An artifact, its tasty history and a story

The archives of the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association hold many treasures, historic moments in the history of the Jews in Rhode Island. Often, equally important, are the stories connected to these treasures, perhaps told in oral histories, or interviews or even in casual conversations. Here is one such artifact, its history and a reminiscence.

The artifact is a rather tattered souvenir book commemorating an organization’s 25th anniversary. The rich warm brown cover, embossed with gold decorations, no longer enfolds its pages; it exists only in the memory of those who once held it in their hands. 

The organization is the Hebrew Bakers’ Union, Local 122 (Bakers and Confectioners Union). The event, a dinner held at Zinn’s Restaurant, in Providence, on April 23, 1932, celebrating the union’s quarter-century of existence.

The opening greeting, written in Yiddish, tells us: “Twenty-five years ago, a small number of us, who slaved long dark nights to bake bread for others, we ourselves did not have enough to eat. The conditions under which we worked were very hard. … [We] bakers came together and made it clear; this can go no further!” And so, Local 122 was founded to “defend the interests of the bakers.” The greeting continues, “in the day of our 25 year Jubilee ... let us take a fresh enthusiasm for our continuing striving until the end, until no longer will there be oppressors and oppressed.”

No record exists in the archives of the number of founding members of the Hebrew Bakers’ Union, Local 122, or the original officers. Nor is there any official record of the bakery cooperative they started on North Main Street early in 1900. The venture did not last very long. Evidently the members were better bakers than businessmen. At some point, three men involved in the co-op bakery opened Korb’s Bakery, also on North Main Street.  (The first mention of Korb’s is in the 1911 Providence City Directory.)

The last evidence we have of the existence of Local 122 is a copy of a standard contract of the Bakery and Confectioners Union International Local Number 122 with an unnamed employer or master baker. It was unsigned but on the bottom margin someone had written 1963 in a series of dates.

Now the story, a recollection of an event in the earliest days of the union.

The Workmen’s Circle (The Arbeiter Ring, in Yiddish) in Providence was a haven for Yiddish-speaking immigrants from Eastern Europe. It was a beneficial organization dedicated to social justice and the rights of workers. It offered, in addition to health benefits, friendship, cultural events, lectures, debates, concerts and outings.

Jacob Pavlow, a friend of my father’s, was one of those early immigrants who found a place and a cause in the Workmen’s Circle. 

During 1906 or ’07, Pavlow said, there was a bitter strike in one of the Rhode Island textile mills. The difficult situation of the strikers came to the attention of the Workmen’s Circle members, and it troubled them. Pavlow was elected chairman of a fact-finding committee tasked with seeing what help the organization could give the strikers, who received the pitiful sum of about 80 cents a week from the union’s coffers.

The Workmen’s Circle members could not offer financial assistance, but they could provide bread, the staff of life, for the families.  And they did. With the help of the Hebrew Baker’s Union Local 122 (which the Workmen’s Circle helped to organize), the members baked bread and shipped it to the workers until the strike was settled.

This is just a footnote in the grand sweep of history perhaps, but it is these footnotes that make the history of the Jews in Rhode Island such a colorful tapestry, so interesting and so worth preserving.

GERALDINE S. FOSTER is a past president of the R.I. Jewish Historical Association. To comment about this or any RIJHA article, contact the RIJHA office at info@rijha.org or 401-331-1360.