Digitizing the Workmen’s Circle Call

Throughout the twentieth century, the Workmen’s Circle welcomed Yiddish-speaking immigrants to the US and assisted them in learning to learn English and new customs so they could assimilate and flourish in American culture. As Yiddish was the lingua franca of the immigrants, the Workmen’s Circle published Yiddish journals and newsletters to inform their members about national and local branch activities, and world news. By the 1930s, when a majority of Jews in the United States were American-born and spoke English fluently, the Workers Circle launched an English-language newsletter, Young Circle Bulletin in 1929, which became the Call of Youth in 1933, and finally the Workmen’s Circle Call in 1938. Over the years, issues of the Call were bound into books in chronological order and stored at Workmen’s Circle headquarters in New York City.

The Workers Circle has launched a new initiative to digitize the Call and post this online. The digitized collection of this Workmen’s Circle material will enable readers to explore the daily lives and circumstances of Yiddish-speaking immigrants, learn about their assimilation in twentieth century America, and conduct historical and genealogical research.

For more information, contact Jaime Gorelick at jgorelick@circle.org