Amsterdam, London and Paris

In Amsterdam very few Jewish workers were involved in the political branch of the labour movement at first. In London separate Jewish unions existed in virtually all trades where Jews worked: garment production, shoemaking and furniture making. Jewish workers joined unions to improve their economic situation and especially to end the atrocities of the sweating system in London and Paris. In London and Paris the language barrier greatly complicated the efforts of Jewish immigrant workers to join forces with their non-Jewish peers. Jewish workers in Amsterdam, London and Paris tended to have vastly different political cultures from non-Jewish peers, and in London and Paris were moreover non-native and therefore had a different legal status as well. In Paris the Jewish immigrants fared better. In addition to being far less numerous, they were less noticeable in the multitude of other aliens. The Jewish labour movement in its various short and long-term interim manifestations in London and Paris, existed in Amsterdam as well.