Before World War Two, the Bund contributed heavily to the modernization of Jewish life as well as promoting the idea that Jews were not bound to a territory and instead were connected through history, language and culture. The Bund was the first Socialist Jewish Party and their goal was to improve political conditions in Russia, protect Jewish workers, to ensure their rights, and oppose religious persecution.[1]
Right before World War Two, the Bund organized together to protest against growing anti-semitism. Members of the Bund created resistance groups and participated in strikes. During World War Two, the Bund participated in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and organized underground groups within concentration camps.[1] Many members of the Bund were killed during the Holocaust and by the Soviet Army. Two influential Bundist figures, Henryk Ehrlich and Victor Alter were executed by the Soviet Army.[1] Historians believe that the original Bund was lost to the effects of the Holocaust in Poland, the demise of the Jewish working class, and consequently the demise of the Yiddish infrastructure. However, the organization was slowly re-established by Bundists who escaped and survived World War Two as the International Jewish Labor Bund. The Bund was reconstituted with the principle that the Jewish problem could only be solved in places where Jews actively lived through democratic socialism.
In 1997 commemorative events were organized to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Bund in New York City, London, Warsaw, Paris, and Brussels, where the chairwoman of the Belgian chapter, herself 100 years old, was present.
Summary of ideology
In 1958, the Jewish Labor Bund released a pamphlet commemorating the organization's 60th birthday. In it, the Bund summed up its ideology in seven points.[5]
Jews are dispersed throughout the World, and are a distinct nationality, though without a common state. They will remain in this situation in the foreseeable future. They cannot be remade into a one-state nation.
The State of Israel does not represent the entire Jewish People. It does not solve the Jewish problem. Even now, the population of Israel is less than 15 percent of the world's Jewry. Consequently, Israeli leaders are not in a position to assert Zionist claims of leadership over world Jewry, and their policies of Hebraization of Jewish life and of downgrading all Jewish communities outside of Israel (including those in democratic countries, such as the U.S.A) as places of exile are harmful and fallacious.
The key to the safety and the future of the Jews in Israel is peace with the Arabs. To achieve it, concessions on both sides are needed. Israel should recognize the moral right of the Arab refugees to repatriation and compensation. The Arab nations should recognize the existence of Israel. The United Nations should do their utmost to put an end to the Israeli-Arab conflict which invites Russian penetration into this turbulent region and is a menace to world peace.
The overwhelming majority of the Jewish people live outside of Israel; almost half of all Jews live in the United States. Jewish problems must be solved in the countries in which the Jews live.
Assimilation is an escape for individuals, not a solution for a whole people with a distinctive national culture and identity. Pluralism is the life-blood of real democracy, and this principle applies to national and cultural life within countries as well.
Jewish national problems arising within the countries where Jews reside can be solved on the basis of freedom and democracy – more securely, by democratic Socialism – which will guarantee Jews the rights of freedom and equality, including the right to a free, autonomous self-determination to maintain their own Jewish identity and national culture. Within the Jewish community the Bund strives for a secularized Jewish culture in the Yiddish language.
Two criteria of Jewish policies – one for Israel, another for the Diaspora - should not be followed. Wherever Jews live – whether as a national minority throughout the world or as a majority in Israel – Jewish policy, certainly Jewish Socialist policy, should be based on the same principles of freedom, democracy, international justice and brotherhood. Reconciliation of the claims of the Jewish people with the rights of other people is the essence of the Bund approach to Jewish problems, an approach which brings into harmony the Bund's Jewish national program with the spirit of democratic Socialist internationalism.
Bundist vs. Zionist Beliefs
The Bund believes that Zionism was created as a product of anti-semitism. The mere presence of Jews among Christians causes anti-semitism and the only way to solve this problem is for the Jews to leave and settle Palestine. This differs from the Bundist belief that antisemitism has cause in economic, political and psychological conditions of society and can be cured by changing the conditions that allowed it to exist in the first place. They believe the Jewish Problem is part of a general problem with humankind and can only be solved by improving humanity as a whole instead of focusing on a singular group. While Zionists favored immigration to Palestine as a solution to the Jewish Problem, Bundists were more opposed to it.[6] Zionists strongly believed that a unified nation in Palestine was the most promising way to survive and preserve Jewish identity. Bundists also accused Zionists of failing to defend Jewish national-cultural rights in Europe, collaborating with Polish anti-semites as they rejected the Zionist goal of large-scale emigration to Palestine.
After Israel was established in 1948, a Bund Conference was held where they rejected the creation and instead called for a Binational Jewish Arab state in Palestine. They criticized the Zionist attitude towards the Arabs of Palestine. The Zionist ideology discouraged the use of Yiddish in Palestine, and some Zionist ideological currents professted the "Negation of the Diaspora," claiming that Jewish existence is only possible in the land of Israel. Consequently, the use of Yiddish, the most prominent language of Jews outside of Palestine, was discouraged in the Yishuv. The Bundists, in comparison, felt differently about the Yiddish language. While they did not believe in a unified Jewish nation, they believed in an Eastern European unified union which was representative of all people who spoke Yiddish. A significant goal of the Bund was to preserve and protect the Yiddish language as a way of holding onto Jewish "national-cultural autonomy".[6]
Bundists advocate for a concept of international justice that integrates Jewish claims with respect for the rights of other groups. The Bund emphasizes collaboration with non-Jewish communities, particularly those who are underprivileged or experiencing hardship. As a Socialist Jewish political organization, Bundists are committed to class struggle and national rights.[7]
Termed by the Russian Jewish politician Vladimir Medem, the principle of "Neutralism" ensured the Bund's neutral stance in the fight between nationalism and assimilation.[8] Bundists also believe in a concept called Doykeit in Yiddish translating to here-ness in English. The Bundist principle of Doykeit relates to their beliefs in non-Zionism. It is the belief that national-cultural autonomy of different groups of minorities within states is composed of many different minority groups. Unlike Zionism, Doykeit favors localism as opposed to globalism in unifying Jewish culture. Another Bundist principle, called Veltlekhkeit in Yiddish, loosely translates to secularism in English. It exists as a modern alternative to traditional religious obscurantism of communities in the Russian Empire and Poland before World War Two. Veltlekheit sees religion as an individual and private matter but does not exist to promote anti-religion ideologies. Following the Veltlekhkeit principles, the Bund envisioned an uprising and revolution of the oppressed against the oppressors. They aimed at liberating all victims of capitalism, regardless of country, nation or race. The Bund placed their faith in a socialist revolution where the goal was to liberate all of humankind from political, economical and national oppression including anti-semitism.
The Bund in the United States
The Bund Organization of New York was founded in November, 1946, through the merging of the Medem Club and the American Representation of the Bund in Poland, and with the goal of unifying the Jewish Labor Bund globally, as well as spreading Yiddish culture and socialist politics among American Jewry. Before and after WWII, New York City had become America's epicenter of Yiddish life due to the immigration of Polish Jews, who made housing cooperatives, radio stations, and newspapers.[9][10] Despite the organization being relatively small, compared to other socialist movements of the time, such as the Workmen's Circle, it had multiple branches across North America, in cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Miami, Toronto, and Montreal. The New York branch was the central voice of the American Bund Organizations, and held several conferences. Furthermore, it hosted Jewish Holiday celebrations and Holocaust commemorations, had a Bundist summer camp called Hemshekh (Continuity), and wrote on various Yiddish newspapers and publications, such as Unzer Tsayt.[9][10] Prominent voices and leaders included Emanuel Nowogrodski and Emanual Scherer. The Bund Organization of New York was involved with US politics both locally and nationally, with movements such as the Civil rights movements,Vietnam anti-war protests, and protests against rising Neo-Nazism and antisemitism.[9]
The Jewish American Bund was a socialist party, concerned with uniting other American labor parties and the Jewish Left. The organization saw the US Democratic Party as pro-capitalist, and often chose to support independent, socialist candidates that supported workers in local and national elections. In the case there was no candidate that represented the views of the party, members were encouraged to vote freely or not vote at all, which occurred in the 1965 New York Mayoral election and the 1960 national election respectively. A break in this tendency occurred in 1963, after the assassination of JFK., in which the Bund endorsed former presidential candidate Lyndon Johnson. The organization also attempted to merge with other similarly aligned socialist groups in the US, such as the equally sized and aligned Jewish Socialist Verbrand. In response to the Civil rights movement, the Bund wrote a 1965 resolution in solidarity with the Black Civil rights movement, expressing that Jewish socialists were committed to the freedom and equality of all peoples.[9]
The American Jewish Bund was in slow decline ever since its establishment due to the political and cultural environment of the US and the world. The young Jewish communities in the US didn't have the same catalyzing conditions as the working class communities of the Polish Bund before WWII did, but were rather more likely to assimilate and adopt capitalism.[9] Especially after the establishment of a Jewish state in Israel in 1948, many Jews and Jewish labor parties, such as the Workmen's Circle, supported Zionism, and whereas the Bund was staunchly against the formation of a Jewish state, but rather believed in the creation of autonomous zones.[1][11] The movement of socialism in the US failed to gain traction, especially during the cold war, in which Communism and other Leftist forms of government were persecuted by the McCarthyist government.[9] The American chapter of the Jewish Labor Bund was principally a political organization, focused on sharing the ideals of Bundism and socialism, but did so on a scale larger than its support base, and failed to adapt to the cultural and political environment.[11]
Henryk Erlich (1897-1917, Russia branch; 1917-1945, Poland branch)
Executives of the World Coordinating Committee
Executive of the World Coordinating Committee in 1957: David Meier, Abraham Stolar, Emanuel Sherer, Emmanuel Novogrodski, Benjamin Tabatchinski, Pinchas Schwartz, Leon Oler, Alexander Erlich, J.S. Hertz, Joseph Gutgold, Hershel Himelfarb, Baruch Shefner
Members of the World Coordinating Committee 1957:
Peretz Guterman, F. Shrager, Leon Stern (all three from France), Meyer Treibeer, Berl Fuchs (both from Brazil), Berl Rosner (England), Tschechanowski (Belgium), Shimon Yezher, Tuvie Meisel (both from Mexico), Kowalsman (Uruguay), Alexander Mints, Dr. M. Peretz (both from Argentina), S. M. Oshry, M. L. Polin, Ch. S. Kasdan, Motl Zelmanowicz (all from USA), Artur Lermer, Manie Reinhartz (both from Canada), Paul Olberg (Sweden), Bunem Wiener, Mendel Kosher, Jacob Waks (all three from Australia), Bentzl Zalwitz, Pesach Burshin, Israel Artuski (all three from Israel)
This was the third Bund World Conference and it had a more positive outlook on Israel than Bundist groups in the past. They acknowledged the development of an Active Bund Organization inside Israel. At this meeting they acknowledged the existence of Israel while continuing to reject the Zionist identification of Israel as the homeland for all Jews and the international center of Jewish life.[15]
Several publishing houses associated with the International Jewish Labor Bund have been established globally, collectively producing 50 volumes printed in Yiddish. In New York, the IJLB issued a monthly Yiddish journal called Undzer Tzayt, alongside the Jewish Labor Bund Bulletin and the Bulletin of the Jewish Youth Movement. Additionally, Shloyme Mendelson Farlag operated in Mexico City, while Idbuch was based in Buenos Aires. Numerous smaller volumes were also published in various locations worldwide under the auspices of the Bund.
In 1957, for the sixtieth years of existence of the Bund, the IJLB published a commemorative book in Yiddish and English with photographs, Der Bund In Bilder, 1897-1957.
A year later, in 1958, the Parisian sector of the Bund published a brochure, Bundishe fraye tribune, which attacked members and ideologies from the World Coordinating Committee. The most notable argument was by Ralphal Ryba, who claimed that World Coordinating Committee was empty rhetoric and never followed through on its commitments to its people and local Bundist organizations. He also came after Bundist printing groups in New York for overprinting Bundist history books instead of printing political leaflets.[21]
Unser Shtine: a Yiddish daily based out of Paris and circulated in all European Jewish Communities
Unser Stimme: A daily paper based in Paris, France
Di Yungt Shtime: A bilingual journal published by the Jewish Students' Bund in New York during the mid to late 1970s. One of its notable publications was a collection of Bundist songs titled "Yiddish Songs of Work and Struggle," released in 1972.
Related Research Articles
The Workers Circle or Der Arbeter Ring, formerly The Workmen's Circle, is an American Jewish nonprofit organization that promotes social and economic justice, Jewish community and education, including Yiddish studies, and Ashkenazic culture. It operates schools and Yiddish education programs, and year-round programs of concerts, lectures and secular holiday celebrations. The organization has community branch offices throughout North America, a national headquarters in New York City.
The Folkspartei was founded after the 1905 pogroms in the Russian Empire by Simon Dubnow and Israel Efrojkin. The party took part in several elections in Poland and Lithuania in the 1920s and 1930s and did not survive the Holocaust.
As an organized nationalist movement, Zionism is generally considered to have been founded by Theodor Herzl in 1897. However, the history of Zionism began earlier and is intertwined with Jewish history and Judaism. The organizations of Hovevei Zion, held as the forerunners of modern Zionist ideals, were responsible for the creation of 20 Jewish towns in Palestine between 1870 and 1897.
Zionist-Socialist Workers Party, often referred to simply as Zionist-Socialists or S.S. by their Russian initials, was a Jewish territorialist and socialist political party in the Russian Empire and Poland, that emerged from the Vozrozhdenie (Renaissance) group in 1904. The party held its founding conference in Odessa in 1905.
The Sotsyalistishe Kinder Farband or SKIF was founded in Eastern Europe as the youth organisation of the Jewish Labour Bund, a Jewish Socialist political party. S.K.I.F has three core ideological principles: Chavershaft, Doikayt, and Yiddishkeit. The plural form of a SKIF member is SKIFistn and the leaders who run SKIF are the Helfer, aged in their late teens to early twenties.
The General Jewish Labour Bund in Romania was a Jewish socialist party in Romania, adhering to the political line of the General Jewish Labour Bund. Founded in 1922, shortly after the establishment of Greater Romania, it united Jewish socialists in Bukovina, Bessarabia and the Romanian Old Kingdom. Standing for the lay wing of the Jewish representative movement, the Romanian Bund had atheistic leanings and offered an alternative to the mainstream Jewish organization. Like other Bundist groups, but unlike the Marxist-inspired Poale Zion bodies of Bessarabia, it rejected Zionism.
Vladimir Davidovich Medem, né Grinberg, was a Russian Jewish politician and ideologue of the Jewish Labour Bund. The Medem Library in Paris, the largest European Yiddish institution, bears his name.
The Arbeter-ring in Yisroel – Brith Haavoda was the Israeli branch of the International Jewish Labor Bund, launched in 1951 and disbanded in 2019.
The Jewish Socialist Federation (JSF) was a secular Jewish Yiddish-oriented organization founded in 1912 which acted as a language federation in the Socialist Party of America (SPA). Many of the founding members of the JSF had previously been members of the Bund in Eastern Europe and sought to bring Bundist politics to the socialist movement in the USA.
The General Jewish Labour Bund in Poland was a Jewish socialist party in Poland which promoted the political, cultural and social autonomy of Jewish workers, sought to combat antisemitism and was generally opposed to Zionism.
Lebns Fragn was a Yiddish, Bundist-orientated magazine, published bimonthly in Israel. The first issue appeared in May 1951, under the editorship of Isachar Artuski. The responsibility for editing was shared by Ben-Zion ("Bentsl") Tsalevitsh (1883–1967). Tsalevitsh had come to Palestine in 1922, after having been active for many years in the Bund in Białystok, and Artuski, a member of the Warsaw Bund since 1935, arrived in Palestine during the Second World War.
Arkadi Kremer was a Russian socialist leader known as the 'Father of the Bund'. This organisation was instrumental in the development of Russian Marxism, the Jewish labour movement and Jewish nationalism.
Bundism is a secular Jewish socialist movement whose first organizational manifestation was the General Jewish Labour Bund in Lithuania, Belarus, Poland, and Russia, founded in the Russian Empire in 1897.
The Jewish left consists of Jews who identify with, or support, left-wing or left-liberal causes, consciously as Jews, either as individuals or through organizations. There is no one organization or movement which constitutes the Jewish left, however. Jews have been major forces in the history of the labor movement, the settlement house movement, the women's rights movement, anti-racist and anti-colonialist work, and anti-fascist and anti-capitalist organizations of many forms in Europe, the United States, Australia, Algeria, Iraq, Ethiopia, South Africa, and modern-day Israel. Jews have a history of involvement in anarchism, socialism, Marxism, and Western liberalism. Although the expression "on the left" covers a range of politics, many well-known figures "on the left" have been of Jews who were born into Jewish families and have various degrees of connection to Jewish communities, Jewish culture, Jewish tradition, or the Jewish religion in its many variants.
Poale Zion was a movement of Marxist–Zionist Jewish workers founded in various cities of Poland, Europe and the Russian Empire at about the turn of the 20th century after the Bund rejected Zionism in 1901.
Labor Zionism or socialist Zionism refers to the left-wing, socialist variation of Zionism. For many years, it was the most significant tendency among Zionists and Zionist organizations, and was seen as the Zionist sector of the historic Jewish labour movements of Eastern Europe and Central Europe, eventually developing local units in most countries with sizable Jewish populations. Unlike the "political Zionist" tendency founded by Theodor Herzl and advocated by Chaim Weizmann, Labor Zionists did not believe that a Jewish state would be created by simply appealing to the international community or to powerful nations such as the United Kingdom, Germany, or the former Ottoman Empire. Rather, they believed that a Jewish state could only be created through the efforts of the Jewish working class making aliyah to the Land of Israel and raising a country through the creation of a Labor Jewish society with rural kibbutzim and moshavim, and an urban Jewish Proletariat.
The General Jewish Labour Bund in Lithuania, Poland and Russia, generally called The Bund or the Jewish Labour Bund, was a secular Jewish socialist party initially formed in the Russian Empire and active between 1897 and 1920. In 1917 the Bund organizations in Poland seceded from the Russian Bund and created a new Polish General Jewish Labour Bund which continued to operate in Poland in the years between the two world wars. The majority faction of the Russian Bund was dissolved in 1921 and incorporated into the Communist Party. Other remnants of the Bund endured in various countries. A member of the Bund was called a Bundist.
Pesach Liebmann Hersch, also Liebman Hersh, was a professor of demography and statistics at the University of Geneva, and an intellectual of the Jewish Labor Bund, whose pioneering work on Jewish migration achieved international recognition in the period after the First World War.
Anti-Yiddish sentiment is a negative attitude towards Yiddish. Opposition to Yiddish may be motivated by antisemitism. Jewish opposition to Yiddish has often come from advocates of the Haskalah, Hebraists, Zionists, and assimilationists.
The Jewish Labour Bund, more commonly known as the Jewish Labour Bund Melbourne, the Australian Bund, or simply the Bund, is the Australian wing of the Bundist movement. It was a member of the historical International Jewish Labor Bund, and is the largest and most active Bundist organisation left in the world. It was founded in 1928 Jewish Polish immigrants, and expanded rapidly after the Second World War with the mass arrival of Holocaust survivors to Australia. The Bund is currently registered only in the state of Victoria, where it is legally known as the Jewish Labour Bund, Inc., and is based primarily in the city of Melbourne.
Twenty Years with the Jewish Labor Bund: A Memoir of Interwar Poland, by Bernard Goldstein, edited and translated from the Yiddish by Marvin Zuckerman, Purdue University Press, 2016.
The International Jewish Labor Bund after 1945: Toward a Global History by David Slucki, 2012
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
