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| Abbreviation | JSG |
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| Formation | 1970s |
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| Affiliations | International Jewish Labor Bund (defunct) |
| Website | jewishsocialist |
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The Jewish Socialists' Group (JSG) is a Jewish socialist collective in Britain, formed in the 1970s.
JSG was founded in Manchester/Liverpool in 1974–1977 as a lobby group campaigning against the fascist National Front and for the left to relate more positively to Jewish issues. A London branch formed in 1977. [1] They describe themselves as a political organisation campaigning for Jewish rights and the rights of all oppressed minorities in building a socialist future. [2]
The JSG supported the original Anti-Nazi League and was active in street-level militant anti-fascism. It participated in the Beyond the Fragments conference which sought to renew democratic socialism. In the early 1980s, it was active in campaigning for peace in Israel/Palestine.
It developed a perspective via drawing on the tradition of the Bund, stressing Yiddishism, cultural pluralism and a commitment to the vitality of the diaspora.
In the mid-1980s, it became associated with the Greater London Council's municipal socialism and multiculturalism, receiving funding to launch Jewish Cultural and Anti-Racist Project (JCARP). Additionally, it was frequently in conflict with the Jewish communal leadership and in particular, the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women (AJEX).
The JSG has been critical of allegations of antisemitism in the Labour Party, stating in April 2016:
Accusations of anti-Semitism are currently being weaponised to attack the Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour party with claims that Labour has a 'problem' of anti-Semitism... This is despite Corbyn's longstanding record of actively opposing fascism and all forms of racism, and being a firm a supporter of the rights of refugees and of human rights globally. [3]
In 2021, when the owners of the Pink Peacock were charged with a breach of the peace in response to them displaying tote bags with the phrase "Fuck the Police/Daloy Politsey" on them, the JSG sent a message of solidarity:
The Jewish Socialists' Group sends solidarity to comrades of the Pink Peacock Queer Yiddish Anarchist café after the recent attacks you have experienced against your premises... Daloy Politsey (Down With the Police) was sung on demonstrations by our political forebears as part of their courageous collective struggle against antisemitism and state repression in Tsarist Russia. At the Jewish Socialists' Group's annual secular socialist Seder Nights we continue this tradition and sing the chorus with the modern colloquial translation popularised by Geoff Berner. [4] [ non-primary source needed ]
Since the start of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, the JSG has called for an unlimited ceasefire. In a statement the JSG said:
The Jewish Socialists' Group stands for a future of peace and coexistence for the people in Israel and Palestine that can only be based on equality, justice, freedom and an end to occupation, colonisation and apartheid practices that reflect racist and fascist values of supremacy... We stand fully behind the right to resist occupation and oppression and the siege of Gaza. We stand also against the targeting of civilians, and our opposition to acts of terror against civilians applies equally whether they are carried out by individuals, resistance movements or state armies... The attack on Israeli civilians was a war crime and a crime against humanity... The same can be said of the massive, continuing Israeli attacks on Gaza. Both are despicable. [5]
It has also been engaged with protesting with groups such as Jewish Voice for Labour, Na'amod, Jewdas, Jewish Solidarity Action, Black Jewish Alliance, and Jews for Justice for Palestinians in support of the Palestinian cause. [5]
A magazine, Jewish Socialist, was launched in spring 1985 and continues publication today. [6] [7] The paper was conceived of in 1984 after a demonstration members of the JSG had attended. [7]
Jennifer Louise Tonge, Baroness Tonge is a politician in the United Kingdom. She was Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament (MP) for Richmond Park in London from 1997 to 2005. In June 2005 she was made a life peer as Baroness Tonge, of Kew in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, which entitled her to a seat in the House of Lords.
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The Jewish Labour Movement (JLM), known as Poale Zion (Great Britain) from 1903 to 2004, is one of the oldest socialist societies affiliated to the UK Labour Party. It is a member of the progressive coalition of Avodah/Meretz/Arzenu/Ameinu within the World Zionist Organization. Its sister parties are the Israeli Labor Party (Havodah) and Meretz.
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The International Jewish Labor Bund (ILJB) was a New York-based international Jewish socialist organization, based on the legacy of the General Jewish Labour Bund founded in the Russian empire in 1897 and the Polish Bund that was active in the interwar years. The IJLB is composed by local Bundist groups around the world and was originally created to defend Jewish national-cultural rights in Eastern Europe. It was an "associated organization" of the Socialist International, similar in status to the World Labour Zionist Movement or the International League of Religious Socialists. Bundist ideology differed significantly from Zionist beliefs regarding the Yiddish language and the immigration of Jews. In the mid-2000s, The World Coordinating Committee of the Jewish Labor Bund was dissolved in New York, although local Bundist groups or groups inspired by the Jewish Labor Bund still exist in Mexico and Australia.
British Jews have experienced antisemitism - discrimination and persecution as Jews - since a Jewish community was first established in England in 1070. They experienced a series of massacres in the Medieval period, which culminated in their expulsion from England in 1290. They were readmitted by Oliver Cromwell in 1655. By the 1800s, an increasing toleration of religious minorities gradually helped to eliminate legal restrictions on public employment and political representation. However, Jewish financiers were seen by some as holding disproportionate influence on British government policy, particularly concerning the British Empire and foreign affairs.
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 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.
This article summarises the views and voting record of Jeremy Corbyn, who was the Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party in the United Kingdom from 12 September 2015 until 4 April 2020. An independent, Corbyn was a member of the Labour Party from 1965 until his expulsion in 2024.
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Antisemitism within the Labour Party of the United Kingdom (UK) dates back to its establishment. One early example was comments about "Jewish finance" during the Boer War. In the 2000s, controversies arose over comments by Labour politicians regarding an alleged "Jewish lobby", a comparison by Ken Livingstone of a Jewish journalist to a concentration camp guard, and a 2005 Labour attack on Jewish Conservative Party politician Michael Howard.
Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) is a British organisation formed in 2017 for Jewish members of the Labour Party. Its aims include a commitment "to strengthen the party in its opposition to all forms of racism, including anti-Semitism ... to uphold the right of supporters of justice for Palestinians to engage in solidarity activities", and "to oppose attempts to widen the definition of antisemitism beyond its meaning of hostility towards, or discrimination against, Jews as Jews".
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Labour Against the Witchhunt (LAW) was a group formed in late 2017 to campaign against what it regarded as politically motivated allegations of antisemitism in the UK Labour Party, which it called a "witchhunt". It also campaigned against what it regarded as unfair disciplinary action taken by the Labour Party against its members, particularly in relation to such allegations of antisemitism. The group supported individual members facing disciplinary action and called for changes to the party's disciplinary procedures and code of conduct.
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Na'amod is a movement of British Jews seeking to end the British Jewish community's support for the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. They state their aim as "to work for freedom, equality and justice for all Palestinians and Israelis". Members are active in many parts of the country including London, Bristol, Manchester, Leicester, Leeds and Newcastle. They estimate they have over 600 members.
Daloy Politsey, also known as In Ale Gasn is a Yiddish-language anti-authoritarian protest song. The modern commonly known & recorded version of the song is actually a combination of two different protest songs from the late 19th and early 20th century Russian Empire; Hey Hey Daloy Politsey and In Ale Gasn respectively. The modern song was recorded in 1972 by the Yiddish Youth Ensemble on their album of Yiddish Songs of Work and Struggle. The recording later appeared in the soundtrack for the documentary film Free Voice of Labor: The Jewish Anarchists. As such the song is often rendered as In Ale Gasn/Daloy Politsey to highlight this combination. The two songs were historically associated with the Bundist movement along with the Jewish anarchist movement. The two songs were sung during the Russian revolutions as a rallying cry for Revolutionary Socialist and Anarchist Jews.
The exploitation of accusations of antisemitism, especially to counter anti-Zionism and criticism of Israel, may be described as weaponization of antisemitism, instrumentalization of antisemitism, or playing the antisemitism card. Bad-faith accusations against Israel's critics have been called a form of smear tactics. Some writers have compared them to playing the race card.
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