Shabbat Gathering: The Jewish Labor Bund.

Dear Chevrei, as is our custom, we will gather tonight at 5.45p ct to welcome Shabbat. These are the coordinates:

Zoom
Meeting ID: 883 8469 4181
Password: 822665
Phone: +1 312 626 6799

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Here we go.

It’s always important to define terms, so let’s get that out of the way. The Jewish Labor Bund has nothing to do with the German Bund. The German Bund was active in America just before WWII and was pro-German, pro-fascist. Probably here it’s interesting to note that Jewish gangsters did a very effective job beating the daylights out of members of that group and, overall, suppressing it. That’s a whole ‘nother story.

No, the Jewish Labor Bund was / is a pro-labor, anti-fascist, pro-Yiddish, pro-diaspora, pro-socialist group founded in 1897 (the same year political Zionism was born) in the Russian empire. During the drama of the Russian revolution, the bund divided into it’s different groups depending on the country they were in. The Polish Bund took the lead and the original Russian Bund dissolved and, optimistically, merged with the Communist Party. (That didn’t work out very well.) Somewhere around 1921, the general Jewish Labor Bund was dissolved, except for the chapter in (Are you ready for this?) Australia. (More on Australia’s Bund to come.)

Now, a group of students in New York is organizing to revive the Jewish Labor Bund. You can see its website here. It’s website consists primarily of its manifesto on the home page. Unless you’ve already jumped to that page and read the manifesto, I’ll summarize it for you. For others who have read the manifesto, you can skip the next paragraph.

About the manifesto.

The manifesto says precious little about socialism and labor. Instead, it is weighted towards the recent events in Israel and Gaza: The invasion and devastation Israel has inflicted on Gaza. It speaks very clearly about how antisemitism is not the same as anti-Zionism. It almost speaks eloquently about the harm Jews are doing to themselves when they practice militant Zionism.

The group is in its nascent stages so it isn’t as visible at protests against Israel’s invasion of Gaza as Jewish Voice for Peace or IfNotNow.

Now, what was that about Australia?

The Jewish Labor Bund continued, uninterrupted, in Australia where Jewish immigrants planted their flag many years ago. According to a recent article in The Forward, that group, centered in Melbourne, has a slightly more moderate position than the new Bund on the war in Gaza, but it pretty much nets out the same.

I’ve been studying Yiddish for more than two years now partly because of my interest in the Bund. It’s a group I’m paying attention to and, if there are any significant developments, I’ll let you know.

And may it be for all of us a blessing.

See you tonight!
Gut Shabbes!

All my love,
brian.

PS

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