ACTIVIST SPOTLIGHT: BEN BRODSKY
Ben and His Mother (granddaughter of William and Bella Siegel)
I am Ben Brodsky, great grandson of William and Bella Siegel, who were active in the Workers Circle over a century ago.
I didn’t know much about the Workers Circle until this past Memorial Day. My journey began when I discovered I could take a short bike ride to Queens to visit my great uncle’s grave, who was killed in World War II. Upon arrival, I saw that his plot was in the Workmen’s Circle (the former name of the Workers Circle) section of the cemetery. I knew that generation was involved in progressive activism, but did not remember the name of the organization, let alone know it was still around. I did some research (research which is still ongoing), and reached out to the Workers Circle to get involved. I’ve since been connected to this organization through online and in-person events, and look forward to using my experiences to aid Workers Circle in creating a more just world for all.
My interest in activism began simply by seeing injustice and trying to do something about it. Currently, I’m focused on addressing the ills of this age created on our social networks. I built an application to assist Facebook Page admins to limit the incivility, hate, and misinformation that is so commonly rampant in comment sections. People often forget social networks’ power is in the connections, so by letting the trolls connect in a Page’s comment section, they are unwittingly aiding the troll’s cause. This past year, my tool was used by two major governors’ races and several congressional campaigns, along with some unions and activist organizations across North America. It’s still mostly private, but you can read a bit about it here: csempathy.substack.com. Feel free to reach out if interested.
My remote business permitted me to follow around a band, Arcade Fire, across North America this past fall to assist their efforts in spreading the word and raising money for Kanpe, a Haitian relief foundation the band started. They help villages in rural Haiti become self-sustaining through attaining their goals in health, education, agriculture, entrepreneurship, leadership, and local infrastructure strengthening. For example, they were recently able to install solar panels on a hospital they support using funds from the European tour, as getting fuel into Haiti was blocked by gangs. They do good work.
After living in Brooklyn for the first 8 years of life, my family moved to the suburbs. The neighborhood we moved to was the precursor for Levitt & Son’s Levittown. Originally mostly Jewish veterans, purchasing a home also entitled owners to inexpensive membership to a “country club” comprised of a pool, tennis courts, and an old mansion from 1922. Over the years, the club deteriorated and access was limited, then shutdown. It was a means to keep a neighborhood connected and together, the idealized suburbs. Today, people don’t know their neighbors, the sidewalks are mostly empty, while people stay at home staring at screens. The Club remains abandoned, while the mansion is used for fancy private catering events. I’ve been trying to reconnect the neighborhood, now comprised of a wide variety of people from around the world, as a means to help restore a sense of community and connection, in a now rather diverse community. While I split my time between the suburbs and Brooklyn, having the connection, and seeing the potential, keeps me motivated to work for building something better.
So many of the problems we see in this age are due to our disconnection. We might always be online, walking around with our pocket supercomputers connected to all the world’s information and people, but in the process, we’ve become more impacted by algorithms that direct us what to think about and how to feel about it, as we’ve lost touch with the human aspect. Many no longer have meaningful offline connections to civic groups, with neighbors, or in our communities, past our limited social circles. When we become isolated, our impact on the greater world, while intended to be directed for the greater good, often can be misdirected by trolls sucking up our attention, to cable news entertaining us for hours with the newest outrage. We can each find things to do, no matter how small, in our own situations, to try to make a difference.
Just as my prior generations saw the injustice faced in Belarus by the Russian Empire, and then by Lenin, then faced by working women in their new land, and then with the fascist threat during WWII, our universal values, often learned through the Jewish experience, we can help direct our efforts towards helping build a more open and just world, in our community, networks, or wherever we see injustice that we can help repair.