On Fri, Nov 21, 2025 at 11:25 AM, David Walters wrote: > > The Bund grew out of a specific period during the proletarianization of the > Jewish petty-bourgeoisie in the late 19th Century Polish and Russian > Empires that consolidated a very unique ethnic/national entity, basically > the Litvak Yiddish speaking Jews of Poland, Lithuanian (which is where the > term Litvak is meant to describe), and Belarus/Russia.
Theodor Herzl noted that very same phenomenon in his The Jewish State. There, he noted: > > Anti-Semitism increases day by day and hour by hour among the nations; > indeed, it is bound to increase, because the causes of its growth [91] > continue > to exist and cannot be removed. Its remote cause is our loss of the power > of assimilation during the Middle Ages; its immediate cause is our > excessive production of mediocre intellects, who cannot find an outlet > downwards or upwards—that is to say, no wholesome outlet in either > direction. When we sink, we become a revolutionary proletariat, the > subordinate officers of all revolutionary parties; and at the same time, > when we rise, there rises also our terrible power of the purse. > > Herzl believed that one of the selling points for the Zionist project to antisemitic leaning Gentiles would be that Zionism would by offering Jews who were being proletarianized an alternative to revolutionary socialism would lessen the the perceived threat that Gentiles might otherwise experience from proletarianized Jews turning to revolutionary socialism. And indeed Zionists were able to win support on that basis. In 1920, Winston Churchill wrote an article " Zionism versus Bolshevism. ( https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Zionism_versus_Bolshevism ) " There, he distinguished between what he called "good Jews" and "bad Jews." The "bad Jews" were the kind of Jews who supported Boshevism or other subversive movements. They were the kind of Jews who were supportive of a "world-wide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilisation and for the reconstitution of society on the basis of arrested development, of envious malevolence, and impossible equality. . ." For Churchill, the leading "bad Jews" includes such figures as Karl Marx, Leon Trotsky, Bela Kun, Rosa Luxemburg, and Emma Goldman. Counterposed to the "bad Jews" were the "good Jews." These included the "national Jews" who were Jews who primarily identified as citizens of the countries in which they lived. British Jews or French Jews who identified as Britons or Frenchmen of the Jewish faith. And then there were the Zionists who sought to create a Jewish national home in Palestine. Churchill saw that as a worthy project to be supported by the British Empire. As Churchill described it: > > But if, as may well happen, there should be created in our own lifetime by > the banks of the Jordan a Jewish State under the protection of the British > Crown, which might comprise three or four millions of Jews, an event would > have occurred in the history of the world which would, from every point of > view, be beneficial, and would be especially in harmony with the truest > interests of the British Empire. > > > Furthermore, Churchill argued that Zionism was worthy of support because it would offer Jews an alternative to Bolshevism. As he put it: > > Zionism has already become a factor in the political convulsions of > Russia, as a powerful competing influence in Bolshevik circles with the > international communistic system. Nothing could be more significant than > the fury with which Trotsky has attacked the Zionists generally, and Dr. > Weissmann in particular. The cruel penetration of his mind leaves him in > no doubt that his schemes of a world-wide communistic State under Jewish > domination are directly thwarted and hindered by this new ideal, which > directs the energies and the hopes of Jews in every land towards a > simpler, a truer, and a far more attainable goal. The struggle which is > now beginning between the Zionist and Bolshevik Jews is little less than a > struggle for the soul of the Jewish people. > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#39398): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/39398 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/116361879/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
