On the afternoon of Saturday, March 25, 1911, at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory located at the Ash building (today the Brown building) in lower Manhattan, one of the worst industrial accidents ever in American and New York State history took place when a fire was begun on the ninth floor of the factory.

It is believed that the fire was caused by a cigarette which had been dropped into a bucket containing garment scraps. The fire took the lives of 146 individuals, the vast majority of whom were young Jewish and Italian immigrant women who, in many cases, were the sole breadwinner for their families. While workers on other floors of the factory received minimal warning, allowing them to escape to safety, the workers on the ninth floor were not so lucky. The sole fire escape available for use by these workers was poorly made and quickly broke under the weight of those trying to leave the building.

The stairwells were locked as a means of keeping the workers inside, keeping union organizers out and further as a means of preventing theft. All options closed off to them, the majority of those who lost their lives jumped to their deaths. One eye-witness reported that he saw woman after woman hesitate at the window for a split second before jumping and landing on the sidewalk below.

Those who hesitated too long were utterly consumed by the fire’s unforgiving flames. In the aftermath of the horrific fire, a multitude of measures were adopted in New York State to ensure the safety of workers. These included a shorter work day and the implementation of anti-child labor laws.

The Triangle Shirtwaist fire is an incredibly important moment in Jewish, women’s, and American history generally. In newspapers across the United States, coverage of the fire continued unabated for weeks and as news of the fire spread, large crowds gathered to witness the devastating blaze. The Triangle Shirtwaist fire shined a spotlight upon the tremendously unsafe and inhumane working conditions that were a part of the daily lives for so many and was a truly galvanizing force for the labor movement at large. In addition to the thousands of workers who were galvanized, many wealthier women, who supported working women monetarily and otherwise were emboldened. Perhaps one of the best known was the future secretary of labor under President Franklin Roosevelt, Frances Perkins.

The Jewish community in the United States and elsewhere has played and continues to play a large role in the labor movement. At the beginning of the twentieth century, an estimated two thirds of Jewish women worked in the garment industry, comprising the majority of those in the industry. Jewish women were instrumental in forming the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, which was founded in New York City in 1900 and fought tirelessly for the rights of garment workers. Two years before the fire for which the factory is best known, the Triangle Shirtwaist factory’s workers were some of the most important players in what would become the strike of 10,000, in which 10,000 garment workers, mostly women, walked off their jobs and went on strike for fourteen weeks. In the negotiating that ensued, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory refused to be a signatory to the agreement.

The Triangle Shirtwaist fire was incredibly monumental because of the devastation it wrought and for the fact that it demonstrated so poignantly how poorly workers were treated and how unsafe their working conditions were. The factory owners, Isaac Harris and Max Blank, both ironically Jews originally from Eastern Europe as were the majority of those who worked for them were tried but ultimately acquitted, which is seen by many as a gross miscarriage of justice.

In the weeks and months after the fire, many Jewish newspapers published moving tributes of some of the 102 victims, including a tribute to one particular young woman weeks away from being married. In February of 2011, six victims of the fire, who had previously not been identified, were finally identified. In honor of the fire’s centennial in March of 2011, numerous events took place across the United States to commemorate it and honor the victims.

Although the fire had a disproportionate impact upon the Jewish and Italian immigrant communities on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the labor movement has enjoyed the support of numerous religiously affiliated groups. At the very core of all the great religions is a call for justice and the proper and fair treatment of all workers.

As we commemorate the fire’s 101st anniversary, what lessons can it teach us today? What do our traditions teach us about our role in securing fair treatment for workers, including ensuring safe working conditions, fair wages and the like? In our society which is so focused upon consumption, and one in which so many of the products we daily use and enjoy are made overseas, in highly unsafe working conditions, what can we do to be socially just, responsible consumers? These questions are at the forfront of my mind as I reflect upon the tragedy that took place just over a century ago today. May our remembrance of the fire spur us to greater action today.

A version of this article appeared at http://judaism.bellaonline.com