Lazarus, Frieda Langer

Frieda Langer Lazarus (1896-1968) was an antiwar activist.

She was a member of the Women's Peace Union and the War Resisters League.

From the description of Frieda Langer Lazarus papers, 1932-1949. (New York Public Library). WorldCat record id: 86164313

Frieda Langer Lazarus, born in New York to Polish parents in 1896, was an antiwar activist and advocate for conscientious objectors. In the early 1940s she was a founder of the Metropolitan Board for Conscientious Objectors, which aimed to advise and assist conscientious objectors (COs) with their draft and alternate Civilian Public Service (CPS) difficulties. Lazarus herself aided numerous COs, and regularly corresponded with CPS camp officials, imprisoned objectors, and their families. She contacted camp administrators, legal counsel, and government officials in her attempts to secure pardons and ensure fair treatment at the camps. Following the war, Lazarus attempted to draw attention to, and curtail extended unpaid CPS service for objectors, arguing this posed undue hardship on their families.

Lazarus was also a member of the War Resisters League's Conscientious Objector Problems Committee, for which she served as chairperson. Other conscientious objector defense organizations with which she was associated were the Big Flats Defense Committee, the Committee for Amnesty, and the Committee to End Slave Labor in America (CESLA). Lazarus's interests extended beyond defense of conscientious objectors, as she was a member of the board of the Worker's Defense League, and on the Executive Committee of the Brooklyn branch of the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy. She was also an active member of the Women's Peace Union.

Through her pacifist activities, Lazarus encountered and befriended the Hungarian emigre activist Rosika Schwimmer, her sister Franciska, and Schwimmer's secretary and coworker Edith Wynner. As a result of this friendship, Lazarus occasionally assisted the Schwimmers with their legal problems pertaining to New York City housing and landlord conflicts. She also assisted Wynner in her attempts to nominate Rosika Schwimmer for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1948, and to organize the World Peace Prize for Madame Schwimmer when the Nobel nomination was unsuccessful.

Frieda Langer Lazarus's personal life included a marriage to Alfred Lazarus at the age of 23. They settled in Brooklyn, New York, and together raised three children: Richard, Arthur Jr., and Margy (the latter of whom is represented in this collection by a college essay she wrote in 1942 on the subject of conscientious objectors). Alfred and Frieda were later divorced. She passed away in 1968.

From the guide to the Frieda Langer Lazarus papers, 1927-1950, (The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.)