In his heyday he was in great demand at public celebrations of all sorts; as one observer of the time noted, "It was almost a pleasure to die, knowing that Barondess would arrange the rites."

[1] He was a relative of Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis[3][unreliable source] Joseph Barondess may have spent time in Medzhibozh or perhaps he felt affiliated with the town because his wife came from there.

His star faded somewhat after his conviction for extortion in connection with a cloakmakers' strike in 1891, in which he was accused of accepting a check for one hundred dollars from an employer who had violated his collective bargaining agreement with the union.

Barondess was one of the founders of the American Jewish Congress, and in 1919 he participated in the AJC's delegation to the Paris Peace Conference leading to the Treaty of Versailles.

[2] He was remembered fondly as a pioneer in the union movement and for his gifted speaking and writing skills; even the Communist paper Freiheit gave him a respectful obituary.