SHEINKMAN, JACOB

SHEINKMAN, JACOB (1926–2004), labor leader and Jewish communal leader. Sheinkman was born in New York City. After serving in the Navy in World War ii, he attended Cornell University and was one of the first graduates of the School of Labor and Industrial Relations. He then became an organizer for the International Pulp, Sulphite and Paper Mill Workers. He joined the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America as a lawyer in 1953. In 1958 he became general counsel of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, afl-cio; in 1968 he became a vice president, and in 1973 secretary-treasurer. In 1974 he was elected president of the Jewish Labor Committee, where he served three terms and lobbied for strong U.S.-Israeli ties. He also served as vice president of the afl-cio Industrial Union Department, as a member of the executive committee of the American ort, and as a member of the board of trustees of Cornell University. During the 1980s, as a strong opponent of U.S. policy in Central America, he founded and co-chaired a national committee on labor rights in Central America, which served as an organizing base for union activists opposing U.S. military intervention in El Salvador and Nicaragua. From 1987 to 1995 Sheinkman was president of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union. After negotiating the union's merger with the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, he retired to form the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (unite).

[Milton Ridvas Konvitz /

Ruth Beloff (2^nd ed.)]