Ann Toback

Ann Toback has served as the Executive Director of the Workmen’s Circle since June 2008. For more than a century, the Workmen’s Circle has been cultivating a proudly progressive, diverse and inclusive community rooted in Jewish cultural engagement and social and economic justice activism. In 2015, the Workmen’s Circle made the strategic decision to reengage around its progressive roots and launched a new activist agenda prioritizing the Fight for $15 campaign. The organization has worked fiercely to remain a bulwark in the fight for the dignity and economic rights of workers, immigrant rights, and decent health care for all Americans. During Ann’s tenure as the nonprofit’s first woman leader, she has led the Workmen’s Circle through a reboot process, resulting in a new Jewish learning-based mission rooted in intergenerational learning, cultural celebration, and applying a Jewish lens to progressive activism. Since announcing their new work, the Workmen’s Circle is proud to have connected over a thousand students to their Easter European cultural heritage through the largest non-academic-based Yiddish language program in the world and has also launched a growing network of Jewish cultural schools, which attract many different kinds of families seeking community, hands-on Jewish learning, and social justice activism. A lifelong progressive activist – whose grandparents met at a union hall - and trained attorney, Ann previously worked as a union leader at the Writers Guild of America, East, serving as the Assistant Executive Director during her tenure from 1999-2008. A highlight of Ann’s union career was successfully leading the 2007-2008 Writers Guild strike on the East Coast before coming to lead the Workmen’s Circle. Previously, Ann served as an attorney at Rosenberg and Shapiro. She attended Boston University School of Law (J.D., Mediation and Litigation) and SUNY Buffalo (B.A., English Language and Literature/Letters).