interior to escape the invading German army. The Pale of Settlement de facto ceased to exist on August 19, 1915, when
2345-758: The United States, English or Yiddish, commercial or not. The era when it was founded is considered to be the height of Yiddish theater ; at the time there were 15 Yiddish theatre companies in the Yiddish Theater District in New York and many more worldwide. Due to the destruction of European Jewry by the German Nazis , the Folksbiene is one of only five professional Yiddish theatre companies still in operation; also in New York City
2412-442: The Workmen's Circle included 700 local branches with 70,000 members in the United States and Canada. Beginning by the 1960s, the Circle's membership slowly declined, reaching a level of about 50,000 members by the 1980s. When the federal Medicare program began in 1966, the Circle's healthcare programs became less urgently needed. More generally, as its then-president Dr. Barnett Zumhoff explained to The New York Times in 1985, with
2479-467: The Yiddish newspaper The Forward and operated old-age homes, medical clinics and other services. Politically, the Circle moved away from socialism towards liberalism by the time of the New Deal . By the 1960s, the Circle's membership began to decline, as Jews joined the middle class and moved from cities to suburbs; the Circle no longer seemed as essential to many as it had been. In the new century,
2546-473: The administrator of the Ministry of Internal Affairs allowed, in view of the emergency circumstances of wartime, the residence of Jews in urban settlements outside the Pale of Settlement, with the exception of capitals and localities under the jurisdiction of the ministers of the imperial court and the military (that is, palace suburbs of Petrograd and the frontline). The Pale formally came to an end soon after
2613-576: The anti-Zionist, anti-assimilationist idea of Yiddish cultural autonomy and a secular Jewish identity, led by education in Yiddish language and literature, socialist ideals, Jewish history and ethical and aesthetic culture, an idea championed by Chaim Zhitlowsky . Many of the Bundists joined The Workmen's Circle and pushed it both to fight exploitative labor practices and to expand its national activities toward Yiddish education and to focus on Yiddish culture, rather than simply providing financial aid. Many of
2680-569: The area would perish in the Holocaust one generation later. Jewish life in the shtetls ( Yiddish : שטעטלעך shtetlekh "little towns") of the Pale of Settlement was hard and poverty-stricken. Following the Jewish religious tradition of tzedakah (charity), a sophisticated system of volunteer Jewish social welfare organizations developed to meet the needs of the population. Various organizations supplied clothes to poor students, provided kosher food to Jewish soldiers conscripted into
2747-459: The arts ( klezmer music ; Folksbiene theatre; choral groups), mutual aid and social interaction. It also emphasized social justice, such as efforts to oppose the repression of Soviet Jewry, and support of humanitarian relief efforts, as its political perspective had moved away from socialism towards liberalism by the time of the New Deal , and its members enthusiastically supported America's entry into World War II and even became pro-Israel. In 1949,
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2814-429: The branches around the country, Yiddish after school programs for children and teens (beginning in 1918), adult lecture circuits, Camp Kinderland (1923) and the organization's own literary and political journal, The Friend , and Unser Schul ( Our School ), a monthly pedagogical journal for the teachers in its schools. In the meantime, especially after a series of garment workers' strikes in New York beginning in 1910,
2881-635: The canon of Yiddish culture. A fully stage production was mounted two years later in December 2019. In 2022, the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene presented Harmony: A New Musical , the New York debut of the musical by Barry Manilow and his longtime collaborator Bruce Sussman . The musical tells the true story of the Comedian Harmonists , an ensemble of six talented young men in 1920s Germany who took
2948-536: The concentration of Jews in a circumscribed area was the development of the modern yeshiva system. Prior to the Pale, schools to study the Talmud were a luxury. This began to change when the rabbi Chaim of Volozhin began a sort of national-level yeshiva. In 1803, he founded the Volozhin Yeshiva and began to attract large number of students from around the Pale. The Tsarist authorities were not pleased with
3015-418: The efforts of two Jewish cloak makers. The Workmen's Circle was established in New York City on September 4, 1900, as a national organization. The group held its first convention in 1901. It immediately provided to its members life insurance, some unemployment relief, healthcare, social interaction such as dances, and financial assistance in obtaining a graveyard plot. It also held general education sessions on
3082-445: The ennobled, members of the most affluent of the merchant guilds and particular artisans , some military personnel and some services associated with them, including their families, and sometimes their servants. Pale is an archaic term meaning an enclosed area. The Pale of Settlement included all of modern-day Belarus and Moldova , much of Lithuania , Ukraine and east-central Poland , and relatively small parts of Latvia and what
3149-456: The first decade of the 21st century, the organization ended its direct health insurance program and closed its old age homes, streamlined its operations, separated itself from The Forward , hired a new executive director, Ann Toback, in 2008, reorganized its board and appointed a new president, Madelon "Maddy" Braun, in 2010. It rededicated its mission to education and promoting Jewish community, Yiddish culture and social justice activism. "The plan
3216-403: The following areas were added: After 1805 the Pale gradually shrank, and became limited to the following areas: Rural areas for 50 versts (53 km) from the western border were closed for new settlement of the Jews. In 1917 Congress Poland did not belong to the Pale of Settlement but Jews were allowed to settle there. According to the 1897 census, the governates or guberniyas had
3283-575: The following percentages of Jews: In 1882 it was forbidden for Jews to settle in rural areas. The following cities within the Pale were excluded from it: Folksbiene The National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, commonly known as NYTF, is a professional theater company in New York City which produces both Yiddish plays and plays translated into Yiddish , in a theater equipped with simultaneous superscript translation into English. The company's leadership consists of executive director Dominick Balletta and artistic director Zalmen Mlotek . The board
3350-493: The harsh conditions of day-to-day life in the Pale, some two million Jews emigrated from there between 1881 and 1914, mainly to the United States . The Pale of Settlement included the following areas. The ukase of Catherine the Great of December 23, 1791 limited the Pale to: After the Second Partition of Poland , the ukase of June 23, 1794, the following areas were added: After the Third Partition of Poland ,
3417-527: The largest component (40 percent) of the world's Jewish population at that time. The freedom of movement of non-Jewish imperial subjects was greatly increased, but the freedom of movement of Jews was greatly restricted and officially kept within the boundaries of the pale. The name "Pale of Settlement" first arose under the rule of Tsar Nicholas I . Under his rule (1825 to 1855), the Pale gradually shrank and became more restrictive. In 1827, Jews living in Kiev were severely restricted by imperial decree. In 1835
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#17328023681493484-544: The middle of the 20th century, The Workmen's Circle continued to operate old age homes and medical clinics and offer burial assistance, affordable health and life insurance; it established Camp Kinder Ring to replace Camp Kinderland (and some branches also operated camps); and it continued to have a hand in operating the Yiddish-language newspaper The Forward , which shared its office building in New York. The organization continued to emphasize Yiddish education and
3551-510: The natural sciences and had the generally pro-labor and socialist goal "of helping to develop in working people a sense of solidarity, a clear, enlightened outlook, the striving, by means of their unity, to acquire that influence in ultimately, bringing on the day of their complete emancipation from exploitation and oppression." Unlike other mutual aid groups, the organization had a workers' social agenda that it took seriously. It "agitated to abolish child labor, establish social security and shorten
3618-514: The older members argued that the organization could barely afford to provide its traditional aid to members; this discussion continued for two decades. Zhitlowsky and the Bundists succeeded in persuading the organization to establish a range of cultural activities meant to inform and express the secular Jewish spirit, such as the Folksbiene Yiddish theatre troupe (1915), Yiddish book publishing, orchestras, and art expositions sponsored by
3685-410: The opening up opportunities for Jews in American society, and their move into the middle class and dispersion geographically from cities to suburbs and small towns, the Circle was no longer as essential to the Jewish community as it had been. Its membership was no longer predominantly workers, but had become small-business owners, professionals and schoolteachers. Still, the Circle believed that it offered
3752-405: The organization announced it was separating from Camp Kinder Ring and that both organizations will continue to operate independently. As an organization organically linked to the historic Jewish labor movement, many of the Workmen's Circle's leaders were involved from its inception until the start of the 21st century with The Forward . Through much of the 20th century, the organization's newsletter
3819-425: The organization ended its direct health insurance program, streamlined its operations, separated from The Forward , and rededicated its mission to education and promoting Jewish community, secular Yiddish culture and social justice activism. It sold its former East side building and moved to new offices in the Garment District of New York City in 2011. The Workers Circle is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization . With
3886-535: The organization was joined by more politically focused socialist Bundists who advocated the anti-assimilationist idea of Yiddish cultural autonomy, led by education in Yiddish and socialist ideals. The Circle formed the Folksbiene Yiddish theatre troupe and promoted Jewish arts and music, Yiddish school programs for children and Yiddish summer camps. It became influential in the American labor movement and grew to serve more than 84,000 members through hundreds of branches around North America. It also became involved with
3953-469: The production. Their production Fidler Afn Dakh had its first preview on July 4, 2018. The opening performance was July 15, 2018. The production won the 2019 Drama Desk Award For Best Musical Revival. The company's 2006 production of Di Yam Gazlonim , a Yiddish adaptation of The Pirates of Penzance , by Al Grand, was nominated for the 2007 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical Revival, and their 2012/13 Off Broadway production of The Golden Land
4020-537: The provinces of Astrakhan and the North Caucasus were removed from the Pale. Nicholas tried to remove all Jews from within 80 kilometres (50 mi) of the Austrian Empire 's border in 1843. In practice, this was very difficult to enforce, and the restrictions were lessened in 1858. Tsar Alexander II , who ruled 1855 to 1881, expanded the rights of rich and educated Jews to leave and live beyond
4087-440: The religious nature of the edicts creating the Pale is clear (conversion to Russian Orthodoxy , the state religion, released individuals from the strictures), historians argue that the motivations for its creation and maintenance were primarily economic and nationalist in nature. The end of the enforcement and formal demarcation of the Pale coincided with the beginning of World War I in 1914, when large numbers of Jews fled into
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#17328023681494154-448: The school and sought to make it more secular, eventually closing it in 1879. The authorities re-opened it in 1881, but required all teachers to have diplomas from Russian institutions and to teach Russian language and culture. This requirement was not only untenable to the Jews, but essentially impossible, and the school closed for the last time in 1892. Regardless, the school had great impact: its students went on to form many new yeshivas in
4221-471: The traditionally secular Workmen's Circle spirit." It also continued its liberal agenda, supporting universal health care, for example. Its then-president, Mark Mlotek, noted: "this is an organization that says that the language of the murdered people in Eastern Europe was Yiddish ... there is a vibrant Yiddish culture [that] has to be maintained. Without it, a heart and soul will really go away." In
4288-405: The work day." The organization began to form a national network of autonomous branches soon after its founding, chartered through the national organization, that provided services to their local members. From 1905, greatly increased Jewish immigration to the US, following new pogroms in Russia, brought to America large numbers of politically sophisticated socialist Bundists . The Bundists advocated
4355-501: Was a western region of the Russian Empire with varying borders that existed from 1791 to 1917 ( de facto until 1915) in which permanent residency by Jews was allowed and beyond which Jewish residency, permanent or temporary, was mostly forbidden. Most Jews were still excluded from residency in a number of cities within the Pale as well. A few Jews were allowed to live outside the area, including those with university education,
4422-786: Was called The Workmen's Circle Call . From 2005 to 2009, The Workmen's Circle published Jewish Currents magazine and supplied it to the members of the Circle. The youth section of the Workmen's Circle in its early years was the Young Circle League of America (YCLA), established in 1930. The group self-identified as "first and foremost a cultural organization," sponsoring lectures, debates, and educational and recreational programs for its members. The YCLA also published its own magazine, The Call of Youth. The Arbeter Ring runs seven kindershuls, or children's schools of Jewish culture , as after-school and Sunday school programs for elementary through middle schoolers. These are located in
4489-629: Was nominated for the 2013 Drama Desk Award for outstanding Musical Revival. In the summer of 2012, Folksbiene announced their plans to create an international Festival of new works in celebration of their Centennial in 2015. A play contest accompanying the festival was juried by producer Emanuel Azenberg; the Tony Award-winning composer and songwriter Jason Robert Brown ("Parade"), and the playwrights Joe DiPietro (Tony Award for "Memphis"); Obie Award-winning Israel Horovitz, and Pulitzer Prize finalist Jon Marans ("Old Wicked Songs"). A revival of
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