Personal Information for Clara Lemlich Shavelson




	Personal Information for Clara Lemlich Shavelson Born: January 1, 1886 Died: July 12, 1982 Occupations: Human Rights Worker, Labor Leaders, Political Activists, Public Officers, Social Reformers Subjects: Industrial Relations, Jews - Charities, Political Science, Public Welfare, Reform, Social, Charities, Civil Rights, Communism Biographical Information: Clara Lemlich Shavelson spent her long life fighting for trade unions, women's suffrage, peace, and fair housing and food practices. Born in the Ukraine, Clara became a committed communist in her teens. After immigrating to the Lower East Side, Clara began working in a garment factory whose poor conditions led her to begin organizing women into the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. She helped to catalyze the 1909 "Uprising of the 20,000," a massive strike by women workers, but after this, garment shop owners refused to hire her. So she turned her considerable energies to the suffrage movement, founding a working-class suffrage group. Marriage and three children transformed Clara's activism; she began organizing wives and mothers around issues like housing, food, and education. First for the Communist Party, then outside of it, Clara helped to found housewives' organizations, supporting the wives and families of striking workers and agitating for better housing and food conditions. She was one of the founders of the Emma Lazarus Division of the Jewish Peoples' Fraternal Order (it later became the Emma Lazarus Federation of Jewish Women). Later in life she surveyed trade unionism in Europe and protested nuclear weapons and the executions of the Rosenbergs. Ever a fighter, in her last days at a nursing home, Clara helped to organize the orderlies. Related Collections (1) Related Collections Clara Lemlich Shavelson papers How to Cite This Page For a bibliography: Jewish Women's Archive. "Personal Information for Clara Lemlich Shavelson." <http://jwa.org/archive/jsp/perInfo.jsp?personID=1008>. For a footnote: Jewish Women's Archive, "Personal Information for Clara Lemlich Shavelson," <http://jwa.org/archive/jsp/perInfo.jsp?personID=1008>.