On Sunday, March 13, 2011, the first annual JWA luncheon was held, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Triangle fire.

Contact: Ann F. Lewis, Chair, (240) 381-6672.

The Henry Street Settlement, co-founded in 1893 by affluent German Jewish American Lillian Wald, provided healthcare, education, and vocational training for the immigrant community on the Lower East Side. Wald was one of many middle-class progressive reformers who decried and set out to remedy the lack of social services for the poor. Wald worked tirelessly to aid garment workers, lobbying for workplace safety laws and more stringent fire regulations. 

Barely a week after the Triangle fire, a meeting was held at the Metropolitan Opera House to memorialize the victims.

On January 2, 1910, as the shirtwaist strike dragged on, the Women’s Trade Union League, the Political Equity League, New York’s Liberal Club, and the Socialist Women’s Committee sponsored a meeting at Carnegie Hall to protest the mistreatment of strikers

On jwa.org

There are several relevant articles in Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia:

On March 25, 1911, a fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory just before closing time on Saturday evening.

The overcrowded, poorly lit and ventilated tenements of the Lower East Side were once home to hundreds of thousands of recent Jewish immigrants.

The Great Hall at Cooper Union has been the scene of lively public debate since it opened in 1858.

A week after the Triangle fire, a large funeral procession organized by Jewish unions set out from the Forward building.

Thank you for requesting information about the inaugural Jewish Women's Archive luncheon, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Factory fire.

Honorees

[The honorees' complete remarks are available online]

The Power of Our Stories

Jewish Women's Archive