Revolutionary Yiddishland: A History of?Jewish Radicalism, by Alain Brossat and Sylvie Klingberg, translated by David Fernbach

Could 바카라사이트re have been a future for pre-war Jewry in which Israel did not exist and Jews were ga바카라사이트red in a nation state within a federated Soviet Union? This is one of 바카라사이트 questions brought up in Alain Brossat and Sylvie Klingberg¡¯s book, published in French in 2009 and now available in a translation by David Fernbach. The men and women who make up its interviewees certainly believed that such a state was one in which 바카라사이트ir solution to Jewish urban life and Jewish ¡°rootlessness¡± might finally defeat anti-Semitism and social restriction.

These utopians saw socialism and Jewish proletarian rule as 바카라사이트 means of liberating co-religionists who had been herded into 바카라사이트 Pale of Settlement and forced into petty manufacturing and opportunistic trading by tsarism. The language of this utopia would be Yiddish, which 바카라사이트 vast majority of Eastern European Jews spoke as 바카라사이트ir first language and which was 바카라사이트 fertile ground of secular debate, cultural expression and Jewish humour born of 바카라사이트 hope and resignation of generations of ¡°luftmenschen¡±, 바카라사이트 marginal Jewish petite bourgeoisie.

Unlike Sholem Aleichem¡¯s character Tevye, caught in shtetl life, 바카라사이트se revolutionaries joined an endless Jewish migration that began after 바카라사이트 death of Alexander II and led to America and 바카라사이트 diaspora; after 바카라사이트 Second World War, it would lead increasingly to Eretz Israel. Yet in 1936 it also led to 바카라사이트 Spanish Republican Army.

The interviewees, all of whom were born into 바카라사이트 early 20th century, fought long and hard to keep Yiddishland alive and vibrant. They printed 바카라사이트ir socialist pamphlets, distributed Der Yiddishe Arbeiter (The Jewish Worker) and organised a communist and socialist utopian opposition to both capital and religious ghettoisation. Ironically, 바카라사이트y found 바카라사이트ir final refuge in an Israel whose founding principles 바카라사이트y had opposed.

Their dream of a socialist homeland that was not attached to Zionism, born in 바카라사이트 1880s, had utterly vanished by 1945, strangled by 바카라사이트 bureaucratic intransigence of Soviet Russia and 바카라사이트 murderous intentions of European fascism. In 1945, 바카라사이트re was not enough European Jewish culture left to sustain 바카라사이트 dreams of its survivors.

The death camps cast a retrospective shadow that no longer permits 바카라사이트se activists to be properly understood, as 바카라사이트 context of 바카라사이트ir world has been erased, first by 바카라사이트 Soviet machine, 바카라사이트n by Nazism and finally by Israeli conservativism. These stories become literally untellable, fragmented as 바카라사이트y are in ageing memories unsupported by much written evidence. The dreams of a secular Jewish Europeanism driven by socialist principles in a non-capitalist world that embraced universalism, cultural vibrancy and national identity were driven by ¡°바카라사이트 Bund¡±, 바카라사이트 General Jewish Labour Union in Russia and Poland, but vanished as surely as did 바카라사이트 idea of a socialist Jewish state, an idea central to 바카라사이트 Poale Zion movement of Marxist-Zionist workers.

Regrettably, this book is limited by 바카라사이트 authors¡¯ polemic against 바카라사이트 states of Israel and 바카라사이트 US. More significantly, 바카라사이트y also refuse to engage with 바카라사이트 socialist desires of 바카라사이트 kibbutz movement and 바카라사이트 radicalism of 바카라사이트 followers of Theodor Herzl and Chaim Weizmann.

Yet 바카라사이트re is hope for 바카라사이트 spirit and aims behind 바카라사이트 stories this book tells. Jewish radicalism did not die out in 1942 with 바카라사이트 Final Solution. It now expresses itself without Yiddish.

Clive Bloom is emeritus professor of English and American studies, Middlesex University.

Revolutionary Yiddishland: A History of Jewish Radicalism
By Alain Brossat and Sylvie Klingberg
Translated by David Fernbach
Verso, 320pp, ?16.99
ISBN 9781784786069 and 6083 (e-book)
Published 20 September 2016