In October 1888 Russian- and Yiddish-speaking members of the Socialist Labor Party in New York City met with three small Jewish unions to form the United Hebrew Trades (UHT). The new organization worked to organize Jewish workers into unions, eventually playing a prominent role in establishing the United Garment Workers of America and the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, among others.

In October 1890 the UHT called a conference that created the short-lived Hebrew Labor Federation of the United States and Canada. In December 1895 it was one of the founding organizations of the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance (STLA), of which it became District Alliance 2 in February 1896. Many of its constituent unions remained affiliated with the American Federaion of Labor, however, and in September 1897 the United Brotherhood of Cloakmakers helped form the Federated Hebrew Trades of Greater New York (FHT) in opposition to District Alliance 2. In December 1899 the UHT left the STLA and amalgamated with the FHT.