Marvin Rogoff
Title
Marvin Rogoff
Creator
Jacob Schlitt
Description
"Over the years, I have written about various people I have known—friends, colleagues, etc. Each of us is unique, and I have tried to find and describe that uniqueness."
Date
2006
Format
application/pdf
Type
text
Language
en
Coverage
1951/1968
Identifier
MARVIN_ROGOFF_4
Text
MARVIN ROGOFF
Over the years, I have written about various people I have known—friends, colleagues, etc. Each of us is unique, and I have tried to find and describe that uniqueness. Some I have known better than others. Occasionally, I focused on one event. More often I have tried to describe that person over the period of time that I have known him. For the past few weeks, I have tried to write about Jerry Wurf, for whom I worked at AFSCME in 1965, Bob Gladnick, the organizer with whom I worked at the ILGWU in the spring of 1951, and now Marvin Rogoff whom I have known from my first days as a Local 38 organizer in the fall of 1951. (I had better write quickly. The details are fading.)
I met Marvin soon after he was hired as the Assistant Education Director of the ILGWU. I came to the union through its Training Institute. Marvin came to the union because he was a member of the Young People’s Socialist League (YPSL), and was tired of working for the New York City Welfare Department. The ILGWU did a lot of its recruiting from among YPSLs. It seemed to me that Marvin had a good deal. I spent a year in a training program and was now getting $60 a week trying to organize custom tailors and alteration workers. Marvin was working in the union’s Education Department overseeing a very impressive program of workers' education, and I assumed he was making more than me. When I started attending the union sculpting class, there was Marvin, overseeing my class. We became friends.
A couple years later, Marvin told me that he was tired of working in the Education Department, and wanted to be where the action was. He transferred to the union's Harrisburg PA office to be an organizer. I certainly did not see this as a step up, but if that is what Marvin wanted, go right ahead. By this time I had left the ILGWU, served in the Army and had gone to work for the Jewish Labor Committee. Marvin and I kept in touch. His boss in Harrisburg was an officer of the JLC and when I saw him, he would fill me in on how Marvin was doing. Marvin had married his childhood sweetheart, Ethel, and they had a son, Joey.
A few years after Marvin moved to Harrisburg, several union staff members began to organize a staff union. Marvin played a leadership role. Antagonizing union leadership.
Dubinsky went crazy. Fought this effort. Marvin out of a job.
Rogoffs moved to DC In 1963. Marvin got a job with IUE. In Dec. 1964 I moved to DC and got a job with AFSCME. We reconnect. I move on to the USCCR in '65. Marvin moves on to EEOC in '67. I am a field rep. Marvin is liaison with AFL-CIO. Vietnam war. Organized labor supports. Many of us opposed. Marvin takes leadership. 1968 a critical year.
Over the years, I have written about various people I have known—friends, colleagues, etc. Each of us is unique, and I have tried to find and describe that uniqueness. Some I have known better than others. Occasionally, I focused on one event. More often I have tried to describe that person over the period of time that I have known him. For the past few weeks, I have tried to write about Jerry Wurf, for whom I worked at AFSCME in 1965, Bob Gladnick, the organizer with whom I worked at the ILGWU in the spring of 1951, and now Marvin Rogoff whom I have known from my first days as a Local 38 organizer in the fall of 1951. (I had better write quickly. The details are fading.)
I met Marvin soon after he was hired as the Assistant Education Director of the ILGWU. I came to the union through its Training Institute. Marvin came to the union because he was a member of the Young People’s Socialist League (YPSL), and was tired of working for the New York City Welfare Department. The ILGWU did a lot of its recruiting from among YPSLs. It seemed to me that Marvin had a good deal. I spent a year in a training program and was now getting $60 a week trying to organize custom tailors and alteration workers. Marvin was working in the union’s Education Department overseeing a very impressive program of workers' education, and I assumed he was making more than me. When I started attending the union sculpting class, there was Marvin, overseeing my class. We became friends.
A couple years later, Marvin told me that he was tired of working in the Education Department, and wanted to be where the action was. He transferred to the union's Harrisburg PA office to be an organizer. I certainly did not see this as a step up, but if that is what Marvin wanted, go right ahead. By this time I had left the ILGWU, served in the Army and had gone to work for the Jewish Labor Committee. Marvin and I kept in touch. His boss in Harrisburg was an officer of the JLC and when I saw him, he would fill me in on how Marvin was doing. Marvin had married his childhood sweetheart, Ethel, and they had a son, Joey.
A few years after Marvin moved to Harrisburg, several union staff members began to organize a staff union. Marvin played a leadership role. Antagonizing union leadership.
Dubinsky went crazy. Fought this effort. Marvin out of a job.
Rogoffs moved to DC In 1963. Marvin got a job with IUE. In Dec. 1964 I moved to DC and got a job with AFSCME. We reconnect. I move on to the USCCR in '65. Marvin moves on to EEOC in '67. I am a field rep. Marvin is liaison with AFL-CIO. Vietnam war. Organized labor supports. Many of us opposed. Marvin takes leadership. 1968 a critical year.
Original Format
application/msword
Collection
Citation
Jacob Schlitt, “Marvin Rogoff,” Autobiographical stories & other writing by Jacob Schlitt, accessed May 2, 2024, https://tsirlson.omeka.net/items/show/35.