Everything about Jewish Anarchism totally explained
Jewish anarchism is a general term encompassing various expressions of
anarchism within the
Jewish community.
Secular Jewish Anarchism
Many people of Jewish origin, such as
Emma Goldman,
Alexander Berkman,
Martin Buber,
Murray Bookchin and
Noam Chomsky, have played a role in the history of anarchism. However, as well as these individual anarchists of Jewish origin, there have also been specifically Jewish anarchist movements, within the
Yiddish-speaking communities of
Eastern and
Central Europe, and the Western cities to which they migrated, from the late nineteenth century until the Second World War. All the members of the first anarchist group in the
Russian Empire, which was formed in 1903 in
Białystok, were Jews .
Yiddish-speaking Jews participated to the
International Anarchist Congress of Amsterdam in 1907.
Jewish anarchist movements tended to stress the
internationalist character of the movement, but many of them also supported their national culture and focused on specifically Jewish issues.
Yiddish anarchist literature flourished 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.
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'.
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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.
Anarchists in contemporary Israel
There are a number of anarchist groups in
Israel. In the past decade, the Israeli group known as "
Anarchists Against the Wall" became widely-known in the ongoing struggle around the creation of the variously-called
Separation Wall/Fence/Barrier on the
West Bank.
While most of them are ethnically Jewish, members of the group don't define themselves as being "Jewish anarchists".
Jewish anarchists
See
List of Jewish anarchists
Jewish anarchist newspapers
Further Information
Get more info on 'Jewish Anarchism'.
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