Workmen's Circle

The Workmen’s Circle or Der Arbeter Ring (דער אַרבעטער־רינג) 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 and approximately 11,000 members nationwide. It owns and operates a summer camp located in Hopewell Junction, New York called Camp Kinder Ring. It also runs an adult vacation campground facility, Circle Lodge, with bungalows and cottages, and a healthcare center in Bronx, New York.

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, 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 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, 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 Workmen's Circle is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization.

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