Jewish women in the New York needle trades were among the first women to organize into unions. A song based on a poem by David Edelshtat (1866-1892) titled “Arbeter Froyen” appeared in the anarchist Di Fraye Arbeter Shtime (Free Voice of Labor) in May 1891. The text, along with music, appears in “Pearls of Yiddish Song,” a compendium edited and adapted by Eleanor Gordon Mlotek and Joseph Mlotek. The English translation is by Gus Tyler.
Arbeter Froyen
Arbeter froyen, laydnde froyen!
Froyen vos shmakhtn in hoyz un fabrik.
Vos shteyt ir fun vaytn, vos helft ir nit boyen
Dem temple fun frayhayt, fun mentshlekhn glik?
Helft undz trogn dem baner dem roytn
Forverts durkh shturem, durkh fintstere nekht
Helft undz varhayt un likht tsu farshpreytn
Tsvishn umvisnde elnte knekht.
Helft undz di velt fun ir shmuts derheybn!
Ales opfern, vos undz iz lib;
Kemfn tsuzamen, vi mekhtike leybn
Far frayhayt, far glaykhayt, far undzer princip.
Nit eyn mol hobn shoyn nobele froyen,
Gemakht tsitern henker un tron,
Zey hobn getsaygt, az men ken zey fartroyen
In biterstn shturem di heylike fon.
Working Women
You women who work, you women who suffer
All the day long from your breakfast to supper,
Why don’t you join in and help in constructing
A temple of freedom where you’ll be instructing
Your comrades to carry the banner of scarlet
To say, “We are free and nobody’s harlot”?
Help us in spreading the truth to the masses;
Teach them they’re human and not stupid asses
Help us to teach them to rise from their squalor
And set an example of courage and valor.
Let’s join in the fight that says all are equal,
For thus will true freedom be the great sequel.
’Twill not be the first time that women of courage
Did challenge the mighty who held all the power.
These were the women whom none could discourage
They stood up and said, “Now this is our hour!”