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In this collection of never-before-translated Bundist writing, the largest Jewish socialist party in history explains its opposition to Zionism in its own words.
As the threat of violence loomed in the early twentieth century, Bundists doubled down on their politics of solidarity with all oppressed peoples, not just Jews. In return, Zionists called them “traitors.” And as Zionism became hegemonic in the wake of the Holocaust, the Bund’s vast corpus of anti-Zionist writings languished untranslated in Yiddish—until now.
This volume presents texts from the most prominent leaders, orators, and thinkers of the Bund: critical travelogues from Palestine and furious takedowns of Zionist propaganda, eyewitness accounts of Zionist violence and groundbreaking visions of a future where Jews, Palestinians, and oppressed peoples everywhere could find liberation through socialism.
At a time when people are more hungry than ever to learn about the long history of Jewish anti-Zionism, Bundists’ revolutionary fervor and sense of social justice can tempt us to lionize them as heroes. Here, read in their own words for the first time, we can understand Bundists in all their cultural and historical specificity: good and bad, noble and petty, inclusive and exoticizing. One thing, however, becomes absolutely clear: we are not the first ones to fight this fight.
“I am awed by the work of archival reclamation [Tankus and Beirich] did. I can’t wait till you all get to read this book.”
—Molly Crabapple
Table of Contents
Foreword
Nathan Tankus
Introduction
Kaleem Hawa
Translator’s Introduction
Eyshe Beirich
I.
The Truth About Palestine (1925)
Victor Alter
Foreword
The Holy Land
Moses Made a Mistake
The Third Exile
The Jewish Majority in Palestine
A Look from Smorgon
An Expensive Pleasure
The Double Utopia
The Coming Messiah and the Jewish Polish Socialist Party
The Opposition, or a Storm in a Glass
My Interview with the Arabs
The End of a Dream
On Language and Historical Right
Conclusion
II.
Selected Writings of Victor Alter[EF1.1]
Tomorrow It Will Be Our Pride (1932)
On Bundist Matters (1927)
Socialism in Struggle (1927)
Jewish Blood (1929)
Egypt and India (1930)
Labor Zionists, or Eternal Court Jews (1931)
The Wind Is Blowing in Our Sails (1935)
Socialism and the Jewish Question (1937)
Reckoning with Zionist Theory (1937)
For Us, Jews (1936)
III.
Selected Bundist Writings on Zionism and Palestine
Bundists, the Arabs of Warsaw (1925)
Borekh Szefner
A Difficult Confrontation with the Arabs (1929)
Yoysef Brumberg
The Destruction of Zionism (1929)
Yoysef “Khmurner” Leshtshinski
What Zionism Can Be, What Zionism May Be (1929)
Benzion “Tsivion” Hoffman
The Arabs—and What Else? (1929)
Jacob Pat
The Bankruptcy of Hebrew Education (1932)
Chaim-Shloyme Kazdan
From the Hebraist State (1932)
Yisroel Rubin
The Struggle Against Arab Labor in Palestine (1934)
Yoysef “Khmurner” Leshtshinski
Jews Are in Exile in Palestine, Too (1934)
Dovid “Aryeh” Naymark
Zionism’s Grave Found in Palestine (1934)
Dovid “Aryeh” Naymark
God Give Us a Little War (1935)
Dovid “Aryeh” Naymark
Our Hands Spilled This Blood (1938)
Dovid “Aryeh” Naymark
Zionism and Antisemitism (1938)
Henryk Ehrlich
Zionism and Anti-fascism (1938)
Henryk Ehrlich
Zionsim and the Arabs (1938)
Henryik Ehrlich
What Is the Source of Our Inspiration? (1938)
Jacob Pat
Acknowledgements
Bibliography