Bessie Abramowitz Hillman
| Bessie Abramowitz Hillman | |
|---|---|
Bessie Abramowitz in approximately 1910
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| Born |
Bas Sheva Abramowitz May 15, 1889 Linoveh, Grodno, Russia |
| Died | December 23, 1970 (aged 81) New York, New York, United States |
| Spouse(s) | Sidney Hillman |
Bessie Abramowitz Hillman (born Bas Sheva Abramowitz, May 15, 1889 – December 23, 1970) was a labor activist and founder of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. She led the 1910 Chicago Garment Workers' Strike, which brought about the creation of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America labor union in 1914.
Bas Sheva Abramowitz was born on May 15, 1889 in Linoveh, Grodno, Russia, part of the Pale of Settlement. The fourth child of ten, she spent her first fifteen years in Russia with her parents Emanuel Abramowitz, a commercial agent, and Sarah Rabinowitz, an innkeeper. Linoveh was a shtetl, and like many, it had a tightly-knit community. It was home to a number of charities, run by women, that worked to provide for orphans and the poor. Though Linoveh escaped much of the tsarist policies that were targeting Jews, it was surrounded by other Jewish communities that were suffering from discriminatory policies and pogroms. Abramowitz left this home at a young age to seek work elsewhere in Russia, returning after a period of a few months. In 1905, she immigrated to America with two of her cousins. Unlike many around her, she did not leave to escape oppression by Tsar Nicholas II or antisemitic violence, but rather to avoid arranged marriage. Her name was anglicized to "Bessie" by a customs officer upon her arrival.
Arriving in the United States knowing only Yiddish and some Russian, Abramowitz moved into a boardinghouse owned by her relatives and began working at the Hart Schaffner & Marx garment factory as a button sewer. At night, she attended school at the Hull House, a settlement house for European immigrants. She used her salary to fund the immigration of two of her younger sisters in 1907, who moved into the boardinghouse and earned money making bow ties.
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