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Herstein was born in
Chicago, Illinois to a Russian Jewish family that had emigrated to the United States from Lithuania. She was the youngest of six children of Wolf Herstein, the sexton of a synagogue, and Cipe Belle Herstein, who ran the C.B. Herstein Hebrew Book Store. Her father died when she
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After college, Herstein initially had difficulty getting a teaching job because of antisemitism. Once hired, she taught in various
Illinois and Indiana high schools for five years before settling into the Chicago public school system. After a few years, she was promoted to teach at
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and in 1932 ran for
Congress on its ticket. In the 1930s, she was considered one of the most influential women in the American labor movement and was appointed by President
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78:(April 2, 1886 – August 9, 1983) was an American labor organizer and public school teacher based in Chicago, Illinois. She was a founder of the
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Herstein retired from teaching around 1951 but remained active in labor organizing and politics through the 1960s. She died in 1983, aged 97.
144:(CFL) and for a quarter of a century was the only woman to serve on the CFL's executive board. She was also active in the local branch of the
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was just 12, leaving the family in financial difficulties, and she was the only one of the children to go to high school. She graduated from
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O'Farrell, Brigid. "Equal Is Equal, Brothers: Lillian
Herstein, American Federation of Teachers (1886-1983)". In
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Around 1914, Herstein became active in labor organizing after joining a local affiliate of the
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as its Woman
Consultant for the West Coast, where she helped women working in war industries.
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magazine referred to her as "the most important woman in the
American labor movement".
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303:"Statistics of the Congressional and Presidential Election of November 8, 1932"
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with a degree in Latin and Greek (1907) and went on to get an M.A. from the
254:. Jewish Women's Archive, March 20, 2009. Accessed September 8, 2016.
305:. Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives.
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Jewish Women: A Comprehensive
Historical Encyclopedia
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Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women
Workers in Industry
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Encyclopedia of U.S. Labor and
Working-class History
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230:Rocking the Boat: Union Women's Voices, 1915-1975
178:During World War II, Herstein served on the U.S.
280:, Volume 1. Taylor & Francis, 2007, p. 85.
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232:. Rutgers University Press, 1996, pp. 10-17.
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171:meeting in Switzerland. That same year,
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163:In the 1920s, she helped to found the
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291:Arthur J. Goldberg: New Deal Liberal
154:Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
140:. She represented her union in the
352:Chicago Federation of Labor people
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169:International Labour Organization
88:International Labour Organization
367:20th-century American educators
138:American Federation of Teachers
332:Northwestern University alumni
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158:Works Progress Administration
132:Labor organizing and politics
357:Schoolteachers from Illinois
337:University of Chicago alumni
142:Chicago Federation of Labor
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146:Women's Trade Union League
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94:Early life and education
101:Northwestern University
150:Jewish Labor Committee
105:University of Chicago
180:War Production Board
118:Crane Junior College
90:meeting in Europe.
248:"Lillian Herstein"
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84:Franklin Roosevelt
80:Farmer Labor Party
69:Farmer Labor Party
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59:(1983-08-09)
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189:References
41:1886-04-02
148:and the
111:Teaching
107:(1924).
48:Chicago
173:Life
54:Died
35:Born
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