Mandolin Orchestras of the Past
A Worker’s Union Mandolin Orchestra
This photo is from a union newspaper in Chicago. I believe it was the ILGWU or Amalgamated Clothing Workers, but I’m not sure. The woman sitting lower right is my aunt, Edith Katzman, and I still have that mandolin. I played for a short time but never got very good.
The text above the English is not Hebrew or Yiddish: it is actually a transliteration of the English using Hebrew characters. (The union had a very high percentage of Jewish immigrants).
Jay Shefsky
Chicago, IL
(received 5/2012)
