Trudy Gold
Bundism, Zionism, or International Socialism? 1881-1914
Trudy Gold | Bundism, Zionism, or International Socialism 1881-1914 | 06.30.22
VIsuals displayed throughout the presentation.
- Well, good evening, everyone. And this evening, I’m going to be looking at Bundism, Zionism, and International Socialism. Now let me say from the beginning. These were three important movements that really captured the imagination of young Jews in Eastern Europe. The Bundist option was by far the biggest. International Socialism, it didn’t attract the numbers. But what it did do was to set up the whole notion that all Jews are communist because the leadership was incredibly Jewish. Now let me say from the beginning, once someone becomes an International Socialist, they’re Marxist. They throw away Judaism. They think of themselves as great internationalists. The tragedy was that the enemies of Marxism, the enemies of International Socialism, later on were going to see it as a Jewish movement. And of course the other option, Zionism, I’ll mention it tonight, but I’m going to devote a whole session to it, to Zionism, next week.
Now, I want to say something very, very carefully. We all have hindsight of history. We know exactly what happened. I want you to use that incredible imagination that you all have, and try and take yourselves back to that period of history, from 1881 onwards, where the bulk of your families lived in Eastern Europe. And try and imagine the kind of dilemmas that they would have faced. Last week I talked about the reign of Alexander III, and how it disintegrated into horror for the Jews. And of course I began to talk about Nicholas II, the last and the weakest of the czars. And as you all know, over 40% of the Jews are going to leave Russia between 1881 and 1914. There’s going to be another huge exodus from the various countries after the Revolution. Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, they all become independent. But they also have with them a whole strand of anti-Semitism. And it led many of your families to actually get out in that period as well. So prior to 1939, there’s this huge exodus. Tragically, towards the end, it becomes a totally truncated exodus. Why?
Because the countries of the West are closing their doors. And the period I’m talking about, particularly America, America’s a country of immigration. Particularly after the Civil War, America wanted immigrants. And between 1800 and 1914, over 50 million people went to America. And if you’re interested in waves of immigration, all you have to do is look at the situation. What is happening in Europe? The Irish potato famine led to a huge influx from Ireland. The Wars of Unification in Italy, instability in Germany. And you can trace. And of course after 1881, you have that huge influx of Jews. But I’m going to start actually, if we could see the first slide from last week if you don’t mind, Judi. Now of course, this is the Kishinev pogrom. Now as I said to you, the Kishinev pogrom was a particular vicious pogrom. And it was also a turning point. Why? Because Kishinev was a garrison town. There were 16,000 troops stationed there. And when they decided under orders to clear it up, it took them a couple of hours. Was it perpetrated by czarists to authorities? They certainly allowed it to happen.
And the point was, Kishinev was even more important because it was very near the telegraph. And news of the Kishinev pogrom flooded the world. And already I spoke to you about the American President’s reactions. They were meeting all over Europe and America, really talking about the Czar and his horror. Now, I’m going to be referring back to the Kishinev pogrom next Tuesday when I look at Zionism. Because one of the things I wanted to look at is how various Jews in Eastern Europe reacted to the Kishinev pogrom. For Bialik, who went into Kishinev, working for the Jewish Historic Association of Simon Dubnow, who I’m going to talk about later, his poem, “The City of Slaughter,” is really a Zionist poem. And it’s terribly, terribly important for the future consciousness of Israel.
So the Kishinev pogrom, I will be referring to again, and also when I give you a session on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, because one of the main instigators of the pogrom was in fact Krushevan, who was the editor of the local newspaper, the “Bessarabets,” who is responsible for one of the editions of the Protocols. And as you all know, the Protocols were this appalling forgery that came out of Russia at this particular period, really talking about the Jewish conspiracy to take over the world. It’s the vile, evil document. And the problem with the Protocols is its been disseminated in so many different languages, in so many different places, and it’s still very much the favourite of conspiracy theorists. It’s coming up today. You see, whenever there’s social, economic, and political uncertainty, it’s so easy to find a scapegoat. And tragically, the Jews, because we’re international, and because we have always been at the forefront of all sorts of movements in the modern world, we are such a beautiful target for them.
So as I said, I’ll be doing a separate session on the Protocols. And can we go the next please, Judi? Yeah, the Czar, as though he didn’t have enough problems, inept little Nicholas, who would have been much better looking after an estate, he just didn’t have the capacity to be Czar. He and Alexander were very little, petty people. And of course, in 1904, the new emerging power, Japan, without declaring war, attached Port Arthur. Japan is looking for sovereignty in that whole region. Remember how far Russian stretches? Right to Manchuria. The Russian fleet was actually halfway around the world. And there was something called the Dogger Bank incident, where they actually fired on the British fishing fleet at Dogger Bank. Anyway, the Russo-Japanese War was absolutely disastrous for the Russians. And during that war, if you think about it, the Trans-Siberian Railway had been created. Troops sent to the front, men, equipment and food, it led to poverty, even worse poverty, and hunger in the cities, and a terrible, terrible crisis.
Because what happens is an ordinary group of people, they go on demonstration to the Czar’s summer palace. He’s already fled. Sorry, his winter palace in St. Petersburg. He’s already fled. I mentioned this last week. The Cossacks turn on the crowd. 3,000 people are mown down. And this was really the signal for a revolution. The 1905 Revolution, which I’m sure William will talk about in more depth, and it’s really called the Rehearsal for Revolution. And can we see the next slide please? That’s Father Gapon, who led the demonstration. So in the Revolution of 1905, the Czar was forced to give in to demands. A Duma was created. In fact, there was a cadet party that actually wanted Jewish emancipation. The Bund that I’m going to talk about in a moment, the Bolsheviks, the Mensheviks, they all were on the barricades. They refused to actually join the Parliament. However, what happens is, when the army returns, the war is over. The army returns, they’re still loyal to the Czar. And the Duma, it’s over.
The Bloody Revolution is over. And the calamity afterwards is absolutely horrific, particularly for the Jewish people. And the Jew becomes the scapegoat. And what you also see happening in Russia is a tussle between the forces of liberalism and the forces of conservatism. Basically, when I say liberalism, Russian style. There was always this tension. Von Plehv from Pyotr Stolypin, great ministers of the Czar, completely reactionary, blamed the Jews for everything. You had a brief period under Sergei Witte, who was in fact the man who did much to modernise Russia, but he was the man also who realised what was happening. He saw the incompetence of the regime. What happens, after the October manifesto is issued by the Duma, several pogroms break out. There’s an official investigation by Witte. And he realises this terrible police collusion. And the Czar actually intervenes to protect the perpetrators. In the aftermath of Kishinev, Witte said, “If the Jews "compromise about 50% of the revolutionary parties, "it’s the fault of the government. "The Jews are too oppressed.” And of course the Czar would not allow a constitution.
So Witte resigns, and he loses all his influence. And because Russia was in such a terrible state, he tried to secure a loan from France to keep the regime from bankruptcy. And he sent an envoy, ironically, to the Rothschild Bank. And this is the reply, and this is what he has to send. “They would be willing to render full assistance "to the loan, but they would not in a position "to do so until the Russian government "has enacted legal measures tending to improve "the condition of the Jews in Russia. "As I deemed it beneath my dignity to correct the situation "on our Jewish question with the loan, "I decided to give up my intention "of securing the participation of the Rothschilds.” So it’s interesting as well because if you’re talking about the notion of Jewish power, the fact that the Rothschilds were seen as such a symbol. And also in the States, there were American financiers who had supported the Russians, and who had supported the Japanese, because of their appalling attitude towards the Jews.
And following the failure of the Bloody Revolution, it’s a fascinating period, and I’m going to talk about it more when I talk about International Socialism, how the various characters came in to try for revolution. And it fails. And as a response to it, you have the most appalling pogroms breaking out all over Russia. And this is something, it is beyond imagination, this terrible wave of pogroms. And this wave of pogroms are actually very much blessed by the Czar. The organisation that was behind the pogroms is called the Union of the Black Hundreds. There were hundreds of pogroms in 1905, 1906. Thousands of people were murdered. And this was very much the conservative forces to stop liberalism. When I say liberalism, liberalism Russian style. Nothing like what’s happening in the West. And as they march through the areas of the Pale of Settlement, they had banners with pictures of the Czar. And their banner was, “The Jews killed Christ, "and they’ve attempted to destroy Russia.” And also, “They’ve attempted to kill the Czar.”
So this is very much, and in fact, many of the assassination attempts on various ministers, including the assassination of von Plehv, were perpetrated by people of Jewish birth. So the problem was, you had high visibility Jews in the revolutionary parties. So this terrible wave of pogroms erupt through the Pale. And it leads to a huge spike in immigration. Because along with it goes increased poverty. Can we turn to the next slide please if you don’t mind? Yeah, there you see of course images of the Bloody Revolution of 1905, which we will be referring back to as we look at International Socialism. Can we go on please, Judi? Yeah, I wanted to go back to the map of the Pale so that you all keep it in your heads. Because I think it’s quite important, and also, this is the area where my guess is that the majority of your families came from. I do have a huge, detailed map. And as , I’m trying to think of a way that we can actually look at it because it is interesting to see where the towns and villages of the Pale. And I know that many of you, as I said, come from these areas. So can we go on please, Judi?
Because what we will see now, these are the immigration figures to America. And it begins in 1899. And what you look at, the first column, is Jewish immigration. The second column is the immigration into America, and then the percentage that is Jewish. And you’ll see a spike in 1904 after the Kishinev pogroms. And then look at the spikes in 1905, 1906, 1907, 1908. And then there’s the calming. And then go to 1913. You can marry it to the events in Russia. And of course, 1914, and then the war years. And after the war, it was harder and harder to get out of Russia. By 1924, the Americans were seriously restricting immigration. 1923, so you can see that the numbers, how much they drop. And you will see also that in the ‘30s, when Jews were under the communists, it was almost impossible to get out. So you can see the figures for the '30s. So I thought that that was fascinating. The Israeli set of statistics, lies. Damned lies and statistics. But I think it is actually very interesting. And as we were saying yesterday, can you just imagine what it took to get out?
Despite all the horror stories that I’m talking about, can you just imagine what it took for them to make that decision to finally leave everything they knew behind? And also, it shows you just how bad the poverty was, and just how bad the fear of pogrom. There was internal migration. And of course that long journey to America or to Britain. And of course when you’re dealing with England, all those stories like my own family, some of them, they landed in Holland. They meant to go to America, but they just couldn’t distinguish, the story goes, between a British and American accent. So that branch of the family actually finished up in the North of England. And I’ve heard that from similar family memories also in Scotland, in Wales, in Ireland. About 5,000 Jews in Ireland. So it’s a fascinating pattern, this story of Jewish immigration. And in the end, what an incredible success story it was. And it also has to be said that Jews who made it to Germany, to France, and to Britain quite often they were paid by the Jewish authorities to move on. They were actually paid to move on to America. One of the characters who moved on to America was actually Louis B. Mayer. And can you just imagine what would have happened if he’d stayed.
Maybe the British film industry would have become even more successful. It would become as successful as the American Hollywood. But anyway, that’s just a little aside. Can we come to the next slide please, Judi? Yeah. And I’d like to thank Romie for actually typing this all out. You see here where Jews immigrated to. And you see America is very much the big destination. This is 1881 to 1930. Nearly 1 million, 800, well 749,000 from the Russian empire. Russian empire, be careful. Whether you come from Poland, et cetera, this is Russian empire. And then of course Poland becomes independent. So they are the figures from Austria, Hungary, and also from Poland. Then have a look at Canada. Have a look at Argentina, mainly because of Baron de Hirsch buying land. Brazil. Then the total for America is of course nearly 2 million, the whole of the Americas. Britain, 130,000. More came, but maybe went on. Germany. They were called the Ostjuden, and they didn’t get a very good reception at all from the German Jews already living there.
The German Jewish Foreign Minister, Walther Rathenau, called them the Asiatic hordes camped on the Brandenburg sands. And then of course, those of you who are South African, and I know Wendy’s family came from Shelby, there you have the total from South Africa. Also, British Egypt, now Palestine. Palestine, remember, is different because Palestine is ideological. And I’m going to talk about that in a minute. And then you have a small immigration to Australia and New Zealand. So thank you for those slides, Judi. And if we could move on now, because I’m going to start talking about the various responses. Having looked at 40% who immigrate to America, and there’ll be much more to say about them, we now need to turn to other responses. Now please don’t forget. To the Hasidic world, who is nearly 50% of all the Jews of Eastern Europe, this does not trouble their brains. Now, of course the horror story of the pogroms and the poverty troubles them.
But very few of them move. They might move internally after the May Laws, but the don’t leave. They are there under the sway of the Rebbe. And its because of that accident of history Lubavitch was saved because of the Rabbi’s vision. But what is happening amongst those who don’t leave, who also want to make their lives in Eastern Europe better? What was the Jew in Russia? How do you define the Jew in Russia? Who were they? Is there any hope of assimilation, as there was in the West? Remember, Jewish organisations like the Bund are going to be fighting for the Revolution in 1905. And now I want to turn to Vilnius. Because Vilnius, now in the Russian empire, is going to be at the centre of the largest manifestation of Jewish ideas in Russia, in the Russian empire. And that of course is the Bund. Now, as I’ve already mentioned, there’s a huge industrial boom at the end of the 19th Century. Factories, particularly in Lodz and Bialystok, Lodz was a third Jewish. Bialystok was 25% Jewish. Tenerife and Shelby, which was 50% Jewish, and in many other Lithuanian towns.
There were tobacco factories established throughout the whole of the Ukraine. Never forget that extraordinary statistic that by 1900, from feudalism to industrialization, Russia was the 5th industrial power in the world. So what you have now in the Pale is a large Jewish working class. They’ve abandoned being petty artisans or peddlers. It’s more and more difficult to become a peddler because you don’t have right to returning to your village under the May Laws. So now many of them are going for fixed wages. And we can say that by 1900, 40% of the Jews living within the Pale have become proletarianized. And I’ve already mentioned to you that within the Pale there’s now a class system. There are Jewish bosses. And there’s Jewish labour. And the working conditions for all the workers in Russia are absolutely deplorable. And after the May Laws, of course, Jews are even more vulnerable.
And this is how it’s described in a Yiddish newspaper, “The Yiddish Worker,” by Jacob Lashinsky. “Destruction, poverty and privation, "need and hunger in the fullest sense of the word. "Sweating systems, shrunken chests. "Lifeless eyes, pale faces, sick and tubercular lungs. "This is the picture of the Jewish street. "These are the conditions under which Jewish workers "have to fight for social reforms "and for the future dream of socialism.” So what is going to happen that is going to create such a mass socialist movement amongst the Jews? So the first point is going to be huge resentment, obviously from the Jewish working class against the Jewish rich. The Haskala itself had made inroads in Vilna. There was a certain amount of political activism being discussed. Chevras, every Jewish trade or profession had their own chevra. In Krakow, where you can see it so clearly, they even had different shuls. There was the shoemaker’s shul. There would be the cabinetmaker shul. They had their own chevras.
You could almost see them as forerunners of Jewish trade unions. And the structure of the economy, also something else that we could argue about. Within Judaism, particularly the Judaism of the prophets, is there not an extraordinary amount of the ideas of social justice? And that’s something that I really want to put into your heads because I’m sure those of you who go to shul and you will read the Haftarah, quite often from the prophets, if you look at Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Ezekiel, whatever prophet you want to look at, they talk about social justice. And this cradle of the movement is actually in that very industrial town of Vilna. In 1895, at the great Vilna yeshiva, a group of students abandoned their studies and they began preaching Marxism. The ideas of Marx, Marx dies in 1883 in London, and by the way, 13 people attended his funeral. He’s buried in Highgate Cemetery. He was never involved in any revolutionary fight, but of course his ideas are behind movements that changed the world. A very complicated, strange, alienated man.
But his ideas first enter Russia in the 1890s. Remember there’s far more communication now. And as the lot of the working people, you see this is the balance. You have it in the Hapsburg empire. You have it in the divided France. You have it whenever there is an imbalance. And the imbalance was all these countries are trying to modernise, but at the same time, what else are they trying to do? They’re trying to hold the lid on the people. So it’s no accident that Marxist ideas spread amongst the disaffected. And something else. Particularly amongst the Jewish community because Jews are literate. Anyway, Marxism means complete assimilation. Never forget the Marxist dictum, “Workers of the world unite. "You have nothing to lose but your chains. "Break down all nationalism.” And then something else. “Religion is the opium of the people. "It is a tool used by the ruling classes "to keep the population down.” So consequently, for the majority of the Jewish workers, this doesn’t hold any attraction whatsoever. Jewish workers still want to remain Jewish. They have their synagogue attendance. Their language is Yiddish. We’ve talked about the Haskala, it’s language being Hebrew. And of course later on, Zionism is going to put a huge emphasis on Hebrew.
Because Hebrew was the language when we were free, with a glorious past. They reject any kind of cultural assimilation. The Bund, as it’s going to be called, is going to be responsible for a real renaissance of Jewish culture. And the other point, most Jewish workers, they reject class revolution. What they want is better working conditions. And by the end of 1896, what happens is, a group of intellectuals believe that if we’re going to do anything in Vilna, we have to create an independent, Yiddish speaking labour group. And on October 7, 1897, ironically the same year as the first Zionist Congress, which would be in August in that year, 15 Jewish socialists meet in the back of a blacksmith’s shop in Vilna. Only one of them was not a worker, a man called Arkadi Kremer. And they create the General Jewish Labour Bund. And from the beginning, they sought to ally themselves with the Russian Social Democratic Party. And they went for gender equality. A third of the Bund were women. And that’s something else that’s very interesting about the revolutionary movements.
So many Jewish women flooded into the revolutionary movements, into the Bund, and also into International Socialism and Socialist Zionism. Because it gave them equality with the men. If you think about what later was going to happen in Palestine in the kibbutz movement, and which was founded, the first kibbutz was founded in 1906, Kibbutz Degania. What was to happen on the kibbutz? Men and women were to work together in the fields. They wished to share the labour. And in some kibbutz, it led to the creation of the children’s houses, which is again, another very contentious point. Anyway, their leader was a man called Arkadi Kremer. Can we see his picture please? Yes, oh sorry, sorry. Let’s talk about Arkadi Kremer first, and then I’ll go back to Simon Dubnow. So can we start with Arkadi Kremer? He’s born into a religious family near Vilna. He went to school in Vilna. He’s born in 1865. And he was fortunate enough to study in St. Petersburg. And then because of the moratorium on Jewish students, if you remember it was cut to 5% after the Pale, he then went in St. Petersburg. He went to Riga in Latvia, also in the Russian sphere of influence, and studied there in polytechnic. He became very, very involved in radical student politics.
He’s a very bright man. He’s completely aware of the horror of all working people within the empire. He joined a Marxist organisation called Proletariat. He’s arrested in 1888. And he’s banished from St. Pete. He goes into prison, then in exile. So in 1890, he returns to Vilna where he became the leader of something called the Vilna Circle. These were a circle of Jewish social democrats, from which the Bund later emerges. Now they, at this stage, are with the social democrats who want revolution. Ironically, he’s instrumental in persuading Jewish Marxists, like Martov, who led the Russian Social Democrats, a Jew, to move into agitation. Martov later became the leader of the Mensheviks. I’m also going to talk about that when we talk about revolution. And he established study centres to create a mass revolutionary movement. How on earth do you get to the people? You have to educate them in socialist ideas. What they need is better working conditions. He produced a pamphlet called “On Agitation.”
In his Vilna years, he met and married a woman called Matle Srednicki. Again an interesting pattern. She was the daughter of a wealthy Jewish merchant family. She went to study dentistry. Of course, this is where radicalism really grew up, in the universities. She’s involved with radicals. She is arrested and that’s where she meets Arkadi Kremer, in the Vilna group. She becomes one of the leaders of the Bund. He dies in 1935. She remains in Vilna. And of course in 1941, the Germans invade Lithuania. They break the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and a ghetto is established. And as an old woman in the ghetto, she became one of the leaders within the ghetto. She organised Yiddish libraries, secret meetings, and was a real beacon of light to people whose lives were horror. And in 1943 when they razed the ghetto to the ground, they deported thousands. She died, she was murdered in Sobibor.
Now I’m telling you her story, but please be careful. Because as I said before, hindsight. Hindsight is a very good thing. And at this stage, the Bund, as it’s going to be known, is going to have far more adherence than either the Zionists or the International Socialists. Kremer, at that meeting in October 1897, “A general union of all socialist organisations "will have as its goal, not only the struggle "for general Russian political demands, "it will have the special task "of defending the special interests of the Jewish workers, "and above all, carry on the struggle "against discriminating anti-Jewish laws.” So he’s come to a new realisation. He’s going to fight with the revolution, but he wants to deal specifically for Jewish workers. He was very much influenced by the work of Simon Dubnow, who I’m going to come onto in a minute. He wants cultural autonomy for the Jews after the Revolution. And he becomes one of the three members of the General Committee.
The trouble was he was arrested at the end of 1897, banished to Mogilev. The Okhrana was really clamping down in the reign of Nicholas II, as I’ve already explained. He worked with other political activists, and he attended the Second Bund Congress in 1898. 1900, he escapes. He goes to England. In London, he meets up with people like Lenin and Trotsky. London was a wonderful home for anyone who had a grievance against their own country. And we later on find him in France working with French socialists. He was a very charismatic character, brilliant mind. He also had a huge influence on Lenin. Then though, he is exiled. He’s not allowed back into Russia. He does come secretly in in 1905 for the Revolution. At the end of the Revolution, he’s arrested, just as the Revolution is winding down. And he manages to escape. He then retires from activism. He lives in Paris, where he’s still a representative of the Bund, and again involved with French socialism. And he returns to Lithuania after Lithuania independence is created after the collapse of the Czarist empire. And the Soviets take over, but they don’t hold Lithuania.
Lithuania is independent. And he teaches mathematics, and of course dies in 1935. When he dies, it’s a huge, huge thing. It’s an extraordinary funeral, where it seems like a quarter of the town came out to honour the great man. He despised Zionists. He called them Boujee utopians. Now after he’s exiled, the Bunds found a new leader in Vladimir Medem. Can we see his face please, Judi? Yeah, there’s Vladimir Medem. His date’s 1879 to 1923. He’s got a very good face, hasn’t he? And those of you who live in New York will remember that there was a very famous school in New York called The Medem School. And there was a Medem Society. Please don’t forget that many Jews who went to America after Britain, brought their activism to America. There was Bundism in America, just as there was International Socialism and Socialist Zionism. In London, in Paris, in Berlin, and above all, in America. On the Lower East Side, very important, in Chicago.
So he becomes their new leader. He had a fascinating background. He was born in Libau, which of course, and thanks to Arlene for this, this was the port where the Union Castle Line took most of the immigrants to South Africa. And he came from a very assimilated Jewish family. And whilst he was still a child, his parents baptised him into the Lutheran faith. He studied law in Kiev. He was always a searcher, and he spent his time studying. He’s looking for answers to the meaning of life. He studies the Bible. He’s drawn back to his Jewish roots, but he also studies Marxism, which of course the enemies of communism called it another Jewish Bible. And he gradually gropes his way back to his Jewish origins. And he joins the Bund. Very charismatic, very bright, important speaker. And he actually led the Bund delegation to the Second Social Democrat Conference in London, where he demands autonomy for the Bund. I want you to imagine. It’s actually a church hall about two miles from where I’m sitting.
In that meeting, there was Lenin, Trotsky, Martov, Axelrod, Plekhanov, Medem leading the Bund. There were two groups in the International, the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. Bolsheviks means majority, Menshevik, minority. The Mensheviks wanted gradual revolution, gradual process to revolution. The Bolsheviks wanted revolution now. The Bund, because they wanted cultural autonomy, and were responsible for incredible renaissance of Jewish culture, as I’ve already told you, you know, Yiddish theatre, Yiddish literature. It’s the glorious period of Yiddish literature, Yiddish schools. They were seen as outsiders. Why? Why on earth should the Jews have cultural autonomy? Because the world will be different. Once we create a revolution, all the differences between people will disappear. And so it’s strange to think in a church hall not far from where I’m sitting, where over 60% of those people, be they Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, or Bund, were Jews.
It was probably one of the most important conferences in history. Because what was determined by brilliant manipulation, the ruthless Lenin, takes control through the Marxists. The Bund is expelled. And the Bund, to an extent, was quite close to Martov, the Jew who led the Mensheviks. And in a way, it’s the expulsion of the Bund that meant the Bolsheviks could take control of the meeting. So anyway, the Bund is then expelled from the Social Democratic Party, later known as the communists. However, it doesn’t give up. And in the 1905 Revolution, the Bund organised strikes in Lodz and Bialystok. Tens of thousands of Jews participated. There were terrible accounts of revolutionary activities against the Jews. And of course I’ve already mentioned to you the terrible pogroms. Jews are being blamed for the Revolution by the Black Hundreds.
The Czar was the President of the Black Hundreds. This is an anti-Semitic organisation that is blaming the Jews for all the horrors of the Revolution. Now, this is a comment that Medem made on Zionism. “Journey preparations, travel fever. "Pack your belongings. "Turn your back on our life and our struggle, "on our joys and our sorrows. "You have decided to desert the gallows. "Well, leave it in peace. "Don’t interfere in our affairs. "Don’t show your generosity "by throwing arms from the windows of your rail carriages. "And please don’t talk about defending our rights here.” So you’ve got to understand the terrible tension between the Bund and the Zionists. One of the revolutionary leaders said that the Bund was Zionists who suffered from sea sickness.
The Bund wants to work for revolution, and once the Revolution is over, they want cultural Jewish autonomy. The Zionists, and by this stage, the bulk of the actual settlers in Palestine, the Second Aliyot in 1903, remember, they were socialists. And they wanted to create a social paradise in Palestine. And the universities of Europe were the real firing grounds. Just imagine all these young Jews who can no longer study at Russian universities because of the quotas. Just think of Chaim Weizmann in Geneva. In Zurich, I beg your pardon. He studied in Zurich. Can you just imagine the kind of characters that he would have come across as they all were fighting for the soul of the Jew. Be careful of hindsight. What would you have gone for? Would you have decided it’s so rotten you’ve got to get out? The evil Czarist regime? How would you have decided? It’s so, so complicated. Now we can say that perhaps the Zionist solution, tragically, because of course the rise to fascism in Europe, the rise of totalitarianism in Europe made life almost impossible for Jews.
Because when did Jews thrive in the diaspora? They thrive under liberal democracies. That’s the point. That’s when Jews thrive in the diaspora. When there is something uncertain in the State of Denmark, if I can paraphrase, then things are very edgy for Jews. Now I want to turn back to a man who had an incredible impact on the Bund. And he, in fact, had an incredible impact on many people, including me. He’s certainly one of my heroes. And that’s Simon Dubnow. And can we, yeah, now. Simon Dubnow. Because of the hindsight of history, we see him just as an idealist. So I’m going to give you the bones of his life and give you some of the extraordinary things he said. I think he was a visionary. He was a spiritual man. He was an agnostic. But anyway, let’s talk a bit about him. He had a traditional Jewish education from his very religious grandfather. Born in Belarus. I wonder if we’ll ever have the opportunity to travel in these places again.
As I’ve told you many times, I’ve travelled in so many of them, and you just get such a feeling, tragically, of how they walked the same earth, or did they really? In these little villages and towns. He went to heder, he went to shiva. He later enrolled in a state Jewish school, the Crown School. He learned Russian. And of course, the May Laws got rid of all those institutions, so he was unable to graduate. He’s self taught. Brilliant man, he taught himself history. He was fascinated by the outside world. He had a deep Jewish education. I could argue with you that the Talmudic training is probably the greatest training possible. He studied history. He was fascinated by history, Russian history, European history, philosophy and linguistics. He lived illegally in St. Petersburg, where he married. And he becomes a writer. And soon after arriving in St. Petersburg, his articles appear in the Jewish press. Don’t forget in 1890 the Czar expels much of the Jewish population.
So he went to Odesa. Odesa, that extraordinary town. And he joined the Ahad Ha-Am Society. Now of course, Ahad Ha-Am, Asher Ginsberg, I’m going to talk about him on Tuesday. Asher Ginsberg, Ahad Ha-Am, who is the cultural and spiritual Zionist. Odesa had this incredible group of Jewish intellectuals. I’ve already mentioned them to you. The extent of the society for the promotion of culture amongst the Jews in Russia. When that breaks open, what happens to them? They once believed in the reign of Alexander II all would be better. But it isn’t. So what’s going to happen to them? And he publishes studies in Jewish history. Those of you who are fortunate enough to have a good Jewish library, Simon Dubnow is an important Jewish historian. In many ways, the first and the most important. And he studied and studied, and he publishes and he publishes, and he becomes a very important authority.
What he wanted, he called for the modernization of Jewish education. He also called for Jewish self defence, particularly after the Odesa pogrom. And he wanted equal rights for Jews. He’s a modernizer. He was one of the founding members and a Director of the Jewish Historical Institute, editor of its quarterly paper. And he was the man who was responsible for sending Bialik into Kishinev, but I’m going to talk about that next time. He travels to Vilna, and he’s involved in organising Jewish political responses. He’s close to the Bund. And basically, what he believed in, what he wanted, was Jewish cultural autonomy within the Russian empire. At the time of the Revolution, this is what he said. “We shall never be forgiven "for the shared Jewish speculators of the Revolution "and taken in the Bolshevik terror. "The Jewish fellow workers of Lenin, "the Trotskys and the Uritskys eclipse even him.” He realised that in the end they might they call themselves revolutionaries, they might say they’re international, but the world will see them as Jews.
There’s an extraordinary story that when Jewish commissars finally broke down Jewish life in Russia, a rabbi went to see Trotsky. And he said, “Why are you doing this?” The Yevsektsias were Jewish sections run by Jewish revolutionaries to stop Jewish life in Russia because we’re all one people now. And the rabbi said to Trotsky, “Why are you doing this?” And Trotsky gave the party line. And the rabbi said, “Trotsky may well believe this, "but one day Bronstein and his people will pay for it.” So of course he welcomed the February Revolution. But as I said, he was uneasy about the Bolsheviks. What happens is, after the Revolution, he emigrates to Kaunas, and later to Berlin. His magnum opus was the 10 volume “History of the Jewish People.” And he takes over the mantle from the great man, Graetz. He is the second most important Jewish historian. And he is actually responsible for the first important synthesis of Jewish history. I’m lucky enough to have his volumes. He writes in a very sort of, his translation of course, very strange style, but he was a pioneer in Jewish history.
In 1927, Poland’s independent. He initiated a search in Poland for the Kehillot records for YIVO, of course the Jewish Scientific Institute, which was in Vilna, and thankfully transferred to America. Several hundred writings going back to the earliest Kehillot was the Opatow of 1601. So he is responsible. “We are the people of the book.” What was it Island Berlin said? “We have longer memories than any other people.” And he is one of the great figures in making sure that memory is restored. After Hitler came to power in '33, he moved to Riga, and that’s where his wife died. He wrote his autobiography, “The Book of My Life.” He’s one of the most famous Jews in the world. Through the interference with the Swedish government of Latvian refugees, he was granted a visa to Sweden. He doesn’t take it up. And of course in 1941, July '41, the Nazis invade. They take Riga. Fascinating city, Riga, by the way. Another place for your travels. And of course he lost his entire library. He’s transferred to the Riga ghetto. The 81 year old. I’ve just seen the news. Putin launches attack on the, anyways.
[Judi] Oh, my goodness.
Oh, my God, yeah, okay. Shall I continue? Yes, I must. In July 1941, the Nazis took Riga, and he was murdered. He was shot. And according to survivors, his mantra was, “Jews, write and record.” Anyway, this is what he had to say. I’m just going to read you some of his most important quotations, because he was an extraordinary man. He said, “I’m agnostic in religion and philosophy. "I, myself, have lost faith in personal immortality. "Yet history teaches me "that there is a collective immortality, "and the Jewish people "can be considered as relatively eternal, "for its history coincides with the whole world.”
Now I’m just going to read you this. “Every generation in Israel carries within itself "the remnants of worlds created and destroyed "during the course of the previous history "of the Jewish people. "A generation in turn builds and destroys worlds "and inform an image, "but in the long run, continues to weave this thread "that binds all the links of the nation "into the chain of generations. "Thus, each generation in Israel "is more the product of history than its creator. "We, the people of Israel living today, "continue the long thread that stretches from the days "of Hammurabi and Abraham to the modern period. "We see further that during the course of thousands of years "the nations of the world "have buried from our spiritual storehouse "and added to their own, without depleting the source. "The Jewish people goes its own way, "attracting and repelling, "beating out for itself a unique path "amongst the nations of the world.”
Let me finish there. And please, God, on Tuesday I will be continuing. Wow, that news. Is that news correct, Judi?
- [Judi] Trudy, it just popped up on my computer, so I need to check it.
Q&A and Comments
- Okay, should we? This is from Saul. “My paternal grandfather fought in the Russian-Japanese War, "interned in a concentration camp.” This is from Adrian. “My paternal grandfather was in the Russian army pre-1914. "Then he came to England to join his brothers.” Rose,
Q: “Don’t the Protocols have a start in England in the 17th century?” A: No, Rose, they actually come out of Russia in the reign of Nicholas II. I’m going to do a whole session on that.
This is from Tasha. “My father, who was born in Kishinev, told me of the pogrom "and the Black Guards.” That’s the Black Hundreds. “Who were shouting the slogan, . "Russia, kill the Jews and save Russia.” Good Lord, Natasha, that’s extraordinary. Marilyn, “In the film 'Top All,’ the closing song, ”‘Anatevka,’ sums up the people of Anatevka’s feelings.“ Yes, I’m actually going to show you an extract because one of the things I do want to look at is how it’s shown in films. Oh, this is Paula, yeah.
Q: "Where the 100,000 Jews living out , ever had pogroms?” A: What happened was, you’re going to see that many of them were forced back, Robert. Many of them were forced back into the Pale. So most of the pogroms occur in the Pale. But Jews outside of the Pale, living in Russia proper, the communities in Moscow and St. Petersburg, most of them were expelled in 1891.
Q: “When you say that Jews were literate, were women literate?” A: That’s a very, very good question. Not officially, but many of them were allowed to study by more lenient parents. And what is it I find absolutely fascinating is how many Jewish women actually took up secular education. A friend of mine did his PhD in the records of the University of Vienna and women, and you get a disproportionate number of Jewish women there.
Q: “How many Jews at that time went to South Africa?” A: According to the chart, Judi, I haven’t got it in front of me. I think it was about 25,000, and then another 10, wasn’t it?
Yes, Monique. “Jacob Schiff, an American Jew, arranged a series of loans, "about 200 million to the Japanese, which put Japan "in a position to achieve a victorious peace.” Yes, of course, Monique. Jacob Schiff, because he hated the Russian authorities, that’s why he did it. And evidently, the Japanese ambassador was totally shocked when he received the money. This is from Jean. “You mentioned tobacco in Russia. "Jews were reputed to Durham, North Carolina "to the wealthy tobacco farms because they needed people "with expertise in rolling cigarettes. "Eventually the Jews moved to the smaller towns as peddlers "and established stores.” That’s fascinating, Jean. “Cuba too, known for cigar rolling expertise.” Don’t know the answer to that. Anyone does?
“Source read Jacob Schiff, the Fugu Plan.” Now that is another story, Monique, a completely different story. The Fugu Plan was a plan by the Japanese to save Jews. The Fugu is a puffer fish. It’s the most incredible delicacy, but if you eat it in the wrong place it kills you. The Shanghai Bund, of course they were important Sephardi Jews, and the Sassoons, et cetera, on the Bundiat. Yes, that Bund, it’s a different Bund, completely different from that Bund. Thank you, Michelle. It comes from Persian-Hindu now, meaning bank, or embankment. The Bund in Shanghai is a waterfront. And what I thought you meant. Yes, there are very important Jewish businesses on the Bund. I once had an incredible Shabbat in Shanghai in the former home of the Sassoon family, it’s now a hotel, overlooking the waterfront. It was incredible.
Q: “Did Bundists believe in religion?” A: They did at first, but not in Poland. Once the Bund was reconstituted in Poland, because it was illegal in Russia after the Revolution, it becomes more and more atheistic.
This is from Rose. “My maternal grandparents from a little town in Poland "were raised in orthodox homes, "in extreme poverty with little education. "They moved to Warsaw, became a tailor and seamstress. "They became part of the Bund. "They emigrated to Mexico. "They would gather with other Bundists on Sundays "to read books, newspapers, like the Forverts, "sing and share culture, always in Yiddish. "They were culturally rich and deeply attached to Judaism. "They only stepped into a shul once "for my brother’s bar mitzvah. "My grandfather even asked not to sit shiva for him.” Fascinating, isn’t it, fascinating. Who knows what we would have thought at that time? Sheila, “Just a small moot point. "Degania Alef was founded in 1909.” Thank you, 1909, I got that wrong by three years. Thank you, Sheila. You know, that’s what I love about you lots. Somebody always knows. “Havat Kinneret was founded in 1908.” Rachel, “A.S. Gordon, two of famous kibbutz.” Oh yeah, Aaron Gordon, another important story.
Q: “Who was the greatest historian if Dubnow is?” A: Well, I didn’t say great. There was Graetz, and then Dubnow. I’m talking about the two greats that started it off. If you wanted me to decide who the greatest Jewish historian has been since then, well, I’d be in serious trouble, wouldn’t I? I mean, there are very many great Jewish historians now. Because gradually Jewish history became a serious discipline at universities. It’s a good question. Maybe we should have a poll on that.
Oh, my God, Norway invasion. Oh, my God. Where’s Putin? “Jewish finances and Jewish revolution is just enough "to fool the fractured Jew hating fantasists of Protocols. "It now echos to the idea Israelists "the colonialist opkind state.” Yeah. “My father was born in Mogilev. "When he was 10 years old he was extricated "with the help of John Diefenbaker, "a Prince Albert Canadian lawyer. "Later became Prime Minister of Canada.” That’s an interesting story. Fay, I hope you’ve written it down. Hilary, “I’m Wendy’s second cousin and my mother "was never exactly sure where our grandparents came from.
Q: "Did you mention the shtetl where her family came from?” A: I heard from her parents that they came from Shelby. It was a small town. It was the centre of Danube.
That’s right, that’s my dad’s side of the family. My dad’s mum.
Have you heard the news, Wendy?
I saw it pop up on the screen.
Should we call it off? No, I’m sure everyone will want to.
Yeah, so I think maybe, thank you, I think you can.
[Judi] Sorry, someone had said its an attack on Norway, but it’s a cyber attack, don’t panic. And that’s from Victoria in Cambridge.
Okay, oh, the danger of the press, the danger of the press.
But the cyber attack is not a joke either.
No, I know. We live in, what is it the Chinese say? May you live in interesting times.
But there’s nothing we can do about it, and if you feel like a drink.
No, I’m fine. Should we go back to the questions then? You’re right, we should continue, yes. So your family, Wendy, it’s your father’s family from Shelby, yes?
[Wendy] Yes, it is.
Yes, cyber attack, don’t panic. This is from Jackie. “Re Jews and tobacco, one of my husband’s clients "owned the Kensitas cigarette company.” Yes, tobacco was very much a Jewish profession. Very much so. And if you really want a sort of circular view of history, Peter Stuyvesant was Governor of New Amsterdam when Jews escaped from a. What happened, it was a Jewish colony in Recife, which was a Dutch East India company territory. Remember, Holland was good to the Jews. And then it was conquered by the Portuguese, which meant these people, they’ve been secret Jews. They’ve been conversos. They came out as Jews under the Dutch. Now they’ll be subjected to the inquisition, so they fled to New Amsterdam, where Peter Stuyvesant was the Governor. And of course, tobacco.
Now what is fascinating is he didn’t really want them to come in. So he sent a letter to Home Base, and he’s basically ordered by the Dutch West India Company to let them in because so many of the stockholders were Jewish. And of course, a few years later it’s conquered by the British and it comes New York. And the first shot on the Waal, W-A-A-L, you probably know it better as Wall Street, was a kosher butcher. This is from, I don’t now who that’s from. “My father, Lutch Jon Blit, "one of the leaders of the Bund in Poland during the ‘30s. "After the Holocaust in London, "he understood that the Bund had lost its purpose to exist. "I am named after Vladimir Medem.” Oh, that is so fascinating. You see, that’s the problem, isn’t it?
[Wendy] Who’s that from, Trudy?
I don’t know. Could you please send us your name? His father’s name was Blit, so maybe, are you Vladimir Medem Blit? What is your name?
[Wendy] B-L-I-T, is it?
B-L-I-T, I do hope you have written all this down. Because this is history. I know, Wendy and I have to talk about this. We’ve got such amazing students, that you’re all really enriching all our knowledge.
We’ve got amazing content. We’ve got amazing content, and what we are hoping to do with it. What we are planning to do is to put information on our website.
Yeah, that would be amazing, wouldn’t it?
Which will be very useful. Yeah.
Do you know I think future generations might be doing their PhD’s on the stories that come out of lockdown through our students. Oh, Gita has suggested Martin Gilbert as a great historian. Also David Cesarani. There are so many. I’m not getting involved in that game because if you turn to Israel, if you turn to America, there are so many great Jewish historians today, and of the previous generation. This is from Phil.
Trudy, Trudy?
[Trudy] Yes.
Just an aside, you know when David, my son, when he was 14 or 15, he met Martin Gilbert at the London Cultural Centre.
Yes, oh, did he?
Yeah, and he spent many, many years at banking school and hanging out with him.
Oh, that’s fantastic.
[Wendy] Yeah.
Martin was a wonderful historian. He was a lovely, lovely man as well.
And a wonderful teacher.
Yeah, he was a great teacher. And I’m going to put in a word for Robert Wistrich. This is Barry Epstein. “A Jewish family in Rhodesia grew Virginia tobacco "and exported the tobacco to Israel for many years. ” .“ Lovely story. Betty, "My family who went to the Columbia "were in the tobacco business in Bogoton. "Interesting story. "My mum’s cousin won the Miss Poland contest in 1926. "The title and financial award were taken away "when it was discovered she was Jewish. "Her future husband came back to Poland from Columbia, "determined to marry the prettiest girl in Poland.” I love that story, Betty. Wendy, there’s another one for our archive. “My grandfather, Wulf Lurry, was from Shelby. "There is a Facebook group, Jewish Ancestry From Shelby.” Thank you for that, Serena. Salud, Baron. Oh, “I’m Vladka Blit Robertson.” Oh, you know me, oh, Vladka. I didn’t know that was your background, oh, incredible.
Michelle, “All the talks should go on the website too. "Many, if not most, are worth looking at again. "For anyone, not just PhD students.” No, Michelle, I wasn’t talking about our lectures. I’m talking about your comments. What I’m saying is, and I think Wendy and I, we’re fascinated by this. So many of you are telling incredible stories. Our talks will all be available, for good or for bad. But I’m talking about the stories you’re enriching us with. Simone Schama, Adrian has put forward. I don’t think we better do this competition. I remember once, Jeremy Rosen and I taught a course jointly at the London Jewish Cultural Centre on who were the greatest Jews. And honestly, there was almost war over that. So, I think I better stop. I think that’s the end of the questions.
I like that. I’m sure that you figured it out. As a little subsection, who were the greatest.
It would be an interesting subsection. I think you’ve got your views on that, Wendy, haven’t you?
I do, I do.
I mean, that would be quite fascinating.
The positives and the negatives.
Oh yeah, you could also do the great heroes of the Jewish twelve. Who are the heroes? I mean, Simon Dubnow’s always been a great hero of mine.
Sorry, go on, yeah.
No, you go.
I was going to say we can’t do the villains because then we’re accused of being anti-Semite. You can’t win.
You can’t win. We could do the Jewish gangsters.
The gangsters, all right.
No, I mean, there was a character called Dutch. Well, I think we need to lighten it. There was a character called Dutch Schultz, who was very attached to his mother. And he always took her a chicken on Friday night, and that’s how they got him. I mean, the gangsters in the '30s, they were supplying arms and ammunition to the Yikund.
Justine, can you give the lecture on the gangsters? She’s fascinated by this.
Oh, is Justine interested in that? Oh, well tell her, please. We could do with one of them. 'Cause it’s actually an extraordinary story. I remember Meyer Lansky of course was the accountant for the mob. But somebody wrote, I think it was Rich Cohen who wrote a book on it. He said, “The point about the Jewish gangsters, "they were only one generational. "They didn’t let their children go into the business.”
I think that we’d be able to find a couple of them in business right now under the last presidency.
What a world we live in.
On that note, we’d better stop. Thanks everybody for joining us. Thanks Judi and Trudy. We’ll talk offline.
God bless you, lots of love everyone.
[Wendy] Thanks a lot.
Be safe.
Thanks, bye bye.