Nathan Chanin, one of the outstanding leaders of the Jewish labor movement in the United States, and secretary-general emeritus of the Workmen’s Circle, largest national Jewish fraternal order, died here today after a long illness. He was 78.
Born near Minsk and active in the Russian revolutionary movement in Czarist days, he came to this country in 1912, after serving a sentence of nearly eight years in Siberia. In New York, he became active in the Cap and Millinery Workers Union, serving that organization several years as vice-president. He wrote prolifically in Yiddisn, contributing to many of the leading Socialist-Jewish newspapers and magazines. He was also the author of several books.
After serving 15 years as educational director of the Workmen’s Circle, he became that fraternal organization’s secretary-general in 1951, retiring from that post as emeritus in 1963. Recently, the Jewish labor movement established a Nathan Chanin Educational Foundation for the perpetuation of his aims and achievements. At his death, he was a member of the boards of directors of United Hias Service, the Joint Distribution committee, ORT, the Congress of Jewish Culture and the Yiddish magazine Zukunft.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
