Ernest Rymer (1908-1986) was born in Ukraine in 1908. He came to the United States when he was still a boy, and his family resided in New York City. Rymer was a union organizer in the 1930s, and during World War II he served in the Navy.
After the war, Rymer (according to his daughter) worked as the "junior director" of the Jewish People's Fraternal Order (JPFO), part of the International Workers Order (I.W.O.). (This title may indicate that he served as director of the Jewish Young Fraternalists, the youth division of JPFO.) Rymer later served as director of the Jewish People's Fraternal Order, I.W.O. until sometime in the 1950s. Around the same period, Rymer was involved in the campaign to create a State of Israel. He was also a member of the Jewish War Veterans and was founder and chairman of the Great Neck chapter of the New Jewish Agenda.
Rymer had a career as a draftsman and construction designer. In the 1960s and 1970s, he was treasurer of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, Local 66.
Rymer died in Manhasset, Long Island, NY in 1986 at age 77.
From the guide to the Ernest Rymer Photographs and Other Material, Bulk, 1939-1959, 1929-1982, (Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive)
