| Warren Jacobson is the president of the Madison chapter of the Zionist Organization of America. He is middle class. Conservative. Mid-Western. And for 18 years, a union member and government worker. In 2010, he voted for Scott Walker. But when asked by a JTA reporter if he supported the Governor’s effort to effectively neuter the state government employees’ union, he said no. He had experienced anti-Semitism and discrimination. Unions might not be perfect, he acknowledged, but: “I want someone supporting me.” His statement is a powerful distillation of why unions remain vital. Without a union, each worker is on his or her own. They must fend for themselves. And more often than not, they will lose. The Jewish community seems to have lost touch with people like Jacobson. 100 years ago, when 146 girls and women were killed in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, we knew that Jews were being exploited. Our daughters, wives, and sisters were powerless. Organizing into unions gave them power. It gave many in our community a pathway out of poverty. We are fooling ourselves if we think unions are no longer important to maintaining and growing the large Jewish middle class. They are. Jacobson is more typical than we realize. Jacobson thinks unions are important because they support workers when they need it most. Jewish institutions are important in part because they support people like Jacobson. And when they stop supporting people like Jacobson, they are less important. And less Jewish. It was sad to read that several Jewish organizations in Wisconsin were not taking a position on the Governor’s bill. Their excuse? Jews were on both sides of the issue. I’m sure that is true. But it is always true. There were Jews who thought garment workers didn’t need unions 100 years ago. Any Jewish organization that privileged those views over the needs of Jewish workers would be ashamed in retrospect. If Governor Walker wins this fight, and other governors follow suit, we will likely mark this as the moment unions in America died. This isn’t a fight to sit out. In the words of the old union song, “which side are you on?”
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