Jewish left

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Jews protest the Trump travel ban at San Francisco International Airport

The Jewish left consists of

anarchism, socialism, Marxism, and Western liberalism
. Although the expression "on the left" covers a range of politics, many well-known figures "on the left" have been of Jews who were born into Jewish families and have various degrees of connection to Jewish communities, Jewish culture, Jewish tradition, or the Jewish religion in its many variants.

History

Jewish leftism has its philosophic roots in the Jewish Enlightenment, or

Jewish Emancipation[5] — an arrangement called by some scholars "the liberal Jewish compromise".[6]

The emergence of a Jewish working class

In the age of

socialist organizations formed and spread across the Jewish Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire. There were also a significant number of people of Jewish origin who did not explicitly identify as Jews per se, but were active in anarchist, socialist, and social democratic as well as communist organizations, movements, and parties.[citation needed
]

As

Jewish culture of the Yiddish-speaking masses).[citation needed
]

As Eastern European Jews migrated West from the 1880s, these ideologies took root in growing Jewish communities, such as

Amalgamated Clothing Workers. Important figures in these milieux included Rose Schneiderman, Abraham Cahan, Morris Winchevsky, and David Dubinsky
.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Jews played a major role in the

Austromarxists or Vladimir Medem
).

In Soviets and against fascism

As with the

Communist parties, constituting large proportions of their membership in many countries, including Great Britain and the U.S. There were specifically Jewish sections of many Communist parties, such as the Yevsektsiya in the Soviet Union. The Communist regime in the USSR pursued what could be characterised as ambivalent policies towards Jews and Jewish culture, at times supporting their development as a national culture (e. g., sponsoring significant Yiddish language scholarship and creating an autonomous Jewish territory in Birobidzhan), at times pursuing antisemitic purges, such as that in the wake of the so-called Doctors' plot. (See also Komzet
.)

With the advent of

Naftali Botwin Company). Jews and leftists fought Oswald Mosley's British fascists at the Battle of Cable Street. This mass movement was influenced by the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee
in the Soviet Union.

In

Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.[citation needed
]

Radical Jews in Central and Western Europe

As well as the movements rooted in the Jewish working class, relatively

Weimar Germany, Walther Rathenau
was a leading figure of the Jewish left.

Socialist Zionism and the Israeli left

Main article: Labor Zionism

In the twentieth century, especially after the Second Aliyah, socialist Zionism – first developed in Russia by the Marxist Ber Borochov and the non-Marxists Nachman Syrkin and A. D. Gordon – became a powerful force in the Yishuv, the Jewish settlement in Palestine. Poale Zion, the Histadrut labour union and the Mapai party played a major part in the campaign for an Israeli state, with socialist politicians like David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir amongst the founders of the nation. At the same time, the kibbutz movement was an experiment in practical socialism.

In the 1940s, many on the left advocated a

anti-Zionist (Palestine Communist Party, Maki
). The Labour Party and its predecessors have been in power in Israel for significant periods since 1948.

There are two worldwide groupings of left-wing Zionist organizations. The World Labour Zionist Movement, associated with the Labor Zionist tendency, is a loose association, including

Avoda, Habonim Dror, Histadrut and Na'amat. The World Union of Meretz, associated with what was historically known as the Socialist Zionist tendency, is a loose association of the Israeli Meretz party, the Hashomer Hatzair Socialist Zionist youth movement, the Kibbutz Artzi Federation and the Givat Haviva research and study center. Both movements exist as factions within the World Zionist Organization
, as well as regional or country-specific Zionist movements; the two roughly correspond to the interwar split between the Poale Zion Right (the tradition that led to Avoda) and the Poale Zion Left (Hashomer Hatzair, Mapam, Meretz).

Apartheid South Africa

South Africa's Jewish left-wing was heavily involved in left-wing causes such as the anti-apartheid movement. The most famous member of the anti-apartheid Jewish left-wing was Helen Suzman, DBE. There were also several liberal left-wing Jewish defendants in the Rivonia Trial: Joe Slovo, Denis Goldberg, Lionel Bernstein, Bob Hepple, Arthur Goldreich, Harold Wolpe, and James Kantor.

Contemporary Jewish left

1960s–1990s

As the Jewish working class died out in the years after the

Workmen's Circle, Jewish Labor Committee, and The Forward (newspaper) in New York, the International Jewish Labor Bund in Australia, and the United Jewish People's Order
in Canada.

The 1960s–1980s saw a renewal of interest among Western Jews in Jewish

Israeli refuseniks
cause as well as of the undocumented immigrants in Belgium.

21st century

During the first decade of the 2000s, the

Jewish Anti-Zionism. This perspective continues to be reflected in media outlets such as Mondoweiss and the Treyf Podcast.[10]

2014-2016: Jewish Left vs the Jewish Establishment

Following the

American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, and Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, for their support for Israel's actions during the conflict. In the US, this intra-community conflict expanded to domestic politics following the 2016 United States presidential election.[15] Groups such as IfNotNow, Jewish Voice for Peace, and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) began organizing under the banner of #JewishResistance to "challenge institutional Jewish support for the Trump administration and affiliated white nationalists".[16]

Melbourne Jews protest Australia's policy on refugees in July 2013.

According to exit polls, 71% of American Jews voted Democrat during the 2016 US presidential election.[17] Over the last decade, the Jewish vote has gone to Democrats by 76–80%[18] in each election. A large majority of American Jews also report feeling somewhat or very attached to Israel.[19] Increasingly, however, young Jews are becoming more critical of the Israeli government and feel more sympathetic towards Palestinians than older American Jews.[20]

Post-2016 Growth

After the 2016 United States presidential election, the Jewish left saw a significant upsurge in the US.[21] New Jewish initiatives such as Never Again Action formed to address the US government's expanding practice of migrant detention.[22] Many Jewish organizations, such as Bend the Arc, T'ruah, JFREJ, Jewish Voice for Peace, and IfNotNow joined this effort under the banner of #JewsAgainstICE.[23] New Jewish initiatives also formed to specifically address rising antisemitism and white nationalism in the US, such as the Outlive Them network,[24] Fayer,[25] and the Muslim-Jewish Anti-Fascist Front.[26]

This period saw the creation of new leftist Jewish media outlets as well. Protocols,[27] a journal of culture and politics, began publishing in 2017. Jewish Currents, first published in 1946, gained a new editorial team of millennial Jews who relaunched the publication in 2018. And the Treyf Podcast, started in 2015, documented much of the growth of the US Jewish left during this period.

This period also saw a renewed interest in

Immigrants against the State, and the reissuing of documentaries such as The Free Voice of Labor,[28] which details the final days of the Fraye Arbeter Shtime. In January 2019, The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research organized a special conference on Yiddish anarchism in New York City, which drew over 450 people.[29] Following this conference, a national Jewish Anarchist convergence was called in Chicago.[30]

2023-2024 Upsurge

A new wave of Jewish left activity began in late 2023. This upsurge was part of an international mobilization for a ceasefire in response to the Israeli Invasion of the Gaza Strip (2023-present) and Allegations of genocide in the 2023 Israeli attack on Gaza, following the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel.[31] [32] According to Jay Ulfeder, research project manager at Harvard’s Nonviolent Action Lab, this period saw "the largest and broadest pro-Palestinian mobilization in U.S. history."[33] This included the largest-ever Jewish American demonstration in support of Palestine[34] and the largest-ever pro-Palestine demonstration in US history. Many new Jewish leftist groups and coalitions were formed during this period, including Jews Say No to Genocide (Toronto, ON),[35][36] the Tzedek Collective (Victoria, BC),[37][38] Gliklekh in Goles (Vancouver, BC),[39] Shoresh (US),[40][41] and Rabbis for Ceasefire (US),[42][43] while groups like Jewish Voice for Peace experienced an influx of thousands of new members.[44]

Liberal Zionist Jewish groups generally took an opposing position to the Jewish left during this period, moving closer to the Jewish mainstream.[45] J Street and the Anti-Defamation League, for example, both opposed a ceasefire and voiced support for the Israeli Invasion of the Gaza Strip (2023-present), positions that led to waves of staff dissent and resignations.[46][47][48][49] By January 2024, J Street had called for a qualified end to Israel's military campaign[50] while the Anti-Defamation League continued to oppose anti-Zionist & other Jewish left groups calling for a ceasefire, characterizing them as 'hate groups'[51] and working with law enforcement to crack down on campus activism critical of Israel.[52][53][54]

Ten liberal and progressive Zionist Jewish organizations, Ameinu, Americans for Peace Now, Habonim Dror North America, Hashomer Hatzair, The Jewish Labor Committee, J Street, The New Israel Fund, Partners for Progressive Israel, Reconstructing Judaism, and T’ruah, formed the Progressive Israel Network in 2019.

2023 Israel-Hamas war under the flag of a "Peace Bloc".[62][63] Mari Cohen, reporting on the march for Jewish Currents, wrote that by "attending the November 14th March for Israel and refusing to call for a ceasefire, many progressive Jewish groups have cast their lot with the Jewish mainstream."[45]

Contemporary Israeli left

Further information: Politics of Israel § Political left

Operating in a parliamentary governmental system based on proportional representation, left-wing political parties and blocs in Israel have been able to elect members of the Knesset with varying degrees of success. Over time, those parties have evolved, with some merging, others disappearing, and new parties arising.

Israeli left-wing parties have included:

Notable figures in these parties have included: Amir Peretz, Meir Vilner, Shulamit Aloni, Uri Avnery, Yossi Beilin, Ran Cohen, Matti Peled, Amnon Rubinstein, Dov Khenin and Yossi Sarid.

British Jewish left

British Jews have been influential in the left-wing politics of the United Kingdom for many years, especially in the main social democratic/socialist party, the Labour Party, but also in the socially liberal Liberal Democrats.

During the years when the

Edwin Samuel Montagu, Ignaz Trebitsch-Lincoln, and The Lord Wandsworth
.

In the early part of the twentieth century, the Liberal Party gave way to the more radical and socialist Labour Party.

The Lord Shinwell, one of the leaders of Red Clydeside who later became Secretary of State for War
.

At the end of the

Mirror Group Newspapers
in 1984.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the Labour Party experienced significant turbulence with the rise of the

The Lord Skidelsky also defected. Those Jewish Labour MPs who stuck with the party included Harry Cohen, Alf Dubs, Millie Miller, Eric Moonman, and David Winnick
.

During the late 1980s and 1990s, with the shift away from the socialist left of the party, and during

Cash for Honours scandal.[citation needed
]

Under the government of Blair's successor,

leadership election against each other in 2010. Ed Miliband won the election and became the first Jewish leader of the Labour Party. One of Miliband's Shadow Cabinet members, Ivan Lewis, as well as advisers David Axelrod, Arnie Graf, and The Lord Glasman
are all Jewish.

Current Jewish Labour politicians include:

Robert Winston
.

Since the foundation of the Liberal Democrats, several Jews have achieved prominence:

Julia Neuberger, Monroe Palmer, Paul Strasburger, and Lynne Featherstone, who became a Minister in the Coalition government 2010–15
.

Jewish groups on the left include Independent Jewish Voices, Jewdas, the Jewish Socialists' Group, Jewish Voice for Labour and Jews for Justice for Palestinians. The Jewish Labour Movement is affiliated to the Labour Party.

See also

References

  1. ^ "The New Left." Jewish Virtual Library (2008); retrieved 6 June 2015.
  2. ^ "Henri Alleg, auteur de "La Question", est mort". Le Monde.fr. July 18, 2013 – via Le Monde.
  3. ^ Naeim Giladi, "The Jews of Iraq": "In many countries, including the United States and Iraq, Jews represented a large part of the Communist party. In Iraq, hundreds of Jews of the working intelligentsia occupied key positions in the hierarchy of the Communist and Socialist parties."
  4. ^ Hannah Borenstein, "Savior Story": "The violence of the late 1970s and early 1980s Ethiopia spurred many forms of active and comprehensive resistance. Ethiopian Jews participated widely; many, for instance, were members of the Marxist-Leninist EPRP."
  5. ^ Geoffrey Alderman (1983) The Jewish Community in British Politics, Oxford: Clarendon.
  6. ^ see Sharman Kadish Bolsheviks and British Jews, London: Frank Cass. (1992, e. g., pp. 55–60, 132); Jonathan Hyman Jews in Britain During the Great War, Manchester: University of Manchester Working Papers in Economic and Social History No. 51, October (2001, e. g., p. 11). The phrase was coined by Steven Bayme.
  7. ^ Mendes, Philip. "The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Labor Bund" Archived 2014-07-01 at the Wayback Machine, Jewish Currents (Autumn 2013); accessed 8 June 2015.
  8. ISBN 978-0-674-03243-9
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  9. ^ Gabriel Piterberg (2008), The Returns of Zionism: Myths, Politics, and Scholarship in Israel, London: Verso, p. 10
  10. ^ "Weinfeld: In praise of radical Jewish anarchist radio". The Canadian Jewish News. 2019-08-15. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  11. ^ "Direct action disrupts Jewish-Canadian complicity in settler colonialism – Canadian Dimension". Canadiandimension.com. Retrieved 2017-01-09.
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  13. ^ "17 Jewish Activists Protesting Israeli Occupation Arrested at ADL Headquarters". Forward.com. 21 April 2016. Retrieved 2017-01-09.
  14. ^ "St. Louis Jews call on ADL to cancel honor to police". Mondoweiss.net. 2015-07-18. Retrieved 2017-01-09.
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  23. ^ Treyf [@treyfpodcast] (August 12, 2019). "An enormous shkoyach to everyone who participated in #JewsAgainstIce actions today for Tisha B'Av!" (Tweet). Retrieved 2020-12-31 – via Twitter.
  24. ^ "Outlive Them Network – For a World without Pogroms, for a Future without Fascism".
  25. ^ ""Fayer" Twitter account". Twitter. Retrieved 2022-04-08.
  26. ^ "'MuJews': Muslims and Jews band together against hate". NBC News. 15 February 2017.
  27. ^ "Issue #10: TEMPLE - PROTOCOLS".
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  29. ^ Andrew Silow-Carroll, "A YIVO conference finds a new audience for Yiddish anarchism" Jewish Telegraphic Agency, January 22, 2019
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  32. ^ "Israeli War on Gaza Sparks 'Largest Mass Mobilization of Jews' for Palestine in US History". www.commondreams.org. Retrieved 2024-02-19.
  33. ^ Maltz, Judy (December 5, 2023). "'Largest pro-Palestinian Mobilization in U.S. History'". Haaretz. Archived from the original on December 12, 2023.
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  51. ^ Lee, Micah (2023-11-11). "Anti-Defamation League Maps Jewish Peace Rallies With Antisemitic Attacks". The Intercept. Archived from the original on 2023-12-03.
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  55. ^ "Ten Organizations Launch New Progressive Israel Network". New Israel Fund. 2019-06-24. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
  56. ^ Cohen, Mari (2021-04-19). "Revising The Dream: Members of the socialist-Zionist youth group Habonim Dror North America are increasingly pushing back on Zionism's centrality in the movement". Jewish Currents.
  57. ^ Kampeas, Ron (2019-04-15). "Reconstructionist Movement Backs Anti-BDS Measure – But 60 Rabbis Disagree". The Forward.
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  60. ^ Seitz-Wald, Alex (2023-12-07). "Hundreds of Jewish organization staffers call for White House to back Gaza cease-fire". NBC News. Retrieved 2024-02-19.
  61. ^ "Open Letter from Professionals at Jewish Organizations to President Biden and Congress". docs.google.com. Retrieved 2024-02-19.
  62. ^ Cohen, Mari. "Progressive Zionists Choose a Side". Jewish Currents. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
  63. Times of Israel
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  64. ^ "Dalyell's 'Jewish cabal' remarks denied". BBC News. Retrieved 9 January 2017.

External links

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