Dr. Gene Young is a first generation son of Russian-Jewish immigrants who settled in New York City where they were active as labor organizers, coming to Minnesota during the Great Depression. His mother helped organize the largely women workforce at the Munsingwear plant in Minneapolis while his father was an organizer for the Farmer Labor Party, although he returned to New York to work with the Transport Workers’ Union. In 1951, he was detained for a year on Ellis Island while the U.S. government tried to deport him. His case was dismissed in 1952 when the courts ruled that the law itself was illegal, and he spent the next 25 years working with a NY cooperative which assisted poor tenants in rehabilitating and gaining ownership of their apartments.

Gene had a colorful “red diaper” childhood, attending progressive Jewish weekend schools and Camp Kinderland. He graduated from the High School of Music and Art, then earned a B.A. in music and history from The City College, an M.A. in Musicology and Opera from Indiana University, and a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction at Columbia University Teachers College. In 1973, he and his family retraced his parents’ journey to Minnesota, where he became a middle school principal. He retired in 1997.

Gene is a rich resource on the place of education, music, art, and culture in the progressive life of ethnic communities in the middle 20th century. Camp Kinderland was founded in 1923 by the Yiddish Workmen’s Circle as a place for the children of the tenements to get out of the city in the summer, and it was also a place where they learned the stories, songs, and ideas of class struggle and radical identity.

This picture suggests that Camp Kinderland continues to play similar roles.

Come and hear some of Dr. Young’s stories!

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