The Chicago Chronicle, September 5, 1924
There is a romantic touch of heroism in the life of B.C. Vladeck, general manager of the “Jewish Daily Forward.”
Born in an orthodox Jewish family in Dukov, Gov. of Minsk, Russia, he has received together with his older brother, the well-known literary critic S. Niger, the usual Jewish religious training. Studying in a Yeshiva in Minsk his mind, at an early stage, underwent the exercises and discipline of Talmudic scholasticism. He found, however, a greater appeal in the poetical cry of the Prophets, especially Isaiah, against the social injustice of the feudal system of ancient Judea, than in the hairsplitting and sharp-minded theorizing of the later exponents of abstract Jewish thought in the schools of Babylon and awoke, when yet a youth, to the problem of economic inequality in the country of his nativity. White Russia, the place where Vladeck grew to maturity was, it seems, particularly fit to cause such an awakening. The tremendous chasm between the poor village population on one hand and the luxury of the small group of landowners on the other; the limitless poverty of the city dwellers and the extravagant life of the then-powerful higher Russian officials was too great a reminder of social difference that should not set in motion a mind and a heart which had inherited a capacity for understanding and feeling. But Vladeck is not a mere dreamer. When obsessed with an idea he strives to turn it into a fact. The immediate need of the Jewish city population in that region of the former Russian Empire was the attaining of a secular education. Vladeck, a young boy, joined the staff of some private library in the city. His first conflict with the Russian government was on account of his activity, for which he had to repent in jail.
Class Distinctions Faint at Start of Movement
At the early stage of the labor movement among Jews, the Jewish masses represented a unique spectacle. The bulk of Jews in the former Russian “Pale of Settlement” consisted of one large middle class. Although divided by the degree of possession there was no such distinction as bosses and workers (although they were nothing else but wage earners, with the difference that wages were paid to them not by any employer, but by their small enterprises). The Jewish labor movement, creating a labor consciousness had at the same time to create a workers’ class. It had when “selling” the idea of a Jewish workers’ organization at the same time to “sell” the status of such a class. The “Bund,” Marxian and international in principle, but granting concessions for the peculiar cultural needs of the Jewish masses, was the first and most important of Jewish labor organizations of Russia in promulgating this doctrine and in spreading the idea of class consciousness. B.C. Vladeck joined this organization, which was not a small factor in the Russian revolutionary movement of 1905. But “selling” an idea in former imperial Russia, not to speak of any distinctly revolutionary or socialistic idea, was a dangerous undertaking.
Vladeck, stirred by the idealism and attracted by the practical task which this movement offered, devoted himself to the “selling” of this dangerous article. Traveling to and from the cities and villages on the plains of White Russia, Lithuania and Poland, Baruch Charney had to conceal his identity in order to escape the inquisitive eyes of the Russian secret police. Vladeck, a Polish name in common usage, correspondent to that of Jim or Jack in America, was the safest pseudo[nym] to sail under. Charging somebody to find Vladeck in Poland, would be as trying a task as the finding of Jim in America. But the mysterious Vladeck, who appeared at meetings and gatherings in towns where the Russian secret police expected him the least, many times fell into the hands of his adversaries. When it was not [any] longer possible for “Vladeck” to carry on his work, he immigrated to America and became B.C. Vladeck. Here the stream of immigration of previous years has performed the metamorphoses, urged, preached, expected and almost prayed for by the Jewish labor leaders. The transplantation of the large mass of unskilled men into America has within a comparatively short period performed their almost miraculous transformation into a class of hard toiling workers with a sound beginning of unions and organizations. Here Vladeck found the place for the development of his energies. In a short period of time we see him assume responsibility after responsibility and become the spokesman of New York’s Jewish laborers, defending their rights, not only in [the] settlement of strikes, but representing [them] as aldermen in the board of aldermen.
Believes Large Professional Classes Cause of Anti-Semitism
When you look at the stern features of Vladeck and meet his penetrating eyes, you immediately get the impression that you talk to a man who has the great gift of preserving cool-mindedness under all circumstances. He has also the ability of dealing with problems in a detached way, so to speak. When he speaks to you, you feel that he does not think about himself. In a leisurely hour, during a busy day, he presents to you in a forcible and convincing way his views on any question that you choose to take up.
“What is the greatest problem in Jewish life in America?” I asked Mr. Vladeck.
“The strength of Jewish life in America was the place that our fellow workers have occupied in the life of producing America. This place has been earned by hard toil, skill and intelligence. Its rights and privileges were fought for and acquired in a way that could be expected from any group of thinking and well-led working class [people]. The problem that arises now in the life of the Jewish working class is, strange to observe, the drifting away from that principle of labor which wrought strength and economic position to the first generation of workers. There is too great a tendency in the younger generation towards the so-called intelligent professions, a drifting which might create again in the life of the Jewish working masses the problem of a middle class which depends upon external conjectures and is exposed to envy, criticism and call it, if you like, anti-Semitism.”
“What is your opinion about the signs of anti-Semitism that came sporadically to expression in this country?”
“America, which bases its pyramidal structure on enterprise welfare and governmental institutions, on the principle of successful endeavor, cannot very well abandon this sound course and follow the sickly doctrines of racial divisions and prejudices. A government which derives its power from the polls, depends on its continuity upon public opinion and mainly on the way it manages to enlarge the circle of those who enjoy prosperity cannot be influenced in its actions by racial prejudice.”
“Does the Jewish working class in America feel in any way the present need for some action on the part of American Jewry towards the relieving of the situation towards those parts of the Jewish people who suffer in other European countries, or, do you admit the existence of a Jewish problem towards the result that some action ought to be taken?”
“The fate of Jewish people in Eastern Europe and in other countries who are subject to persecution on one hand and locked up in certain countries in groups which have no opportunity for developing their natural energies [on the other], is no doubt a question which interests the Jewish working class in America. There is a responsibility resting upon us and I would venture to say that some action ought to be taken in this respect.”
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