Bundism
Encyclopedia
Bundism is a Jewish socialist and secular movement, which originates from the General Jewish Labour Bund founded in the Russian empire
in 1897. Bundism was an important component of the social democratic movement in the Russian empire until it was violently suppressed by the Communist party after the Russian revolution of 1917
. The Bundist movement continued to exist as a political party in independent Poland prior to the holocaust (the Polish Bund
) when many of its members were killed. After the Second World War, the International Jewish Labor Bund
was founded.
The Bund was a trade union as well as a political party, it had for initial purpose the organisation of the Russian Jewish proletariat.
elections.
.
concept of National personal autonomy
, further alienating the Bolsheviks and Lenin.
In a 1904 text, Social democracy and the national question, Vladimir Medem
exposed his version of this concept:
, arguing that emigration to Palestine
was a form of escapism
. After the 1936 Warsaw
kehilla
elections, Henryk Ehrlich
created an incident by accusing the Zionist
leaders Yitzhak Gruenbaum
and Ze'ev Jabotinsky as responsible for recent antisemitic agitation in Poland by their campaign urging Jewish emigration from Poland.
, it even took part to the 1959 Knesset elections, with a very low electoral result.
The 1955 Montreal Third world conference of the International Jewish Labor Bund
decided that the creation of the Jewish state was an important event in the Jewish history. The state might play a positive role in the Jewish life but a few necessary changes were needed. The participants of the conference demanded:
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
in 1897. Bundism was an important component of the social democratic movement in the Russian empire until it was violently suppressed by the Communist party after the Russian revolution of 1917
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
. The Bundist movement continued to exist as a political party in independent Poland prior to the holocaust (the Polish Bund
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.-Creation of the Polish Bund:...
) when many of its members were killed. After the Second World War, the International Jewish Labor Bund
International Jewish Labor Bund
The International Jewish Labor Bund is 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...
was founded.
Marxism
The Bund was a trade union as well as a political party, it had for initial purpose the organisation of the Russian Jewish proletariat.
Secularism
Though a staunchly secularist party, the Bund took part in the kehillotKehilla (modern)
The Kehilla is the local Jewish communal structure that was reinstated in the early twentieth century as a modern, secular, and religious sequel of the Qahal in Central and Eastern Europe, more particularly in Poland's Second Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukrainian People's Republic,...
elections.
Yiddishism
The Bund also promoted the use of Yiddish as a Jewish national language and to some extent opposed the Zionist project of reviving HebrewHebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
.
Doikayt
The doikayt (lit. "hereness", Yiddish = do -kayt, German = da-keit, French = "ici-té") concept is central to the Bundist ideology.National-cultural autonomism
The Bund did not advocate separatism, focusing on culture, not a state or a place, as the glue of Jewish "nationalism." In this they borrowed extensively from the Austro-MarxistAustromarxism
Austromarxism was a Marxist theoretical current, led by Victor Adler, Otto Bauer, Karl Renner and Max Adler, members of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria during the late decades of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the First Austrian Republic...
concept of National personal autonomy
National personal autonomy
The Austromarxist principle of national personal autonomy , developed by Otto Bauer in his 1907 book Die Nationalitätenfrage und die Sozialdemokratie was seen by him a way of gathering the geographically divided members of the same nation, "organize nations not in territorial bodies but in simple...
, further alienating the Bolsheviks and Lenin.
In a 1904 text, Social democracy and the national question, Vladimir Medem
Vladimir Medem
right|250px|thumb|Picture of Medem from the Medem Library in ParisVladimir Davidovich Medem, né Grinberg , , was a Russian Jewish politician and ideologue of the Jewish Labour Bund...
exposed his version of this concept:
"Let us consider the case of a country composed of several national groups, e.g. Poles, Lithuanians and Jews. Each national group would create a separate movement. All citizens belonging to a given national group would join a special organisation that would hold cultural assemblies in each region and a general cultural assembly for the whole country. The assemblies would be given financial powers of their own: either each national group would be entitled to raise taxes on its members, or the state would allocate a proportion of its overall budget to each of them. Every citizen of the state would belong to one of the national groups, but the question of which national movement to join would be a matter of personal choice and no authority would have any control over his decision. The national movements would be subject to the general legislation of the state, but in their own areas of responsibility they would be autonomous and none of them would have the right to interfere in the affairs of the others".
Before the creation of the State of Israel
The Bund eventually came to strongly oppose ZionismZionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
, arguing that emigration to Palestine
Aliyah
Aliyah is the immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel . It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology. The opposite action, emigration from Israel, is referred to as yerida . The return to the Holy Land has been a Jewish aspiration since the Babylonian exile...
was a form of escapism
Escapism
Escapism is mental diversion by means of entertainment or recreation, as an "escape" from the perceived unpleasant or banal aspects of daily life...
. After the 1936 Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
kehilla
Kehilla (modern)
The Kehilla is the local Jewish communal structure that was reinstated in the early twentieth century as a modern, secular, and religious sequel of the Qahal in Central and Eastern Europe, more particularly in Poland's Second Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukrainian People's Republic,...
elections, Henryk Ehrlich
Henryk Ehrlich
Henryk Ehrlich was an activist of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party , member of the Petrograd Soviet, Warsaw City Council and member of the executive committee of the Second International...
created an incident by accusing the Zionist
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
leaders Yitzhak Gruenbaum
Yitzhak Gruenbaum
Yitzhak Gruenbaum was a noted leader of the Zionist movement among Polish Jewry between the two world wars and of the Yishuv in Mandatory Palestine, and the first Interior Minister of Israel.-Education and journalistic career:Gruenbaum was born in Warsaw, Poland...
and Ze'ev Jabotinsky as responsible for recent antisemitic agitation in Poland by their campaign urging Jewish emigration from Poland.
After 1947
A Bundist chapter was created in Israel in 1951, the Arbeter-ring in Yisroel - Brith HaavodaArbeter-ring in Yisroel - Brith Haavoda
The Arbeter-ring in Yisroel – Brith Haavoda is the Israeli branch of the International Jewish Labor Bund, launched in 1951.-Secretaries:Its first secretary was Isachar Artuski , a former Polish Communist who had joined the Bund in 1935...
, it even took part to the 1959 Knesset elections, with a very low electoral result.
The 1955 Montreal Third world conference of the International Jewish Labor Bund
International Jewish Labor Bund
The International Jewish Labor Bund is 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...
decided that the creation of the Jewish state was an important event in the Jewish history. The state might play a positive role in the Jewish life but a few necessary changes were needed. The participants of the conference demanded:
- a) the authorities of Israel should treat the state as a property of the Jews of all the world
- b) but it would mean that the affairs of Jewish community in Israel should be subordinate to the affairs of the world Jewry.
- c) the policy of the state of Israel would be the same towards all citizens regardless their nationality.
- d) Israel should tend to peace relationships with Arabs. It required to stop a territorial expansion of Israel and bring a solution of the problem of Palestinian refugees.
- e) the Yiddish should be taught at all education institutions and would get all rights in the public life.
Bundist members of parliaments or governments
- Mojżesz GutmanMojżesz GutmanMojżesz Leybavich Gutman was a Jewish Belarusian politician and Bundist activist who was a minister without portfolio in the short-lived autonomous Belarusian National Council and Belarusian People’s Republic .In 1917 he was elected a member of the Ukrainian Central Rada...
member of the Ukrainian Central RadaTsentralna RadaThe Tsentralna Rada or Central Rada at first was the All-Ukrainian council that united political, public, cultural, professional organizations. Later after the All-Ukrainian National Congress that council became the revolutionary parliament of Ukraine...
in 1917, then Minister without portfolioMinister without PortfolioA minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister that does not head a particular ministry...
in the short-lived autonomous Belarusian National Council (1917–1918) and Belarusian People’s Republic (1918–1919).
- Noah MeiselNoah MeiselNoah Meisel was a Jewish Bundist politician and doctor in Latvia. He worked in the Latvian Department of Health. Meisel, also a Daugavpils city council member, was elected for the Bund in the three first Latvian Parliament in 1922, 1925 and 1928, but was not reelected in 1931.Meisel was arrested...
(1891–1956) member of the Latvian ParliamentSaeimaSaeima is the parliament of the Republic of Latvia. It is a unicameral parliament consisting of 100 members who are elected by proportional representation, with seats allocated to political parties which gain at least 5% of the popular vote. Elections are scheduled to be held once every four years,...
between 1922 and 1931 (twice reelected); DaugavpilsDaugavpilsDaugavpils is a city in southeastern Latvia, located on the banks of the Daugava River, from which the city gets its name. Daugavpils literally means "Daugava Castle". With a population of over 100,000, it is the second largest city in the country after the capital Riga, which is located some...
city council member - Moisei RafesMoisei RafesMoisei Grigorevich Rafes was a prominent politician of the Ukrainian People's Republic as the Bundist representative...
(1883–1942), member of the 1917 Russian Constituent AssemblyRussian Constituent AssemblyThe All Russian Constituent Assembly was a constitutional body convened in Russia after the October Revolution of 1917. It is generally reckoned as the first democratically elected legislative body of any kind in Russian history. It met for 13 hours, from 4 p.m...
and also of the Ukrainian Central RadaTsentralna RadaThe Tsentralna Rada or Central Rada at first was the All-Ukrainian council that united political, public, cultural, professional organizations. Later after the All-Ukrainian National Congress that council became the revolutionary parliament of Ukraine...
; member, as General controllerComptrollerA comptroller is a management level position responsible for supervising the quality of accounting and financial reporting of an organization.In British government, the Comptroller General or Comptroller and Auditor General is in most countries the external auditor of the budget execution of the...
, of the General Secretariat of UkraineGeneral Secretariat of UkraineThe General Secretariat of Ukraine was the main executive institution of the Ukrainian People's Republic from June 28, 1917 to January 22, 1918.It closely related to the today's Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine...
(the chief executive body of the Ukrainian National Republic from 28 June 1917 to 22 January 1918). - Emanuel Scherer, member of the National CouncilNational Council of PolandNational Council of Poland was a consulting and expert body of the Polish government in exile and Polish president. The first council was formed in December 1939 and was disbanded in July 1941 in protest to the signing of the Sikorski-Mayski Agreement. It was reactivated in February 1942, but...
of the Polish government in exilePolish government in ExileThe Polish government-in-exile, formally known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in Exile , was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Poland of September 1939, and the subsequent occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, which...
after Zygielbojm's suicide; secretary general of the International Jewish Labor BundInternational Jewish Labor BundThe International Jewish Labor Bund is 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...
(1961–1977) - Michal ShuldenfreiMichal ShuldenfreiMichal Shuldenfrei was a Polish Jewish politician, lawyer, a delegate to the first Sejm of post World War II Poland....
, member of the Polish parliamentSejmThe Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. The Sejm is made up of 460 deputies, or Poseł in Polish . It is elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm ....
in 1947-1948 - Aleksandr Zolotarev, successor of Moisei Rafes
- Szmul ZygielbojmSzmul ZygielbojmSzmul Zygielbojm was a Jewish-Polish socialist politician, leader of the Bund, and a member of the National Council of the Polish government in exile...
(1895–1943), member of the National CouncilNational Council of PolandNational Council of Poland was a consulting and expert body of the Polish government in exile and Polish president. The first council was formed in December 1939 and was disbanded in July 1941 in protest to the signing of the Sikorski-Mayski Agreement. It was reactivated in February 1942, but...
of the Polish government in exilePolish government in ExileThe Polish government-in-exile, formally known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in Exile , was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Poland of September 1939, and the subsequent occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, which...
(March 1942 till his suicide in May 1943)
Documents
In English
- Yosef Gorni, Converging alternatives: the Bund and the Zionist Labor Movement, 1897-1985, SUNY Press, 2006, ISBN 9780791466599
- Jonathan Frankel, Jewish politics and the Russian Revolution of 1905, Tel-Aviv, Tel Aviv University, 1982 (21 pages)
- Jonathan Frankel, Prophecy and politics: socialism, nationalism, and the Russian Jews, 1862-1917, Cambridge University Press, 1984, ISBN 9780521269193
- Jack Lester Jacobs (ed.), Jewish Politics in Eastern Europe : The Bund at 100, Zydowski Instytut Historyczny—Instytut Naukowo-Badawczy, New York, New York University Press, May 2001, ISBN 0-8147-4258-0
- Jack Lester Jacobs, Bundist Counterculture in Interwar Poland, Syracuse University Press, 2009, ISBN 0815632266
- Bernard K. Johnpoll, The politics of futility. The General Jewish Workers Bund of Poland, 1917–1943, Ithaca, New York, Cornell University PressCornell University PressThe Cornell University Press, established in 1869 but inactive from 1884 to 1930, was the first university publishing enterprise in the United States.A division of Cornell University, it is housed in Sage House, the former residence of Henry William Sage....
, 1967 - N. Levin, While Messiah tarried : Jewish socialist movements, 1871–1917, New York, Schocken Books, 1977, ISBN 9780805206166
- N. Levin, Jewish socialist movements, 1871–1917 : while Messiah tarried, London, Routledge & K. Paul (Distributed by Oxford University Press), 1978, ISBN 9780710089137
- Y. Peled, Class and ethnicity in the pale: the political economy of Jewish workers' nationalism in late Imperial Russia, New York, St. Martin's Press, 1989, ISBN 9780333412558
- Antony Polonsky, "The Bund in Polish Political Life, 1935-1939", in: Ezra Mendelsohn (ed.), Essential Papers on Jews and the Left, New York, New York University Press, 1997
- C. Belazel Sherman, Bund, Galuth nationalism, Yiddishism, Herzl Institute Pamphlet no.6, New York, 1958, ASIN B0006AVR6U
- Henry Tobias, The origins and evolution of the Jewish Bund until 1901, Ann Arbor (Michigan), University Microfilms, 1958
- Henry Tobias, The Jewish Bund in Russia from Its Origins to 1905, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1972
- Enzo Traverso, From Moses to Marx - The Marxists and the Jewish question: History of a debate 1843-1943, New Jersey, Humanities Press, 1996 (review)
- A.K. Wildman, Russian and Jewish social democracy, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1973
In French
- Daniel Blatman, Notre liberté et La Vôtre - Le Mouvement ouvrier juif Bund en Pologne, 1939-1949, 2002, ISBN 2-204-06981-7 (French review)
- Alain Brossat, Le Yiddishland révolutionnaire, Paris, Balland, 1983 ISBN 2-7158-0433-4
- Élie Eberlin, Juifs russes : le Bund et le sionisme. Un voyage d'étude., Paris, Cahiers de la quinzaine (6e cahier de la 6e série), 1904, 155 pages ASIN B001C9XEME
- Vladimir Medem, Ma vie, Paris, Champion, 1969 (Memories of a Bund leader)
- Henri Minczeles, "La résistance du Bund en France pendant l'occupation", Le Monde juif 51:154 (1995) : 138-53
- Henri Minczeles, Histoire générale du Bund, Un mouvement révolutionnaire juif, Éditions Denoël, Paris, 1999, ISBN 2-207-24820-8
- Claudie Weill, Les cosmopolites - Socialisme et judéité en Russie (1897–1917), Paris, Éditions Syllpse, Collection "Utopie critique", févr. 2004, ISBN 2-84797-080-0 (presentation)
- Enzo Traverso, De Moïse à Marx - Les marxistes et la question juive, Paris, Kimé, 1997
- Union progressiste des Juifs de Belgique, 100ème anniversaire du Bund. Actes du Colloque, Minorités, Démocratie, Diasporas, Bruxelles, UPJB, 1997, ISSN 0770-5476
- Nathan Weinstock, Le Pain de misère, Histoire du mouvement ouvrier juif en Europe - L'empire russe jusqu'en 1914, Paris, La Découverte, 2002, (Vol. I) ISBN 2-7071-3810-X
- Nathan Weinstock, Le Pain de misère, Histoire du mouvement ouvrier juif en Europe - L'Europe centrale et occidentale jusqu'en 1945, Paris, La Découverte, (Vol. II) ISBN 2-7071-3811-8
- movie: Nat Lilenstein (Dir.), Les Révolutionnaires du Yiddishland, 1983, Kuiv productions & A2 (French review)
In German
- Arye Gelbard, Der jüdische Arbeiter-Bund Russlands im Revolutionsjahr 1917, Wien : Europaverlag, 1982 (Materialien zur Arbeiterbewegung ; Nr. 26), ISBN 9783203508245
- Gertrud Pickhan, "Gegen den Strom". Der Allgemeine Jüdische Arbeiterbund, "Bund" in Polen, 1918-1939, Stuttgart/Munich, DVA, 2001, 445 p. (Schriftenreihe des Simon-Dubnow-Instituts, Leipzig), ISBN 3421054770 (French review)