Judge Jacob Panken, Pioneer in Jewish Labor Movement, Dead at 89

Judge Jacob Panken, a pioneer in the trade union movement and the first Socialist to serve on the bench in New York City, died here yesterday at the age of 89. He was a founder of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and ORT, the organization for rehabilitation through training.

Judge Panken was born in the Ukraine and settled in the United States in 1890. He graduated from New York University Law School in 1905 and served as a Justice of the Municipal Court from 1917 to 1927. He served also as Justice of the Domestic Relations Court from 1934 until his retirement in 1957. Judge Panken was, for a time, president of the Jewish Daily Forward. He represented the U.S. Socialist Party at labor and socialist internationals in various European cities between 1922 and 1937.