Opinion

February 25, 2011

The Torah of Wisconsin

By Elissa Barrett and Aryeh Cohen

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In the streets of Madison, we can hear the echoes of Torah. From Moses to Maimonides to modern day Rabbis across the country, Jews have a long and lively history of supporting the rights of working people. Rabbis Bonnie Margulis and Jonathan Biatch recently reported from Wisconsin that standing for worker’s rights is “absolutely” the Jewish thing to do. Now is a good moment to ask ourselves, why?

For the past 150 years, labor unions have formed the backbone of progressive movements for social change. In Egypt, the winds of change blew hardest when workers from Alexandria to Aswan joined the youth revolution. In America, unions are woven into the story of empowerment for countless generations of immigrant workers, Jews among them, and the struggle of American minorities—from the sanitation workers of Memphis in the 1960s to the janitors of Los Angeles today.

The issue in Wisconsin is no longer about budgeting or steep cuts in wages and benefits—the unions and Governor Scott Walker are in full agreement there. When Governor Walker began targeting the ability of public employees to bargain collectively for their common good, he targeted our country’s most fundamental labor right: the right to a voice on the job. Our Jewish tradition urges us to see this as a shofar call to action.

It is no coincidence that the first lessons we receive after being freed from slavery in Egypt are on the treatment of workers. “You shall not abuse a needy and destitute laborer, whether a fellow countryman or a stranger… You must pay him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets… else he will cry to God against you and you will incur guilt” (Deuteronomy, 24:14-15). The third century mishnah and tosefta instructs employers to meet or exceed local custom in terms of wages and benefits, and the Babylonian Talmud gives town residents the right to intervene between a local employer and a worker to insure that wages are fair. All this is codified by centuries of commentaries, Talmud scholars and jurists.

Contemporary Halakhic (Jewish legal) decisions continue this strong tradition. 

In 1938, Rabbi Ben-Zion Meir Chai Uzziel, the Rishon le-Tziyon (Sephardic Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel), wrote: “It is obvious that the Sages, of blessed memory, recognized the regulations of a craftsman’s guild or union of laborers or clerks in the general labor federation, or other federations of professionals.” Rabbi Uzziel explicates this further: “Reason also dictates that we should not leave the worker alone, isolated as an individual, so that he would have to hire himself out for minimal wages in order to satisfy his and his family’s hunger with bread and water in meager quantities and with a dark and dank apartment. In order to protect himself the law gave him the legal right to organize, and to create regulations for his fellows for the fair and equitable division of labor amongst them and the attaining of dignified treatment and appropriate payment for his work—so that he might support his family at the same standard of living as other residents of his city.”

And Rabbi Uzziel was not alone. In 1945, Rabbi Eliezer Waldenberg, a leading Israeli Ashkanzi scholar and posek (authoritative adjudicator of questions related to Jewish law), recognized the right of workers to organize and to have their regulations and rules seen as binding. He also recognized, in certain conditions, their right to strike. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein (1895–1986), a Lithuanian Orthodox rabbi, scholar and posek, concurred in a series of Responsa that extended Rabbi Waldenberg’s holding to include the right of workers to prevent scabs from doing their jobs and to include the rights of religious school teachers to bargain collectively, even though community funds and the religious obligation to teach Torah were at stake. In May 2008, a Responsa by Rabbi Jill Jacobs was passed by the Conservative Movement’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, calling on Jewish organizations and synagogues to allow collective bargaining by their employees.

In sum, Jewish tradition has been clear and consistent—the treatment of workers and their right to organize are among the basic underpinnings of a just society. From the synagogue to the state house, Jews must therefore call on those who govern to find the path toward economic justice regardless of how difficult that road is to travel. Our heritage, as the sweatshop workers and copper miners of yesterday, bears witness to it. Our tradition compels it.

Elissa Barrett is the Executive Director of the Progressive Jewish Alliance.  Rabbi Aryeh Cohen, author of the forthcoming Justice in the City: Toward a Community of Obligation (Academic Studies Press), is a past President and current member of the PJA board of directors, and an Associate Professor of Rabbinic Literature at American Jewish University.

A version of this article appeared in print.

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While I agree with the tenets put forth in regard to the organization of workers, it must be put forth here, that these workers are public employees.  they do not obtain their paychecks though the taxpayers, not only in Wisconsin, but throughout the several states.

Within each state, are various municipalities (think county, city, etc), that will have to negotiate contracts with these workers.  If the collective bargaining agreement stays in place, then each negotiation by the various municipalities will be that much more difficult.

In the Jewish Tradition, after 7 years, the slave was freed after being taught a craft.

Comment by Publuis Rex on 2/25/11 at 3:45 pm

In the American Tradition, it seems that the public is held perpetually subservient, through the behemoth of government and special interest groups.

Read Federalist #10 http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa10.htm

While we might be looking at links, try this one as well:  http://library.thinkquest.org/C0111500/proptech.htm

Anytime (and yes I used that overgeneralizing word there) someone throws the phrase democracy out there, in regard to American Politics, either has no clue as to the accurate meaning of the word, or they are piling on propaganda.

Thanks for your time, dear reader, humbly, I hope this may help to clarify.

Earnestly Submitted,

Publius Rex

Comment by Publius Rex on 2/25/11 at 3:46 pm

These aren’t girls in a sweat shop. Mine workers, steel workers. This is a coddled, protected class, who are driving states into bankruptcy.

Comment by Bill Pearlman on 2/25/11 at 4:39 pm

JPA reminds me of of friends in Brooklyn who were committed communists and some relatives who mistook socialism for Judaism: preaching collectivism in the name of Jewish values; justifying atrocities in the name of the greater good: “you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs.”

Realities of CA, WI, etc: public employees unions have perfect blackmail strategy as described by J. Robin

Many people I work very closely with are responsible for our current situation

I resent liberal Jews stealing the Torah to cite words to justify actions that, unfortunately will destroy the fabric of America and threaten my children and grandchildren.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH !!

Comment by HOWARD LAITIN on 2/25/11 at 11:51 pm

You have twisted an old ‘Jewish tradition’ into a modern era ‘progressive right’ which is destructive to America. Public sector collective bargaining with one party negotiating with those they elect is corruption.

The same mentality is destroying Israel. From Marx, Alinsky, to ADL’s Foxman, Emanual, Axelrod and thousands more like them and yourself, generation after generation a minority within a minority of Jews are doing damage to our Country, the Jewish State of Israel and to Jews like me.
P.S Jews like You, who are so leftist in ideology that you align with secular Marxist and Islamist to advance your goals, are a disgrace to Faith & Spirituality.

Comment by Jon Fisher on 2/27/11 at 9:54 pm

These Rabbis - are falsely accusing all of the congregants who support Governor Walker and oppose higher taxes of being bad Jews. 

These Rabbi’s are illegitimate socialists masquerading as holy men, more concerned with social justice than they are with Israel, Judaism or the US Constitution.  Which of these gasbags is condemning Obama for refusing to allow ANY collective bargaining for Federal employees?  How transparent!   

Where is their accusation that each of the 100 best places to work in the United States who do not have unionized work forces are “contrary to the Torah”?

Comment by Barry Davis on 3/04/11 at 12:31 pm

Mouthing more Marx and Lennin than the Torah, these charletans maintain that collective bargaining is a fundamental right and that these poor union members are being FORCED to work in an environment in which they do not have a voice in determining the rules and conditions under which they labor

Some of us thought the US constitution guaranteed the right not to be forced to work anywhere!  The rabbis don’t believe in or understand the constitution.

Here is the list of these Rabbis who condemn conservative Jews: http://calneocon.typepad.com/blog/2011/03/socialists-first-and-always-wisconsin-rabbis-try-to-turn-budget-battle-into-holy-war.html

Comment by Barry Davis on 3/04/11 at 12:34 pm

How disappointing to see conservative Republicans masquerading as Jews fulminating in this forum against the collective bargaining rights from which they themselves benefit.

You cry “socialism”, yet you are unable to cite even a single Halakhic source to support your position.  By contrast, Barret and Cohen’s article cites nothing *but* Halakhic sources.

The truth - whether or not you choose to accept it - is that Jewish tradition has always been progressive and forward-thinking.  You would do well to read less literature by Christian Republicans and more by Jewish rabbis, less Tea Party and more Talmud.  Your public ranting is a shanda and a chillul haShem.

Comment by Raphael Leib on 3/09/11 at 10:13 pm

I do not know Mr. Lieb. However, his comments disparage Dennis Prager, Michael Medved, Charles Krauthammer, Mona Charen and many of the posters to this article & violate basic teachings of Judaism: open-mindedness and tolerance.

I am disappointed that the left as represented by Mr. Lieb resort to insults.

A problem exists : groups threaten legislators or reward them with cash donations and votes in order get them to violate their sworn duty to the public. This is wrong whether done by lobbyists for businesses or by unions seeking to enhance benefits to be paid for by future generations.

Comment by HOWARD LAITIN on 3/10/11 at 12:26 am

Legal extortion is not Torah. Workers in the private sector negotiate under the discipline of the market. For-profit, employee-owned enterprises (and non-profit) workers show restraint because compensation is dictated by revenue and profit. Public employee unions have morphed into disproportionately large interest groups with the power to elect legislatures and governors. Public employee unions in effect dictate their deals. Mandatory union membership and payroll dues deduction gives union leadership power to extort ever more from the state. Politicians, subservient to unions, satisfy union demands by legally extorting from a public whose ability to pay is governed by the market.

Comment by Larry Greenberg on 4/03/11 at 11:05 am

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