Epilogue

Abstract

In the thirty-five years between the 1917 AFL convention and the beginning of the Amun-Israeli Corporation’s housing construction in 1952, the American labor movement helped shape a foreign nation. Through the financial and political assets of its many organizations, it played a dual role, working within and beyond the framework of state power. American labor leaders supported with words and deeds the Jewish people’s desire to build a social-democratic society based on a strong labor movement. Their goals were both practical and ideological—to assist a fellow labor movement in Palestine, find a refuge for persecuted European Jews, and create an example for other Middle Eastern nations to follow. For all these reasons, the American labor movement utilized its resources in an unprecedented manner and succeeded in its ambitious endeavor. Through the initiative of Jewish labor leaders in the garment industry, the majority of the American labor movement rallied to this cause and acted as a seminal player in an international movement for a Jewish, national home in Palestine....