Jewish anarchism
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Jewish anarchism is a general term encompassing various expressions of anarchism within the Jewish community.
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[edit] Secular Jewish Anarchism
Many Jews, such as Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, Martin Buber, Murray Bookchin and Noam Chomsky, have played a role in the history of anarchism. All the members of the first anarchist group in the Russian Empire, which was formed in 1903 in Białystok, were Jews.
Jewish anarchists stressed the internationalist character of the movement, but many of them also supported their national culture and focused on specifically Jewish issues. Yiddish anarchist literature florished since 1880s till 1950s and, on much smaller scale, till 1980s; the last Yiddish periodical publication, Problemen was published in 1991. In addition to many original books, pamphlets, poems and essays, all the major works of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Mikhail Bakunin, Peter Kropotkin, Errico Malatesta, Henry Thoreau, Leo Tolstoy, Max Stirner and other anarchists were translated into Yiddish. Rudolf Rocker, a non-Jewish German anarchist, had studied Yiddish and authored many Yiddish books, pamphlets and articles. Most Jewish anarchists were anarcho-syndicalists, while a few others were individualist anarchists.
Different anarchist groups had different views on Zionism and the Jewish question. Bernard Lazare was a key figure in both the French anarchist movement and early Zionist movement. The later Territorialist movement, especially the Freeland League, under the leadership of Isaac Nachman Steinberg, was very close to anarchism. Some others, such as Martin Buber and Gershom Scholem, advocated non-nationalist forms of Zionism, and promoted the idea of creating a binational Jewish-Arab federation in Palestine. Many contemporary anarchists support the idea of what has been dubbed the "no-state solution". Noam Chomsky has said that, as an anarchist, he ultimately favours such a no state solution, but in the short term feels a two-state solution is the best way out of the present conflict. "Advocacy and Realism: A reply to Noah Cohen" ZNet, August 26, 2004
[edit] Religious Jewish Anarchism
While many Jewish anarchists were irreligious or sometimes vehemently anti-religious, there were also a few religious anarchists and pro-anarchist thinkers, who combined contemporary radical ideas with traditional Judaism. Some secular anti-authoritarians, such as Abba Gordin and Erich Fromm, also noticed remarkable similarity between anarchism and many Kabbalistic ideas, especially in their Hasidic interpretation. Some Jewish mystical groups were based on anti-authoritarian principles, somewhat similar to the Christian Quakers and Dukhobors. Martin Buber, a deeply religious philosopher, had frequently referred to the Hasidic tradition.
The Orthodox Kabbalist rabbi Yehuda Ashlag believed in a religious version of libertarian communism, based on principles of Kabbalah, which he called altruist communism. Ashlag supported the Kibbutz movement and preached to establish a network of self-ruled internationalist communes, who would eventually 'annul the brute-force regime completely, for “every man did that which was right in his own eyes.”', because 'there is nothing more humiliating and degrading for a person than being under the brute-force government'. [1]
A British Orthodox rabbi, Yankev-Meyer Zalkind, was an anarcho-communist and very active anti-militarist. Rabbi Zalkind was a close friend of Rudolf Rocker, a prolific Yiddish writer and a prominent Torah scholar. He argued, that the ethics of the Talmud, if properly understood, is closely related to anarchism.
During biblical times as recorded in the book of Samuel (Shmuel) G-d suggests that the people DO NOT take a king like all the other nations and remain in a state of political Anarchy.
[edit] Anarchists in contemporary Israel
In the past decade, the Israeli group known as "Anarchists Against the Wall" got widely-known in the ongoing struggle around the creation of the variously-called Separation Wall/Fence/Barrier on the West Bank. Members of the group show considerable courage and persistance in standing together with Palestinian villages whose land was confiscated and confronting often-violent Israeli troops, and on more than one occasion putting themselves in manifest life danger.
While most of them are ethnically Jewish, members of the group do not define themselves as being "Jewish Anarchists".
The groups and individulas mentioned in earlier sections of this page have acted from the persepctive of being members of a minority group subjected to various forms of racist harassment and discrimination, and even to systematic genocide, the Holocaust; their anarchist theories and practice were accordingly aimed at emancipation of the Jews as well as of all humanity.
In contract, the present Israeli group is composed mainly of people in their twenties and early thirties, who were born into an Israel which is the dominant military power in its region, a significant nuclear power, and which holds millions of Palerstinians under a decades-long military occupation. In their perception, being Jewish Israelis means being members of the dominant and opressive ethnic group in their society, having more in common with the position of whites in the United States or Australia than to the tradional position of persecuted or opressed Jews. Their Anarachist theory and practice is obviouly aimed at addressing that situation.
[edit] Jewish anarchists
[edit] Jewish anarchist newspapers
- Abendzeitung
- Anarhija
- Anarhist
- Arbeter Fraynd
- Chernoe Znamja (Black Flag)
- Die Freie Gesellschaft
- Fraye Arbeter Shtime
- Kagenna Magazine
- V Pomoštš’ – Der Hilf-Ruf
- Problemen
- Zsherminal
[edit] See also
- Anarchism and religion
- Black Repartition
- Christian anarchism
- Czarny Sztandar (Black Flag)
- History of anarchism
- Jewish resistance movement
- Judaism
- Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine
- Jewish left
- List of Jewish American activists
- History of anarchism
- List of Mexican Jews
- List of Russian Jews
- Anarchism in Spain
- New Jewish Agenda
- Hilltop Youth
- History of the Jews in Latin America
- Bavarian Soviet Republic
- Past and present anarchist communities
- History of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union
- Lower East Side, Manhattan
- History of anti-Semitism
- Anti-globalization and Anti-Semitism
- International Solidarity Movement
