Dear BWC Community, 

I officially joined the Boston Workers Circle as a dues-paying member in the fall of 2025. Before this, I had gotten to know BWC’s brick and mortar building at 6 Webster Street through my involvement with IfNotNow. Quickly, it became clear to me that BWC was one of, what felt like at the time, the few Jewish spaces where my cultural identity aligned comfortably with my personal, political, and moral beliefs. I relished in embracing longstanding traditions of Jewish labor organizing and communist politics, recognizing rhetoric I had overheard at my grandparents’ dinner table. I rejoiced at having found a home to practice the Jewish values of Tzedek (justice), Chesed (loving kindness), and Tikkun Olam (repair of the world) with deeply devoted BWC members.

Find your Jewish home at Boston Workers Circle by joining or renewing your membership today!

Each year for BWC’s Purim shpil, Gragger, members rewrite and perform the Book of Esther to subvert power structures, queer traditional narratives, and engage in contemporary social justice issues. My first foray back into the world of theatre since high school left me feeling like I could show up with my whole self. For six months, we met twice a week to write, imagine, scheme, and kvetch together. Whether or not I had a creative force under my wings on any given night, I always left feeling full. Bringing a labor of love, art, camp, and comedy into the world with my fellow Graggerniks lifted my ru’ach without fail.

This was no easy feat in a year such as this one. We know there is much to grieve. The rapidly accelerating assaults on our immigrant neighbors, relentless defunding of cultural, educational and social support networks, continued occupation of Palestine in the name of Jewish safety, and high scale military-violence perpetrated by our troops abroad are only a few of fascism’s plagues that we are faced with daily. 

But, as Zohar, our wonderful Social Justice and Community Organizer, said on the night of Gragger 5786: “Fascism hates art.” Fascism hates anything that offers an alternative to nationalism. Fascism hates all of the tools BWC provides its members to fight for justice: art, education, and community.  

Today, above all else, the Boston Workers Circle feels like a haven amid a world tumbling with fear, precarity, and violence. Not only a place to do the work of community organizing, being part of BWC has provided a place to recharge from that very labor. To know others are in the work with me, and to know that I can step back from the work. To know that we are not obliged to complete the work (alone), but neither are we free to desist from it.

Leslie Feinberg wrote “I’m not saying we’ll live to see some sort of paradise. But just fighting for change makes you stronger. Not hoping for anything will kill you for sure.” To me, being a member of BWC means having a home for hope.

In gratitude,
Lilian Kleinberg 
BWC Member