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100 years after deadly Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, its Jewish and Italian workers get a memorial
(New York Jewish Week) – As Allison and Rebecca Kestenbaum stood in front of a building in Greenwich Village on Wednesday, they were thinking about another set of sisters: their relatives Celia and Bess Eisenberg, who, as teenagers, worked at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory.
Bess called in sick on the day that a horrific fire tore through the garment factory. Celia died, along with 145 others.
The tragedy transformed U.S. labor law and the building that housed the factory, now a New York University science building, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2003. But until this week, there had never been a permanent memorial paying tribute to the fire’s victims.
One was unveiled Wednesday at the site of the factory on the corner of Washington Place and Green Street near Washington Square Park. The memorial was conceived by the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition, a nonprofit group of descendants and labor advocates dedicated to preserving the memory of the mostly Jewish and Italian immigrant women who died that day and the fire’s impact on the organized labor movement.
“It’s remarkable to see people showing up who maybe didn’t have a connection but who feel moved by it,” said Allison Kestenbaum, who brought her two children to the unveiling from their home in San Diego. “This triggers emotions for a lot of people and opens our eyes to something that so many didn’t know anything about.”
According to the story that’s been passed down through in the Kestenbaum family, Celia, just 17, went to work alone on March 25, 1911, a warm Saturday.
Near the end of the workday, a cigarette butt ignited fabric scraps inside the factory, on the ninth floor of the Asch Building. As the flames began to spread, the women who worked there found that they had been locked in from the outside by management, who wanted to prevent the workers, who made roughly $7 a week, from stealing inventory as well as keep out union organizers. The fire was one of the deadliest industrial disasters in New York City history.
The memorial, in the making for more than a decade, includes a massive stainless steel ribbon that floats horizontally along the edge of the building — the names and ages of the victims are cut out of the ribbon. A stone panel underneath the ribbon reflects the names back to the viewers and also bears quotes from witness and survivor testimonies. On Wednesday, the reflective stone panel was also adorned with 146 white roses in honor of the victims.
Gov. Kathy Hochul spoke at the unveiling ceremony of a memorial for the 146 victims of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, Oct. 12, 2023. (Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)
“It’s getting some really beautiful reactions,” Uri Wegman, who, along with Richard Joon Yoo, was one of the two architects of the memorial, told the New York Jewish Week. “You never know how people are going to respond and I feel like we are accomplishing exactly what we designed the memorial to do, to transport and reorient people” to the events of the tragedy, the Israeli-born architect said.
Over the next few months, a vertical steel column will be installed to showcase the height from which workers jumped in a futile attempt to escape the flames.
The Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition organizes an annual event on the anniversary of the fire, in partnership with Workers United, the New York City Central Labor Council, the FDNY and New York University.
“I’ve waited a really long time to say three words to you — three powerful words, and three extraordinarily sweet words: We did it,” said Mary Anne Trasciatti, the president of the coalition, at Wednesday’s unveiling ceremony. “By honoring the Triangle workers with this memorial, we are making a statement about the dignity and humanity of every worker, past and present. We are showing our support for baristas, auto workers, nurses, teachers, farm workers, warehouse workers, coal miners.”
Unions from around the city and beyond — including the International Ladies Garment Workers, the Steamfitters Union, the Laborer’s International Union, Actor’s Equity, United Automobile Workers and the SAG-AFTRA Union — sent representatives to the unveiling ceremony.
At the ceremony, labor organizers reminded the crowd about how the fire jumpstarted labor reforms and workers’ rights efforts, including activism and legislation that led to safety protocols, workers’ compensation, a 40-hour work week, minimum wage and pensions. They also used the opportunity to speak about workers’ rights today, pledging continuing support for the Hollywood actors’ and United Auto Workers strikes.
Hundreds of people, including descendants of victims, union members, local officials and labor activists came to the unveiling of the memorial, Oct. 11, 2023. (Julia Gergely)
The Triangle fire — with its large number of Jewish, Eastern European immigrant victims — also “galvanized the Jewish community, which had an already active labor base,” Ann Toback, the chief executive officer of the Worker’s Circle, told the New York Jewish Week.
Founded in 1900 as a fraternal organization to help Eastern European immigrants adjust to American society and workplaces, the Workers Circle was a central base for Jewish labor activists. In 1909, it helped organize an 11 week long general strike consisting of 20,000 young Jewish women in the shirtwaist industry. One of the only holdouts of the strike was the Triangle company.
After the tragedy in 1911, Jewish union organizers Clara Lemlich and Rose Schneiderman marched from the site of the tragedy to Cooper Square to demand new changes and more organizing.
“It did spark a new outcry of activism and The Workers Circle at that time was very much a center of labor activism,” Toback said. Jewish labor activists and Workers Circle members were also at the forefront of expanding the membership and organizing power of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union, which became one of the country’s largest labor unions after the fire. The Workers Circle was a sponsor of the victims’ memorial at the site of the factory.
In remarks, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul shared that her grandfather, uncles and father worked in coke ovens at the Bethlehem Steel plant, itself the site of multiple fatal industrial accidents.
“I am so proud to be part of this effort to honor the names of those who were lost in that horrific inferno,” Hochul said. She called New York “the birthplace of the workers’ rights movement” because of “what happened right on this block.” New York State allocated $1.5 million in state funds to build the memorial.
A steel ribbon with cutouts of the names of the victims wraps around the former site of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory on the northwest corner of Washington Place and Greene Street. (Julia Gergely)
Hochul, who has been trying to maintain support for immigrants as the city struggles with the recent influx of nearly 125,000 migrants, connected the fire to the present day.
“Our workers deserve to be protected and we will fight to make sure they have those rights,” Hochul said. “This state is so great because of the immigrants, the migrants who came here. Let them work. We need them.”
Julie Su, the Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor, also addressed the crowd. “We can imagine the black plume of smoke up in the air, the flames that spread from floor to floor, the panic of the workers who ran and found closed exits and broken fire escapes,” she said. “Their cries for help and then the thud of bodies as they began to jump one after another.”
Allison Kestenbaum said she has always felt a strong connection to her relative and other victims of the fire. “I went to NYU. If I had been there two generations earlier, an immigrant, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to go to college — I would have been a seamstress in a sweatshop,” she said.
“It also relates to what’s going on in our present and our future,” she added. “The story and everything that came after is known throughout our country and in so many parts of the world for the tragedy and for all the changes that it inspired and continues to inspire. It’s very meaningful.”
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Imam at New Orleans Terrorist’s Local Mosque Says Jews ‘Like to Take Control of the Economy’
A member of the National Guard Military Police stands, in the area where people were killed by a man driving a truck in an attack during New Year’s celebrations, in New Orleans, Louisiana, US, Jan. 2, 2025. PHoto: REUTERS/Octavio Jones
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the man who according to law enforcement perpetrated the New Year’s Day terrorist attack in New Orleans, lived in Houston near a mosque led by a radical imam who preached that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler killed Jews because “they like to take control of the economy.”
The connection has raised questions about the ideology of Jabbar, a US Army veteran who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group. The FBI revealed on Thursday that Jabbar acted alone and that on the morning of the truck ramming attack, in which at least 14 people were killed and dozens more were injured, he posted several videos on social media saying he supported ISIS. An ISIS flag was also found on the trailer hitch of the rented vehicle involved in the New Orleans attack. In one of his recordings, Jabbar revealed that he initially intended to hurt his friends and family, but changed plans because he wanted to bring attention to the “war between believers and the disbelievers.”
Amid heightened concern about the threat of Islamist terrorism, observers are noting that Jabbar may have been radicalized at Masjid Bilal, a mosque in the northern Houston community where he lived. According to footage published by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) on Thursday, Imam Eiad Soudan, leader of the Masjid Bilal mosque in Houston, told congregants in November 2023 that Jews seek to “control the economy” across the world and that Hitler perpetrated the Holocaust to mitigate Jewish economic power. Soudan also argued that Europe only supports Israel as a means to prevent Jews from migrating into their countries.
Eiad Soudan, Imam of Houston Mosque Where New Orleans Attacker Worshiped: Jews Seek to Control the Economy Wherever They Go, That’s Why Hitler Killed Them; Europeans Support Israel Because They Don’t Want Jews Back in Their Countries (Archival) pic.twitter.com/AFXc7cIC82
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) January 2, 2025
“Why does the whole world want them to stay in Palestine?” he said. “Because if they don’t stay in Palestine, they will go back to their countries, and those people, unfortunately, have one problem — well, they have many problems, but that’s one of the main problems — they like to take control of the economy. Everywhere they go, whatever is the rule, as long as they get to the goal, the means don’t matter.”
Although Masjid Bilal is reportedly located a few minutes walk from Jabbar’s residence, the extent of his connection to the mosque is unknown.
According to law enforcement, Jabbar was fatally shot by police when he exited his truck and opened fire after driving his vehicle into a crowd of New Year’s revelers.
On Thursday, New York Post reporter Jennie Taer led a tour of Jabbar’s purported home, which had been raided by the FBI. The residence contained a variety of harmful chemicals, including bottles of sulfuric acid. The tour also revealed a “work station” with tools located in a presumed bedroom. A closet within the home also contained a keffiyeh, a traditional headscarf worn by Palestinians that has become known as a symbol of solidarity with the Palestinian cause and opposition to Israel.
Jabbar’s brother, Abdur Rahim-Jabbar, told Fox News that his sibling was likely radicalized by an extremist interpretation of Islam.
Experts have warned of a rising global terror threat in the year following Hamas’s invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Last May, experts explained to The Algemeiner that “lone wolf” terrorists inspired by ISIS and al Qaeda could carry out attacks on US soil, incensed by the ongoing war in Gaza and inspired by terrorist violence abroad.
“As I look back over my career in law enforcement, I’m hard-pressed to come up with a time when I’ve seen so many different threats, all elevated, all at the same time,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in April.
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‘Join Hezbollah and Kill Jews’: Pennsylvania Man Indicted on Terrorism Charges
Members of Hezbollah carry the coffin of Hezbollah member Abbas Shuman, who was killed in southern Lebanon amidst tension between Israel and Hezbollah, during his funeral in Baalbek, Lebanon, Oct. 23, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amr Alfiky
A grand jury has federally indicted an American who absconded to the Middle East with the intention of joining Hezbollah — the Iran-backed Shia terrorist organization based in Lebanon — the US Department of Justice announced on Thursday.
The action affirmed the veracity of evidence that Jack Danaher Molloy, 24, had “attempted to provide material support and resources” to Hezbollah both in and out of the US, operating in his home state of Pennsylvania as well as in Syria and Lebanon between August and December 2024.
The venture ultimately proved unsuccessful, however, as Molloy — a dual citizen of Ireland and former active duty soldier for the US Army — was, according to the department, rejected by his would-be terrorist colleagues. They reportedly told him that “the time was not right” for his enlistment.
Molloy eventually returned to the US, where he made additional overtures to Hezbollah by contacting people online, some of whom lived in Lebanon. Throughout this time, he proclaimed himself to be pathologically antisemitic.
“Molloy, also allegedly expressed his hatred toward, and promoted violence against, Jewish people,” the Justice Department said. “Molloy’s alleged animus towards Jews was also evidenced by multiple images and and videos on his electronic devises and the usernames he chose for his social media and email accounts, including the username “K—EKILLER313″ on the social media platform X.”
It continued, “In one alleged WhatsApp exchange with a family member, Molloy agreed that his ‘master plan was to join Hezbollah and kill Jews.’ And while he was residing in Upper St. Clair, Molloy also allegedly visited a website detailing the possible incarceration location of Robert Bowers, who carried out the Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue shooting during which he murdered 11 Jewish worshippers.”
Hezbollah had been at war with Israel from October 2023, when the terrorist group began launching rockets at the Jewish state in solidarity with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza, until November 2024, when a ceasefire was reached to halt fighting in northern Israel and neighboring Lebanon. Molloy’s activities coincided with a surge in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, during which the former intensified air strikes and launched ground operations in Lebanon, pummeling Hezbollah’s leadership and weapons stockpiles.
Molloy now faces a slew of charges, both for providing “material support” for a terrorist organization and lying to the FBI about it, which happened when agents questioned him at the Pittsburgh International Airport in October 2024. If convicted, he could serve up to 28 years in prison.
US federal law enforcement officials have been actively investigating and securing convictions against antisemitic extremists.
In one such case resolved last month, a Jordanian expatriate, Hashem Younis Hashem Hnaihen, who was federally charged in August for attacking an energy facility and threatening to bomb businesses that he deemed supportive of Israel, pleaded guilty to his crimes, which included vandalizing small businesses in Orange County, Florida, and leaving “Warning Letters” addressed to the US government in which he vowed to “destroy or explode everything here in America. Especially the companies and factories that support the racist state of Israel.”
Later, he breached an energy facility in Wedgefield, Florida, where he “smashed” scores of solar panels and damaged other “electronic equipment.” The spree of infrastructure sabotage lasted “for hours,” the Justice Department added, destroying $700,000 worth of technology. In early July, Hnaihen left a final warning letter at an industrial propane gas distribution depot located in the city of Orlando., according to federal prosecutors. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department arrested him on July 11.
On Dec. 20, Hnaihen conceded to the federal government its case against him, pleading guilty to “four counts of threatening to use explosives and one count of destruction of an energy facility.” His plea also contained a promise to “make full restitution” to his victims, a debt he will likely repay by working a job in prison, where he stands to spend as many as 60 years.
Additionally, in October, federal prosecutors helped convict a gunman who shot two Jewish men as they exited a synagogue in Los Angeles.
Jaime Tran, 30 — an affiliate of the “Goyim Defense League” hate group — had attempted to murder two Jewish men in the Pico-Robertson section of Los Angeles in February 2023. Prior to the crimes, Tran called Jews “primitive” and told a former classmate, “Someone is going to kill you, Jew” and “I want you dead, Jew.” According to the Justice Department, he even described himself as a “ticking time bomb,” broadcasting his murderous ideation to all who knew him.
After declining to fight the federal government’s case against him, Tran pled guilty in June to four charges the department described as “hate crimes with intent to kill” and “using, carrying, and discharging a firearm” in the commission of an act of violence. His sentencing of 35 years ensures that he will not again be free until the year 2059.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post ‘Join Hezbollah and Kill Jews’: Pennsylvania Man Indicted on Terrorism Charges first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Biden Discussed Striking Iran Nuclear Facilities if Tehran Dashes for Bomb: Report
US President Joe Biden addresses rising levels of antisemitism, during a speech at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Annual Days of Remembrance ceremony, at the US Capitol building in Washington, DC, US, May 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
US President Joe Biden recently discussed plans for a potential strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities prior to his Jan. 20 departure from office if the Iranian regime makes substantial progress toward a nuclear weapon, according to a new report.
In a meeting “several weeks ago,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan presented Biden with a variety of options to decimate Iran’s capabilities to generate nuclear weapons, Axios revealed on Thursday.
Biden was not presented with new information during the secret meeting, which was reportedly conducted for the purpose of “prudent scenario planning” on how the US should respond to Iran ramping up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
No decisions were made during the meeting, and there are currently no active discussions inside the White House about possible military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities, Axios reported.
Some members of Biden’s team have argued that the combination of Iran’s increased nuclear activity and its weakened military state due to Israel’s war against its terrorist proxies has given Washington an opportunity to strike the regime.
In the year following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7, the Israeli military has decimated key pieces of Iran’s proxy network in the Middle East — most notably Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israel also set back Iran’s ballistic missile production and extensively damaged its air defense system with an October strike against Iranian military targets.
The Israeli military campaign has, according to experts, left Iran particularly vulnerable at home and hindered the regime’s ability to project power across the Middle East.
However, many observers fear that Iran may opt to break out toward a nuclear weapon in order to bolster its deterrence. Sullivan expressed that concern last month.
“If you’re Iran right now and you’re looking around at the fact that your conventional capability has been reduced, your proxies have been reduced, your main client state has been eliminated, [Syrian leader Bashar al] Assad has fallen, it’s no wonder there are voices saying: ‘Hey, maybe we need to go for a nuclear weapon right now,’” he told CNN.
Some experts have argued such statements indicate more of a willingness by the US to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities preemptively than ever before.
“By saying this, the current administration, which has previously been reluctant to attack Iran, is signaling concern and suggesting that the US might have to act,” Professor Jonathan Rynhold, head of the Department of Political Studies at Bar-Ilan University, told The Media Line. “There is more willingness now in the US to act preemptively.”
It is unclear whether Biden’s team has discussed the prospect of striking Iranian nuclear sites with the incoming Trump administration, which is expected to adopt a tougher overall posture toward Iran.
Iran has claimed that its nuclear program is for civilian purposes rather than building weapons. However, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog, reported earlier last month that Iran had greatly accelerated uranium enrichment to close to weapons grade at its Fordow site dug into a mountain.
The UK, France, and Germany said in a recent statement that there is no “credible civilian justification” for Iran’s recent nuclear activity, arguing it “gives Iran the capability to rapidly produce sufficient fissile material for multiple nuclear weapons.”
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