Worker's Friend Group
It was the most popular radical Yiddish-language newspaper in London by 1904 and reached a peak circulation at 5,000 weekly copies the next year.
The group's operations declined following the British entry into World War I, as rising anti-German sentiment and Rocker's anti-war beliefs culminated in his detention, never to return to the town.
[1] As a group of close-knit friends, who lived in close proximity as a "quasi-Libertarian commune",[2] they regularly raised funds for their club.
After several weeks of preparations and interior design from anarchists and non-anarchist artisans alike, the group built a stage and bar in the great hall.
Rocker inaugurated the opening with a speech on events predating the group's purchase of the lease and the drive of federated Yiddish-speaking anarchists.
Rocker read statements in support from Jewish labor unions, Errico Malatesta, and Fernando Tarrida del Mármol, but was cut short when Peter Kropotkin appeared at the event to applause.
Historian William J. Fishman likened the club's activity, which welcomed all across age, political, and intellectual divides, to that of Toynbee Hall.
[10] Volunteers recalled seeing both famous figures at the club and serving Jewish orthodox the night of Kol Nidre, usually a time for fasting.
The stage hosted early performances by future Yiddish theatre figures Samuel Goldenberg and Abraham Teitelbaum.
The stage featured classes and lectures from Rocker, Malatesta, Kropotkin, and Varlam Cherkezov on political, scientific, and literary topics.
[13] In the summers, the group would make a trip to Epping Forest, schlepping tables, drinks, and food from the club by horse and cart.
Small labor unions and branches of the Workers' circle and Russian Social Revolutionaries used the building for recurring meetings.
[15] Rocker, a voice of moderation, held that terrorism was a setback for the movement, and the group did worry that propaganda of the deed in London would endanger their club.
The Jewish Workers' Educational Club took over editorial responsibilities in June 1886, whereupon the periodical became a weekly magazine that reached beyond London.
[3] It reached peak circulation at 5,000 weekly copies in early 1905 as the area's main radical Yiddish paper.
[22] Yiddish scholar Joseph Leftwich later wrote of the Workers' Friend Club's great influence on artists and writers in London's East End.
[23] Some members of the Workers' Friend group moved to New York and participated in radical Yiddish culture there, including the Fraye Arbeter Shtime.
