Public Employee Press

Jewish Heritage:
Local 375 honors Jewish homeland

Civil Service Technical Guild Local 375 held its Jewish Heritage celebration at their delegates meeting on May 21.

Michael Troman, chair of the Jewish Heritage Committee, welcomed everyone, noting that this year’s celebration is ofspecial significance since Israel is commemorating its 60th anniversary.

“It’s such a pleasure to be here celebrating Jewish heritage with our Jewish brothers and sisters,” said Local 375 President Claude Fort. “We still have leaders in the world who are denying that the Holocaust happened and yet it was only 60 years ago,” he said. “We have so much to do to make a better world.”

Keynote speaker Stuart Leibowitz, president of the DC 37 Retirees Association, spoke about the many contributions that the Jewish people have made to the labor movement. “Outstanding representatives were part of both the public and the private sector,” Leibowitz said. They included DC 37 leaders Jerry Wurf and Victor Gotbaum, Albert Shanker of the Teachers’ union, and David Dubinsky, head of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union.

Committee member Ezra Ghazal concluded the program by performing a number of songs in Hebrew, including “Jerusalem in Gold.”

—Jane LaTour