About Us  |  Who We Are

Who We Are

• A community gathering place for secular Jewish life.
• An arts and education center for Yiddish, Jewish, and progressive culture.
• A voice for social justice and social change.

Perhaps you’re looking for an intergenerational Jewish community where you can feel at home – an alternative to conventional temple affiliation – a place where progressive values and Jewish culture find common ground.

Perhaps you’re looking to provide your children with a meaningful sense of Jewish identity – that fosters pride in their heritage -- a Jewish educational program that fits with your family’s faith, ethnic, and gender diversity, and with your family schedule.

Perhaps you’re looking for a way to make a difference as a progressive Jewish activist – or simply a community you can turn to when you need to re-energize – to remember what inspires you.

Perhaps you’re looking to be a part of the revival of Yiddish language and culture – to make Yiddish a living element of how you express your identity – to find inspiration and meaning in the history, art, and politics that is a part of Yiddishkayt.

There are many ways to explore, participate in, or become a part of our growing Center for Jewish Culture and Social Justice:

COMMUNITY

• Join us for a unique calendar of secular Jewish holiday observances.
• Join us for informal shabes potlucks hosted in member homes.
• Join our caring network of support during times of need.
• Join our grassroots organization of member activists.

• Explore the meaning of Jewish history, ritual, and text for secular Jews.
• Sing for a better world.
• Examine and discuss a variety of Jewish and social justice topics.
• Relax and enjoy a coffeehouse concert.
• Read fiction and non-fiction titles on Jewish-related topics.
• Play klezmer music, whatever your level.

• Take a Yiddish class.
• Stretch your mind and your Yiddish.
• Sample a taste of Yiddish.
• Drop in for an informal Yiddish conversation group or sing-along.

• March for a better world.
• Speak out for peace and justice in the MidEast.
• Speak out for worker and immigrant rights.
• Create radical arts and culture.

• Grades 1-7 can enroll in our Shule (secular school).
• Teens run their own social action group.
• Families join us for many holiday and cultural programs.

YOUNG ADULTS

• Organize Gragger/Noisemaker, our annual Purim party, with a different social justice theme and action each year.
• Gather together to participate in actions and activities such as worker's rights campaigns and Presidential debate-watching parties.
• Organize their own klezmer band.

Here's what some of our members have to say:

“I grew up in a traditional Jewish family, but I finally found my Jewish spiritual home in the secular Workmen’s Circle community.”

“My task is not to debate whether I’m a Jew or not but to figure out what kind of Jew I am. For me, finding a secular Jewish community with progressive politics fits my version of that identity.”

“Personally, my Jewish identity is the result of a history, the history of parents who were refugees from the holocaust, and grandparents who grew up in Europe and I embrace the continued identity as Jewish identified, but not in the traditional ways.”

Young Adult Organizing