r/JewsOfConscience Jewish Communist Oct 29 '24

Creative The Jewish Labor Bund elections start soon!

The revitalized Bund is organizing again, and seeking to elect their first board.

Please join the Bund, and participate in the election. There is only a little homework to do, in reading the candidates' statements. It is not a competition. There are equal number of seats to candidates.

The new board will then create a platform for the members to vote on. The members can even dissolve the board again if the platform doesn't match the concerns of the members.

I'm a Marxist, but I've had very pleasant experiences (mostly :-) with the various Anarchists, Liberals, etc, who are interested in the Bund and its possibility as an organization for Jewish political agitation, education, healing, and cultural expression.

For more background and information, join and join the discord (which will be replaced with a more privacy oriented platform.) There were some organizational bumps that were dealt with over the summer. I'm not privy to them, but the results seem well organized by a broad group of collaboration-minded Jews.

My only critique is the yiddish-centric nature of the org. Human life is now globally connected, and we need to make every effort to uplift every colonized Jewish voice. Don't let Zionists monopolize and colonize into "Ivrit" all our global siblings!

49 Upvotes

28 comments sorted by

21

u/acacia_tree Reform Ashkie Diasporist Oct 29 '24

I like Yiddishism as a counter to Hebrew nationalism.

8

u/[deleted] Oct 30 '24 edited Oct 30 '24

I almost entirely support this point. I understand the history of Ashkenazi anti-Zionist politics and why reviving Yiddish is important.

And I think anti-Zionist Ashkenazis in the diaspora should lean into Yiddishism.

My only concern is that anti-Zionist Arab-Jews/Mizrahim and Sefardim will feel hesitant to participate in nominally Jewish anti-Zionist orgs that are in practice Ashkenazi-centric anti-Zionist orgs.

Perhaps we need to better promote anti-Zionist niche spaces and orgs that are explicitly Ashkenazi-centered, so that there can be separation between specific diasporic organizing and general “Jewish” anti-Zionist spaces/orgs ?🤔

I’m also open to related criticisms and suggestions 😂

6

u/acacia_tree Reform Ashkie Diasporist Oct 30 '24

Yeah, like during the Haskalah I think the appeal of reviving Hebrew was that it would unite global Jews with one language. But the Zionist Hebrew national wiped out the usages of the various Jewish languages. Maybe we can all learn Yiddish, Ladino, Aramaic, and Judeo-Arabic together. Or have separate spaces that are centered around our specific cultures.

5

u/[deleted] Oct 30 '24

I think a combination of many respective diasporic spaces and a few major “Jewish” spaces (like JVP) are the answer.

I was born and raised with the Hebrew language, there are aspects of the Hebrew language that I absolutely love and strongly connect with. Poetry, literature, music, film, etc. But Hebrew is not just connected to Zionism in a historical sense, it is very much interwoven within the language itself. And often it is so tightly intertwined, that many examples of this can really only be understood by native Hebrew speakers… It’s difficult for me to admit that this connection exists, but it’s the truth.

1

u/acacia_tree Reform Ashkie Diasporist Oct 30 '24

Did you grow up in Israel?

3

u/[deleted] Oct 30 '24 edited Oct 30 '24

Feel free to DM :)

15

u/newgoliath Jewish Communist Oct 29 '24

Me too! But Ashkenormativity is oppressive to other Jews. As a global group, we need to uplift our Ladino/Judeo Arabic, etc comrades!

25

u/acacia_tree Reform Ashkie Diasporist Oct 29 '24

I don’t think uplifting Yiddish and uplifting Ladino are mutually exclusive.

18

u/Benyano Jewish Oct 29 '24

Thanks for sharing this! As one of the candidates who’s been involved in this reorganization process for the better part of a year I’m happy to answer any questions about the org and its history.

I would like to add that while the historic Jewish Labor Bund can definitely be described as ashkenormative (they held no pretense as representing more than Eastern European Jews), while most of us organizing this current iteration are Ashkenazi, we are consciously resisting ashkenormativity and include many Sephardic and otherwise non-Ashkenazi comrades.

If you’re interested in helping build this as an ideological and geographic connecting point for the Jewish left, please join us!

10

u/noam99 Oct 29 '24

How does one get invited to the discord? I have an account on their platform but find it difficult to navigate.

5

u/ThePaintedOgre Jewish Oct 29 '24

I'm the Discord Admin for the IJLB organization, I sent you a chat message.

2

u/Educational-Tip3253 Oct 29 '24

I would also like an invite

Also, for others looking for an invite, should they post here, or just directly send you an ask?

1

u/01001110901101111 Oct 29 '24

👋 hello, may I please also be part of this?

2

u/ThePaintedOgre Jewish Oct 29 '24

check your chats.

1

u/CyborgDiaspora Ashkenazi Oct 29 '24

I’m also interested

1

u/Momosufusu Oct 29 '24

Also interested!

1

u/HausOfMettle Oct 29 '24

Interested in server invite, thanks

1

u/RaftOfSexlessCretins Oct 30 '24

Interested too, thanks!

1

u/HausOfMettle Nov 07 '24

Hi, following up again to ask for a server invite please. Thx!

7

u/socialist_butterfly0 Jewish Communist Oct 29 '24

We're gonna have to get some "bundist" flairs on here!

5

u/FuckFascists629 Oct 29 '24

Hey all, I’m organizing the Chicagoland local of this effort and if anyone has questions, I can’t speak for the international structure that we are about to start building, but I can tell you what we’re doing in the Chicagoland area and answer broad questions also since I was involved with this effort since like March. Very excited that we are going to finally have an election soon and then continue to build from there 💃🏻

5

u/xarjun Anti-Zionist Oct 30 '24

The 6 million who paid the highest price, and continue to be targeted, maligned and scapegoated by Israel, can have a voice that speaks for them again.

Israel continues to profit from the memory of the Shoah...while it ridicules its victims.

Enough. Let's stop this vile genocidal entity from continuing to use Judaism.

2

u/Responsible-Ad8702 Orthodox Oct 30 '24

I'm not very familiar with the bund and bundism. What does it do as an organization? Where can I find more info?

6

u/socialist_butterfly0 Jewish Communist Oct 30 '24

The Bund (historically) was a working class Jewish political organization born out of the pale of settlement. The Bund and the zionist political Ideology were started in the same year (1898) and were in opposition to each other before the state of Israel existed. 

Where zionists believed that the answer to growing anti semitism was to create a Jewish nation state, the Bund believed that the best way to combat anti semitism was to organize where you are with other working class people and advocating for improving the material conditions of working class jews. One of the pillars of the Bund was/is Doikayt, Yiddish for hereness.

Today there are efforts to revive this movement. It is unlikely that it will be a one for one recreation but our beliefs are rooted similarly.

1

u/Responsible-Ad8702 Orthodox Oct 30 '24

I didn't know that the bund was being revived. How can I learn more about contemporary bundist orgs?

1

u/ImNotRealTakeYorMeds Nov 02 '24

may i be invited to the discord please?