100 years ago today, tragedy struck New York City, a city that has known more than its share of tragedies.

And it struck the Jewish people, a people that has known more than its share of tragedies.

And the Italian community, and the vast community of workers who, in that heady era of early industrialization, were enslaved and endangered by the thirst and greed of unscrupulous bosses.

I know much too little about the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire to comment more - but I, like so many, am both riveted to the story that is seared in our minds, and amazed at the hold this story has on our collective memory and imagination. Why it grips us so, is a question others are seeking to answer. But at the very least, it is a question that harbors hope.

Hope that causes us to celebrate the unnamed tasks and unsung workers who stitch-by-stitch, brick-by-brick, row-by-row feed and house and cloth us. Hope that calls us to check and re-balance our appetites for goodness and for wealth. Hope that reminds us that it is not just the well-being of the marketplace that determines the well-being of the people, but the well-being of the people - in and at their places of work - that likewise determines the well-being of our marketplace.

Well-being does not flow in one direction. It is an iterative, reciprocal, mutually-dependent process.

So too the quest for environmental well-being demands the well-being of people, place and prosperity.

The triple-bottom-line is not a slogan or a mantra but rather a blueprint. It is the three-legged stool upon which society rests.

Remembering the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire is to remember this truth.

A production commemorating the fire created by Elizabeth Swados is being shown at the Judson Memorial Church on Washington Square in NYC, two blocks from the site of the fire.

Tonight at the Shabbat dinner table, speak a bit about the fire, the memories of those lost, the lessons that have since been learned, the remedies that have been put in place, and the work that is yet to be done.

May the memory of this tragedy - and the innocent lives lost - continue to bring awakening and healing.