More than a Symbol: The Jewish Labor Bund in History

More so than any other party on the Jewish left, the Jewish Labor Bund holds a particular mystique in the imagination of Jewish leftists, even decades after the Bund in Poland was dissolved. It is remembered as a potent symbol of Diaspora Socialism, anti-Zionism, and Yiddish activism. However, the Bund was more than a symbol. The Bund was a potent movement in the Jewish communities of Russia and Poland, shaping Jewish economic, political, and cultural life across Eastern Europe for half a century and continuing in the diaspora worldwide. It is that reality that this talk by Joshua Meyers will explore. Using the Bund Archive, located and preserved at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, this talk will examine the history of the Bund from its origins through World War II, when the party served as the standard bearer of Diaspora Socialism in the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe. It will delve into the evolving relationships between the Bund and other major political movements—Zionists, Communists, and others—that it existed alongside and frame these relationships within their historical reality. It will explore the factors that made the Bund so attractive to Jews in the Russian Empire and interwar Polish Republic, as well as the limits to that attraction against the political, cultural, and social realities it lived in. Ultimately, it will offer a narrative of the Bund rooted not in our world or imaginations, but in the reality of the Bund’s own members, while exploring its legacy and that of Diaspora Socialism in the 21st century. This evening’s program is the second in a series of programs held in conjunction with YIVO’s current digitization of the Jewish Labor and Political Archives (JLPA). Consisting of nearly 200 collections encompassing 3.5 million pages of archival documents that were collected by the Bund Archives, the JLPA forms the world’s most comprehensive body of material pertaining to Jewish political activity in Europe and the United States. Joshua Meyers is a scholar of modern Jewish politics in Eastern Europe, particularly the Jewish Labor Bund. Formerly affiliated with Stanford, Harvard, and Queens College, he is currently student services coordinator at a charter school. His work has appeared in Jewish Social Studies, the Forward, Tablet, Geschichte der Gegenwart, and In Geveb. YIVO Institute for Jewish Research 15 West 16th Street, NYC Located in the Center for Jewish History Directions & Parking Doors open 30 minutes before the start of the program. All public programs are wheelchair accessible. A limited number of assistive listening devices are available for deaf and hard of hearing individuals upon request (Auditorium events only). This program will also be livestreamed on Zoom for those who cannot attend in person. The Zoom livestream will take place at 7:00pm ET. (What time is that for me?) Download Zoom » Zoom FAQs For questions about this program, please contact: [email protected]