Activist Spotlight: Lydia Green

Hello Workers Circle community! My name is Lydia Green, and I’m the newest addition to the Workers Circle’s Marketing and Communications team, which means that I help out with a lot of behind-the-scenes writing and graphic design at the Workers Circle. I’m excited to work for an organization with as deep NYC Jewish roots as I have. After my grandma and my mom, I am part of the third generation of Jewish girls in my family to be born and raised in Brooklyn. My great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents were Yiddish-speaking immigrants from the Russian empire (modern-day Belarus) who came to Brooklyn seeking refuge from pogroms in the old country and economic opportunity. My ancestors came to America with very little but eventually they were able to start their own kosher butcher shop in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bath Beach that lasted multiple generations and helped the family survive the Great Depression. While I don’t know whether any of my ancestors were Workers Circle members, I do know that they would have fit right into the organization’s lefty Ashkenazi immigrant culture.

My own first exposure to the Workers Circle was through the Yiddish classes here that I’ve been taking for nearly a year now. Learning Yiddish has felt healing, grounding, and radical to me. For anyone else whose family has lost their Ashkenazi language and culture to white supremacy and assimilation like mine has, I highly recommend taking Yiddish classes with the Workers Circle and learning the mameloshn (mother tongue) of your ancestors. The Circle’s Yiddish teachers include music, culture, and history in their lessons as well as language, in such a way that they make us feel like we are bringing our ancestors back to life during class. Yiddish classes, for me, have been a way to embrace my differences as a Jew and personally rebel against white supremacy. Additional fun fact: I have two Yiddish tattoos. One is a quote from the song “Es Brent” — “Di hilf iz nor in aykh aleyn gevendt” (“The help is only in you all”). The other is a Yiddish saying, “Az me muz, ken men” (“If you must, then you can”).

Besides my language and communications work, I also have a background in organizing and politics. In addition to being a staff member at the Workers Circle, I hold an elected leadership position within the Brooklyn Democratic Party called District Leader. In this role, I work in coalition with elected officials and political organizations to bring true democracy to a party currently ruled by a corrupt political machine and to push for a Democratic Party that advocates for progressive policy. I ran for this position because I believe that the Democratic Party needs to revitalize itself in order to truly represent working people and win elections.

Before I came to the Workers Circle, I was a political campaign staffer. In total, I’ve worked on eight different races, including my own, ranging from City Council up to Congress. My job was usually to recruit campaign volunteers and train them to talk to voters. This type of field work on campaigns can be grueling, but I took on these jobs (and still do campaign work now as a volunteer) because I believe in the power of good government and policy to make real change in people’s lives and help us achieve a better and more beautiful world.

I’m looking forward to meeting more of the Workers Circle family and continuing to take progressive Jewish action with you all!