Max Zaritsky

Max Zaritsky (1885–1959) was an American union leader of the United Hatters, Cap and Millinery Workers International Union (UHCMW) as well as co-founder of both the American Labor Party and Liberal Party of New York State.

Background

Max Zaritsky was born on April 15, 1885, in Petrikov, Russian Empire. His father was a rabbi. In 1906, he immigrated to the US at age 21.

Career

In 1906, Zaritsky got a job in a hat and cap factory in Boston. In 1911, he became general secretary of the millinery union. In 1919, he became president of the Cloth Hat, Cap and Millinery Workers Union. In 1934, the Cloth Hat, Cap and Millinery Workers Union merged with the United Hatters of North America union to form the United Hatters, Cap and Millinery Workers International Union (UHCMW), headquartered in New York, and in 1936, Zaritsky became its president.

Zaritsky ousted Communist influence from his union.

In 1935, United Mine Workers president John L. Lewis formed a "more militant" group within the American Federation of Labor (AFL) called the Committee for Industrial Organizations. He formed it with Zaritsky of UHCMW, Sidney Hillman, head of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America; David Dubinsky, President of the ILGWU, Thomas McMahon, head of the United Textile Workers; John Sheridan of the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Union; and Harvey Fremming of the Oil Workers Union. They announced the committee's creation on November 9, 1935, and in 1938, after the AFL revoked the charters of these members, they formed the Congress for Industrial Organizations (CIO).

Zaritsky opposed the CIO's break from the AFL and, with David Dubinsky, initiated a "peace move" between the nascent CIO and its AFL parent.

In 1936, Zaritsky had joined Sidney Hillman and John L. Lewis in forming the Labor Non-Partisan League (LNPL), which formed the basis of the American Labor Party (ALP), making Zaritsky an ALP co-founder.

In 1944, Zaritsky co-founded the ALP split-off of the Liberal Party of New York.

In 1950, Zaritsky retired after 39 years as a labor union official, succeeded by Alex Rose, also a co-founder of the ALP and Liberal Party.

Zaritsky also lectured to colleges and schools on labor issues.

Personal life and death

Zaritsky married Sophie Pilavin.

Zaritsky was a Labor Zionist and served as treasurer of the National Labor Committee for Palestine as well as the National Committee for a Leon Blum Colony in Palestine (whose patrons included Herbert H. Lehman, Fiorello H. LaGuardia, Abraham Cahan, Albert Einstein, Felix Frankfurter, Israel Goldstein, Julian W. Mack, Edward F. McGrady, and Robert F. Wagner and whose officers included Rose Schneiderman and Lucy Lang).

Max Zaritsky died age 74 on May 10, 1959, in Boston, Massachusetts, after leaving New York City two years earlier. He is buried in the Mount Carmel Cemetery of Queens, New York.

In 1991, American Heritage magazine carried a reminiscence of Zaritsky.

Legacy

At his death in 1959, The New York Times declared, "Although his union had only 40,000 members, Mr. Zaritsky won a position of major influence in labor's affairs." His papers are at the Tamiment Library at New York University.