{"id":66981,"date":"2019-01-21T17:05:24","date_gmt":"2019-01-21T15:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=66981"},"modified":"2019-01-21T10:07:45","modified_gmt":"2019-01-21T08:07:45","slug":"27-05-36","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=66981","title":{"rendered":"When Jewish America spoke Yiddish \u2014 and was anarchist"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>A forgotten chapter: When Jewish America spoke Yiddish \u2014 and was anarchist<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

GIDEON GRUDO<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

A January 20 conference hosted by the YIVO Institute covers a seldom-recognized piece of US Jewry\u2019s immigrant experience \u2014 and one that may serve a marginalized sector today<\/strong>
\nA group of anarchists in Warsaw mourn during the 1926 funeral of activist ‘White Morits,’ who had previously been imprisoned for anarchist activities. (Courtesy YIVO Institute for Jewish Research)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

NEW YORK \u2014 Spencer Sunshine describes himself as an \u201cextraparliamentary radical leftist\u201d and\/or a \u201clibertarian socialist.\u201d Having \u201cknown and worked on political projects with anarchists for many decades,\u201d he explained that when it comes to anarchism, there is no one size fits all.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sunshine, who doesn\u2019t speak Yiddish, is the co-organizer of a January 20 conference, \u201cYiddish Anarchism: New Scholarship on a Forgotten Tradition\u201d at New York\u2019s YIVO Institute for Jewish Research<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Every speaker, scholar and source at Sunday\u2019s conference, Sunshine said, thinks a little differently and interprets their anarchism uniquely \u2014 like adherents of any other political theory or philosophy. But at its core, Yiddish anarchist history provides a counternarrative.<\/span><\/p>\n

The all-day conference is broken into three themed panels: foundations of Yiddish anarchism; Russian revolutions and Yiddish anarchism; and language, identity, and culture.<\/span><\/p>\n

For a Jewish American in 2019, a counternarrative to the previous century could be captivating.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cZionism doesn\u2019t have the allure that it once had for older generations,\u201d said Sunshine. \u201cYounger Jews are looking for ways to conceptualize a Jewish identity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Cover of the Yiddish periodical, Di anarkhye (Anarchy), published in Geneva, Switzerland, August 1908. (Courtesy YIVO)<\/em><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t talking about PhD student Diana Clarke specifically, though the candidate fits the bill.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYiddish is very sexy to young leftists,\u201d Clarke told The Times of Israel. \u201cThat said, plenty of people in the world are not young leftists.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On January 20, Clarke will be onstage in Manhattan, covering the role that post-vernacular Yiddish \u2014 that is, Yiddish not used in everyday life \u2014 plays in anarchism today. Clarke\u2019s lecture is one of 10 on the program at <\/span>Sunday\u2019s Yiddish anarchism conference. <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Clarke is pursuing a PhD at the University of Pittsburgh, studying the intersection of American Ashkenazi Jews and whiteness. The scholar also manages In Geveb<\/a>, a Yiddish scholarly journal, while working on translating Yiddish poetry and writing a book.<\/span><\/p>\n

Clarke\u2019s path to Yiddish scholarship supports the narrative of a reconnection to Jewish heritage through 19th century Jewish anarchy. At Columbia, where Clarke earned an undergraduate degree, campus protests frequently pitted Students for Justice in Palestine against the Hillel Center as a result of Israel\u2019s continued presence in the West Bank. During these demonstrations, coupled with the very visible Harlem gentrification surrounding and sometimes spurred by Columbia University itself, Clarke was reminded of sour memories of a Jewish upbringing in Massachusetts.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs an Ashkenazi Jew growing up more or less in a conservative environment in the late \u201990s,\u201d Clarke recalled, \u201cI was told Israel should matter a lot to me\u2026 Going to Israel was something for people whose families had money. Mine did not.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Clarke was searching for something. Walking New York City\u2019s streets \u2014 just as Clarke\u2019s father always said was the best way to get to know a community \u2014 during four years of undergraduate study, Clarke came across the city\u2019s Yiddish history.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAll of that experientially came together as I learned the history of the city among Yiddish speakers. I was so excited to find in my own history people living the life I wanted to live,\u201d Clarke said, adding how those years of wandering resulted in an epiphany: \u201cThese are my people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

New scholarship on a forgotten tradition<\/strong><\/p>\n

An introduction to what he calls the \u201clost world of Yiddish anarchism\u201d was set to be delivered by co-organizer and Yiddish historian and scholar Kenyon Zimmer at the opening of the first panel.<\/span><\/p>\n

Buzhe,\u2019 a young activist, poses along with her cohort of anarchists in Warsaw for this studio portrait taken around 1900. (Courtesy YIVO Institute for Jewish Research)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnarchism and anarchists really played an outsized role in the history of the Jewish labor movement and Jewish culture in the US and England,\u201d Zimmer told The Times of Israel. \u201cA lot of that has been forgotten or sort of lost piece by piece over time as scholars and others have written about the Jewish immigrant experience.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Some of this history was lost in translation, said Zimmer, an associate professor of history at the University of Texas at Arlington. But there was arguably some intention in Yiddish anarchism\u2019s centennial fade from mainstream knowledge.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnarchists get reduced to this brief, naive phase,\u201d Zimmer explained, noting the more prevalent Jewish American story by which immigrants arrived, assimilated, experienced upward social and economic mobility, and steadily earned the American dream.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anarchism doesn\u2019t jive with the idea of \u201can irrepressible national Jewish identity,\u201d he said. And of course there\u2019s the force of Zionism, which summarily rejects anarchist tenets.<\/span><\/p>\n

Asked why even to bother holding a conference about this Yiddish history if various agents so aptly erased it, Zimmer had a retort at the ready.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[Yiddish anarchists] stand as an example of a substantial number of Jews in the Diaspora who rejected both assimilation into the cultural and political norms of their host, and rejected Jewish nationalism, whether by Zionism or another form,\u201d Zimmer said. \u201cIt may resonate with certain currents of Jewish politics today that tend to question the actions of the State of Israel or the project being problematic as a whole.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

An advertisement for a Yom Kippur dance and buffet from anarchist periodical Di varhayt (The Truth), New York, September, 1889. (Courtesy YIVO)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Jewish anarchism: Remember the anarchists<\/strong><\/p>\n

Conference host YIVO has been around since 1925 and miraculously survived the Holocaust.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMost of its staff got killed,\u201d director of public programs Alex Weiser told The Times of Israel. \u201cIt moved from Poland to New York City,\u201d he said, recalling a smuggling operation that allowed it to be one of the only organizations to escape the Holocaust.<\/span><\/p>\n

About 40 people staff YIVO today, mainly in New York. The organization also has an office in London<\/strong><\/span><\/a> and partnerships in Chicago and Buenos Aires. And it\u2019s really very important, argued Weiser.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYiddish is the language of a history with which we have a discontinuity,\u201d Weiser said. \u201cLearning Yiddish can lead people to find alternatives to \u2018being Jewish\u2019 that aren\u2019t prevalent in contemporary culture.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

YIVO aims to continuously enable global Yiddish learning<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, with, for example, a conference on Yiddish anarchism.<\/span><\/p>\n

Social justice crusader Emma Goldman addresses a crowd in 1916, several years before her deportation to Russia by the United States government (public domain)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Many famous anarchists were linked to the Yiddish anarchist movement, such as Johann Most and Emma Goldman<\/strong><\/span><\/a>. Famous organizations include the International Ladies\u2019 Garment Workers\u2019 Union (ILGWU)<\/strong><\/span><\/a> and the Yiddish anarchist newspaper the Fraye Arbeter Shtime (the Free Voice of Labor), \u201cthe largest and longest-lasting US anarchist publication,\u201d according to YIVO.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the 1930s, the second generation of bilingual Jewish anarchists emerged, including Sam and Esther Dolgoff, and Audrey Goodfriend, whose influence is still felt in today\u2019s anarchist movement,\u201d the YIVO program description<\/a><\/strong><\/span> said.<\/span><\/p>\n

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A forgotten chapter: When Jewish America spoke Yiddish \u2014 and was anarchist GIDEON GRUDO A January 20 conference hosted by the YIVO Institute covers a seldom-recognized piece of US Jewry\u2019s immigrant experience \u2014 and one that may serve a marginalized sector today A group of anarchists in Warsaw mourn during the 1926 funeral of activist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66981"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66981"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66993,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66981\/revisions\/66993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}