Jewish Social Democratic Party

Last updated
Jewish Social Democratic Party

Yidishe sotsial-demokratishe partey
Founded1905
Split from Polish Social Democratic Party of Galicia
Ideology Social democracy
Political position Left-wing

The Jewish Social Democratic Party (in Yiddish, Yidishe sotsial-demokratishe partey, Polish : Żydowska Partia Socjal-Demokratyczna, abbreviated ŻPS) was a political party in Galicia and later also Bukovina, established in a split from the Polish Social Democratic Party of Galicia (PPSD) in 1905. The party made its first public appearance on May 1, 1905, with separate May Day rallies in Kraków, Lemberg, Tarnów and Przemyśl. However, as the new party stressed that it was not a competitor of the existing Social Democratic parties, they later joined the PPSD celebrations. [1]

Yiddish is the historical language of the Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a High German-based vernacular fused with elements taken from Hebrew and Aramaic as well as from Slavic languages and traces of Romance languages. Yiddish is written with a fully vocalized version of the Hebrew alphabet.

Polish language West Slavic language spoken in Poland

Polish is a West Slavic language of the Lechitic group. It is spoken primarily in Poland and serves as the native language of the Poles. In addition to being an official language of Poland, it is also used by Polish minorities in other countries. There are over 50 million Polish language speakers around the world and it is one of the official languages of the European Union.

A political party is an organized group of people, often with common views, who come together to contest elections and hold power in the government. The party agrees on some proposed policies and programmes, with a view to promoting the collective good or furthering their supporters' interests.

Contents

The Party, often nicknamed the 'Galician Bund', was influenced by the Bund in Russia and was opposed to Zionism. [2]

ŻPS held its founding congress in June 1905. [1] The second congress was held in 1906. [2]

Its founding theoretician and secretary was Henryk Grossman. While the Party sought affiliation to the Social Democratic Workers Party of Austria, this was refused. The ŻPS became the largest organisation of Jewish workers in Galicia. [3]

Henryk Grossman was a Polish economist, historian, and Marxist revolutionary active in both Poland and Germany.

In the initial period of the existence of the party, it publish a monthtly titled Der yudisher sotsial-demokrat. In October 1905 it was replaced by a weekly, Der sotsial-demokrat. As of 1910, Der sotsial-demokrat had a circulation of 2000. [4]

In 1911 the Jewish Social Democracy in Galicia, the Jewish affiliate section of the PPSD, merged into the ŻPS. [2] The Jewish Social Democracy in Galicia had 377 members at the time of the merger. [4] The strength of the party reached its peak when the Bukovina Bundists merged into the party the following year. The united party took the name Jewish Social Democratic Party in Galicia and Bukovina. [2] [5]

In 1913, several prominent leaders of the erstwhile Jewish Social Democracy began returning to the PPSD. More devastating for the ŻPS, though, was the outbreak of the First World War. Galicia and Bukovina became battlefield, and party activities ceased. The branch in Cracow was reconstructed in 1916, and in the fall of 1917 there was a conference of delegates from different local ŻPS branches. On 15, 1918 Der sotsial-demokrat reappeared. [6]

In 1920, its organisation in Poland merged with the Polish Bund. [3] [7] [8] In Bukovina, now part of Romania, the remnants of the party continued to operate under the name 'Bund', and in 1922 they founded (along with Jewish socialists from Old Romania and Bessarabia) the General Jewish Labour Bund in Romania. [9]

Membership

The party had 2800 members in 1906, by 1908 the figure had risen to 3600 and by 1910 it claimed a membership of 4206. [2] At the time, the party had 80 branches in 32 different localities. [4] In 1911, after the merger with the Bukovina Bund, the party had 4500 members. [10]

Except for its organization in Galicia and Bukovina, the party also had presence (at warying times) in Vienna, New York City, Antwerp and Bielsk. [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

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 Shoah.

Polish Social Democratic Party of Galicia was a political party in Galicia. The party was formed in 1890 as the Galician territorial organization of the Social Democratic Workers Party of Austria. In 1892 it took the name Social Democratic Party of Galicia. After an 1899 split, which led to the formation of the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party, the word 'Polish' was added to the party name. It was also known as Polish Social Democratic Party of Galicia and Cieszyn Silesia. From 1904 it closely worked with Polish Socialist Party, into which it was merged in 1919.

Ukrainian Social Democratic Party (USDP) was a political party in Galicia. The party was founded in 1899 as an autonomous section of the Polish Social Democratic Party of Galicia by some members of the Polish Social Democratic Party of Galicia (PPSD) and the Ukrainian Radical Party in Lviv. The key leaders were Mykola Hankevych and Semen Vityk. It was based on the Ukrainian social democratic organization that already existed since 1897. The first congress of the party took place in Lviv in 1903. Few years later in 1906 the party was joined by its affiliate in Bukovina, the Social Democratic Party of Bukovina.

Zionist-Socialist Workers Party, often referred to simply as Zionist-Socialists or S.S. by their Russian initials, was a Jewish socialist territorialist 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 Social Democratic Bund was a short-lived Jewish political party in Soviet Russia. It was formed as the Russian Bund was split at its conference in Gomel in April 1920. The Social Democratic Bund was formed out of the rightwing minority section of the erstwhile Russian Bund. The party was led by Raphael Abramovitch.

The Jewish Communist Labour Bund in Poland, generally referred to as the Kombund, was a Jewish political party in Poland. It was formed in 1922, after a split from the General Jewish Labour Bund in 1921. The split was provoked by disagreements over whether the Polish Bund should join the Communist International. At the first Polish Bund conference in 1920 a majority resolution passed, calling for the party to join the Communist International. The decision was never executed however, leading to the split and the formation of Kombund. The Kombund was founded in late January 1922, by Communist Bundist groups. The new party affiliated itself to the Communist International, adopting the twenty-one conditions. Around 25% of the Bund membership in Poland joined the Kombund.

General Jewish Labour Bund in Romania

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.

Jewish Social Democratic Association Bund

The Jewish Social Democratic Association Bund was a Jewish socialist organization in Bukovina, named after the Russian General Jewish Labour Bund.

Sara Szweber was one of the leaders of the Bund and a trade unionist in the Russian Empire, the Second Polish Republic and later in the United States. She was one of the few women that held leadership positions in the Jewish socialist and trade union movements of the late 19th and early 20th century.

The General Jewish Labour Bund in Latvia was a Jewish socialist party in Latvia, adhering to the political line of the General Jewish Labour Bund and existed from 1900 until 1940, when it was banned shortly after the Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940.

General Jewish Labour Bund in Poland

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.

<i>Der arbeyter</i>

Der arbeyter was a Yiddish-language newspaper, issued by the Polish Socialist Party (PPS). The newspaper was launched in 1898, named after a Galician Jewish social democratic publication by the same name. Der arbeyter was initially published from London.

Der yidisher arbeyter (Vilna)

Der yidisher arbeyter was a Yiddish-language periodical. It began as a Jewish workers journal in Vilna. In December 1896, Vladimir Kossovsky became the editor of the publication. With the sixth issue of the journal, published in March 1899, it became an organ of the General Jewish Labour Bund. The publication became the organ of the Foreign Committee of the Bund, and John Mill became its new editor. Der yidisher arbeyter became increasingly a theoretical publication, and its articles often dealt with issues relating to the national question in Central and Eastern Europe.

The Jewish Workers Bund in Poland was a short-lived alliance formed in January 1897, formed by the Jewish section of the Polish Socialist Party and the Vilna-based Jewish Social Democratic group. But the alliance soon fell apart, as the PPS Jewish section accused the Jewish Social Democrats of indifference to the Polish national question. The Jewish Social Democrats founded the General Jewish Labour Bund later the same year.

The General Jewish Labour Party was a Jewish socialist political party in Poland. The party was founded in Lvov in November 1931 by a leftwing group of the General Jewish Labour Bund in Poland in East Galicia, which upheld the idea of dictatorship of the proletariat, a faction of the Poale Zion Left and young left-wing Zionists. The party was aligned with the Communist Party of Poland.

Osip Minor Russian revolutionary

Osip Solomonovich Minor was a Russian revolutionary and member of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party.

Di Tsayt was a Yiddish language weekly newspaper published from Saint Petersburg, Russia. It was an organ of the General Jewish Labour Bund. Whilst the editorial team of Di Tsayt was based in the Austrian capital of Vienna, officially Saint Petersburg was the site of publishing for the journal. Prominent editors included Esther Frumkin, Raphael Abramovitch, Vladimir Medem, Henryk Ehrlich, Moisei Rafes and D. Zaslavsky.

Bundism

Bundism was a secular Jewish socialist movement, whose organizational manifestation was the General Jewish Labour Bund in Lithuania, Poland and Russia, founded in the Russian Empire in 1897.

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 in the Russian Empire, active between 1897 and 1920. In 1917 the Polish part of the Bund, which dated to the times when Poland was a Russian territory, seceded from the Russian Bund and created a new Polish General Labor Bund which continued to operate in Poland in the years between the two world wars. The Russian Bund was dissolved in 1920 and incorporated into the Communist Party. Other remnants of the Bund endured in various countries. A member of the Bund was called a Bundist.

References

  1. 1 2 Kuhn, Rick 'The tradition of Jewish anti-Zionism in the Galician socialist movement' Archived 2008-07-20 at the Wayback Machine Resistance and class stream, Australasian Political Studies Association APSA50 Conference, Canberra, 2–4 October 2002
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Brenner, Michael/Penslar, Derek Jonathan. In search of Jewish community : Jewish identities in Germany and Austria, 1918-1933. Bloomington: Indiana University press, c1998. p. 118
  3. 1 2 Kuhn, Rick Henryk Grossman and the Recovery of Marxism Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2007. ISBN   0-252-07352-5.
  4. 1 2 3 Jacobs, Jack Lester. Jewish Politics in Eastern Europe: The Bund at 100. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001. pp. 141-143
  5. ↑ http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Bukowinabook/buk1_127.html
  6. ↑ Jacobs, Jack Lester. Jewish Politics in Eastern Europe: The Bund at 100. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001. p. 145
  7. ↑ Marcus, Joseph. Social and political history of the Jews in Poland, 1919-1939. Berlin/New York City: Mouton Publishers, 1983. p. 280-281
  8. ↑ Kisman, Yusf 'Di yidishe sotsial-demokratishe bevegung in Galitsie un Bukovine', in G. Aronson, S. Dubnov-Erlikh, J. S. Herts, and others (eds) Di Geshikhte fun Bund drite band, New York: Farlag Unser Tsait, pp. 337-480
  9. ↑ http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Bukowinabook/buk1_129.html
  10. 1 2 Jacobs, Jack Lester. Jewish Politics in Eastern Europe: The Bund at 100. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001. p. 144
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.