Max Zaritsky (1885–1959) was an American union leader of the

United Hatters, Cap and Millinery Workers International Union The United Hatters, Cap and Millinery Workers International Union (1934–1983), also known by acronyms including UHCMW, U.H.C. & M.W.I.U. and UHC & MWIU, was a 20th-century American labor union. History In 1934, the United Hatters of North Amer ...

(UHCMW) as well as co-founder of both the

American Labor Party The American Labor Party (ALP) was a political party in the United States established in 1936 that was active almost exclusively in the state of New York. The organization was founded by labor leaders and former members of the Socialist Party of A ...

and Liberal Party of New York State.

Background

Max Zaritsky was born on April 15, 1885, in Petrikov, Russian Empire. His father was a rabbi. In 1906, he immigrated to the US at age 21.

Career

Union leadership

Hatters, Cap and Millinery Workers International Union

In 1906, Zaritsky got a job in a hat and cap factory in Boston. In 1911, he became general secretary of the millinery union. In 1919, he became president of the Cloth Hat, Cap and Millinery Workers Union. In 1934, the Cloth Hat, Cap and Millinery Workers Union merged with the United Hatters of North America union to form the United Hatters, Cap and Millinery Workers International Union (UHCMW), headquartered in New York, and in 1936, Zaritsky became its president. Zaritsky ousted Communist influence from his union.

CIO

In 1935, United Mine Workers president

John L. Lewis John Llewellyn Lewis (February 12, 1880 – June 11, 1969) was an American leader of organized labor who served as president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) from 1920 to 1960. A major player in the history of coal mining, he was the d ...

formed a "more militant" group within the American Federation of Labor (AFL) called the Committee for Industrial Organizations. He formed it with Zaritsky of UHCMW,

Sidney Hillman Sidney Hillman (March 23, 1887 – July 10, 1946) was an American labor leader. He was the head of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and was a key figure in the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations and in marshaling labor' ...

, head of the

Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) was a United States labor union known for its support for "social unionism" and progressive political causes. Led by Sidney Hillman for its first thirty years, it helped found the Congress of Indus ...

;

David Dubinsky David Dubinsky (; born David Isaac Dobnievski; February 22, 1892 – September 17, 1982) was a Belarusian-born American labor leader and politician. He served as president of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) between 1932 ...

, President of the ILGWU, Thomas McMahon, head of the United Textile Workers; John Sheridan of the

Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Union The International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers (IUMMSW) was a labor union representing miners and workers in related occupations in the United States and Canada. The union played an important role in the protection of workers and in d ...

; and Harvey Fremming of the

Oil Workers Union An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

. They announced the committee's creation on November 9, 1935, and in 1938, after the AFL revoked the charters of these members, they formed the

Congress for Industrial Organizations A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ad ...

(CIO). Zaritsky opposed the CIO's break from the AFL and, with David Dubinsky, initiated a "peace move" between the nascent CIO and its AFL parent.

Political leadership

American Labor Party

In 1936, Zaritsky had joined Sidney Hillman and John L. Lewis in forming the Labor Non-Partisan League (LNPL), which formed the basis of the

(ALP), making Zaritsky an ALP co-founder.

Liberal Party of New York

In 1944, Zaritsky co-founded the ALP split-off of the Liberal Party of New York.

Later life

In 1950, Zaritsky retired after 39 years as a labor union official, succeeded by Alex Rose, also a co-founder of the ALP and Liberal Party. Zaritsky also lectured to colleges and schools on labor issues.

Personal life and death

Zaritsky married Sophie Pilavin. Zaritsky was a Labor Zionist and served as treasurer of the

National Labor Committee for Palestine National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

as well as the National Committee for a

Leon Blum Colony in Palestine Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to: Places Europe * León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León * Province of León, Spain * Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again fro ...

(who patrons included Herbert H. Lehman, Fiorello H. LaGuardia, Abraham Cohan,

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

Felix Frankfurter Felix Frankfurter (November 15, 1882 – February 22, 1965) was an Austrian-American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1939 until 1962, during which period he was a noted advocate of judic ...

, Israel Goldstein,

Julian W. Mack Julian William Mack (July 19, 1866 – September 5, 1943) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Commerce Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, the United States Circuit Courts for the Seventh Circuit, ...

, Edward F. McGrady, and Robert F. Wagner and whose officers included

Rose Schneiderman Rose Schneiderman (April 6, 1882 – August 11, 1972) was a Polish-born American socialist and feminist, and one of the most prominent female labor union leaders. As a member of the New York Women's Trade Union League, she drew attention to u ...

and Lucy Lang). Max Zaritsky died age 74 on May 10, 1959, in Boston, Massachusetts, after leaving New York City two years earlier. He is buried in the Mount Carmel Cemetery of Queens, New York. In 1991, ''

American Heritage American Heritage may refer to: * ''American Heritage'' (magazine) * ''The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language'' * American Heritage Rivers * American Heritage School (disambiguation) See also *National Register of Historic Place ...

'' magazine carried a reminiscence of Zaritsky (online, lacking author):

For me he was always just Uncle Max, and she, Aunt Sophie. They lived two houses down from me in suburban Long Island. And though I spent many hours of my childhood in his company in the late forties and early fifties, I never knew who he really was.
To a seven-year-old boy, allowed to romp, read, and listen in his uncle's study (he really wasn't my uncle, just a close family friend), the photographs on the wall of him shaking hands with
Harry Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...
or presenting a hat to a young Nelson Rockefeller and the ornate, framed testimonials from something called unions meant very little. My main concern in life was whether the gods of baseball would ever allow the Brooklyn Dodgers to win the World Series...
As I grew up, I was able to fill in a few of the facts about his life: He had escaped in the midst of a pogrom from czarist Russia, come to Boston, gone to work in a hat factory, courted and won the boss's daughter while helping organize the workers. Later he became the union's president.
I would have gotten no further had I not decided to audit a course on twentieth-century America during my graduate studies in the late sixties. One day, as the lecturer began elaborating on the New Deal and the rise of the CIO, I found myself listening to a recounting of events involving John L. Lewis and his ally Max Zaritsky of the Hatter's Union.
I stiffened in my seat. Who? Max Zaritsky? Uncle Max? My Uncle Max? I couldn't believe it. Despite my love of history, I still had trouble freeing myself from the delusion that history was made only by people in books, not someone you could know in real life, someone who called you boychikel and let you scramble around his house in a vastly outsized fedora.
I went back to my room and consulted Schlesinger, Leuchtenberg, and other historians. It was all there: Lewis, Sidney Hillman, the unions, Wagner and the National Labor Relations Act, the strikes, the goon terrorism and the killings at
Republic Steel Republic Steel is an American steel manufacturer that was once the country's third largest steel producer. It was founded as the Republic Iron and Steel Company in Youngstown, Ohio in 1899. After rising to prominence during the early 20th Centu ...
, the caution of the A.F. of L. and the birth of a giant. And smack in the middle of it was Uncle Max.
I had lived a good part of my childhood with him and yet had known so little about him. Now, when I wanted to learn more, he was gone, leaving me only some lovely memories and a watch in the top drawer of my dresser with an inscription on the back: "Presented to Zaritsky from New Jersey Workers Loc. 24. 9-14-34." I had brushed up against history repeatedly and never known it.

Legacy

At his death in 1959, ''The New York Times'' declared, "Although his union had only 40,000 members, Mr. Zaritsky won a position of major influence in labor's affairs." His papers are at the

Tamiment Library The Tamiment Library is a research library at New York University that documents radical and left history, with strengths in the histories of communism, socialism, anarchism, the New Left, the Civil Rights Movement, and utopian experiments. The R ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

References

External sources

Tamiment Library
Guide to the Max Zaritsky Papers TAM.006
Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Max Zaritsky at fifty; the story of an aggressive labor leadership * * Images: *
Historic Images
Max Zaritsky (1936) {{DEFAULTSORT:Zaritsky, Max 1885 births 1959 deaths Belarusian Jews Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States American people of Belarusian-Jewish descent American Labor Party politicians Liberal Party of New York politicians American trade union leaders Jewish American people in New York (state) politics Trade unionists from New York (state) Jewish American trade unionists UNITE HERE Activists from New York City American milliners