Freedom in Song: An Examination of the Workmen's Circle, Choral Music, and Theater within the American Yiddish Labor Movement, 1920-1940 Open Access
Frischling, Rebecca (Spring 2023)
Published
Abstract
My thesis investigates the relevance and utility of the performing arts in political advocacy organizations. Specifically, I look at the Workmen’s Circle, a significant player in the Jewish labor movement. I focus on their choral program and explore why an advocacy organization would choose to develop artistic components. As a whole, I argue that the Workmen’s Circle chose to devote time and funding into developing the Workmen’s Circle Choruses because of a conviction that music provided accessible programming that would be more effective than traditional methods in spreading its cause and recruiting new members. It is my ultimate argument that music and the performing arts played a crucial role in facilitating the merging of the Workmen’s Circle’s political, religious, and cultural identities, forming a modern Jewish identity for Circle members that reflected the organization’s political goals.
Table of Contents
Introduction: 1
Chapter 1: Background and Beginnings: 9
A Brief History of the Workmen’s Circle and its Founding -
The Workmen’s Circle’s Place in Debates Over Jewish-American Culture 11
The Workmen’s Circle Chorus Enters the Stage 19
Chapter Two: Politics on Stage: Performing Arts in the Workmen’s Circle and
Labor Movement: 27
Theater and Literature in the Labor Movement -
Music in the Labor Movement 33
The Workmen’s Circle and its Songbooks 36
The Workmen’s Circle Chorus and its Repertoire 40
Chapter Three: Orchestrating Identity: Music as a Medium for Developing Jewish Culture: 46
Religion and the Socialist Movement: Friends, Foes, and the In Between -
Jewish Socialism, its Complexity, and the Workmen’s Circle 50
The Workmen’s Circle Chorus, Yiddish, and a New Jewish Identity 54
The Third Seder: A Case Study 58
Conclusion: L’dor Vador (From Generation to Generation) 65
The Remaining History: Workmen’s Circle Choruses, 1950s-Present -
The Songs of Today 73
Music Appendix: 80
Bibliography: 81
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