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Jewish left
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Jewish left
The Jewish left refers to Jewish individuals or organizations that identify with or support left-wing or social liberal causes, consciously as Jews. There is no singular organization or movement that constitutes the Jewish left.
Jews have been major forces in the history of the labor movement, the settlement house movement, the women's rights movement, anti-racist and anti-colonialist work, and anti-fascist and anti-capitalist organizations of many forms in Europe, the United States, Australia, Algeria, Iraq, Ethiopia, South Africa, Palestine, and the State of Israel.
Jews have a history of involvement in anarchism, socialism, Marxism, and Western liberalism. The expression "on the left" encompasses a range of political positions. Many individuals associated with left-wing politics have been Jews born into Jewish families, with varying degrees of connection to Jewish communities, cultures, traditions, or religious practices.
Jewish leftist thought has roots in the Haskalah, led by thinkers such as Moses Mendelssohn, as well as in the support of European Jews, including Ludwig Börne, for republican ideals following the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the movement for Jewish emancipation spread across Europe and was closely associated with the emergence of political liberalism, which emphasized Enlightenment principles of rights and equality before the law. At the time, liberals were considered part of the political left, and emancipated Jews, as they became more integrated into the political culture of their respective nations, were often associated with liberal political parties. Many Jews supported the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Revolutions of 1848. In England, Jews tended to support the Liberal Party, which had led the parliamentary struggle for Jewish emancipation, a political dynamic described by some scholars as "the liberal Jewish compromise".
During the late 19th century, industrialisation led to the emergence of a Jewish working class in the cities of Eastern and Central Europe, followed by the development of a Jewish labor movement. The Jewish Labour Bund was established in Lithuania, Poland, and Russia in 1897, and various Jewish socialist organizations formed across the Russian Empire's Pale of Settlement. Additionally, individuals of Jewish origin participated in anarchist, socialist, social democratic, and communist movements, though not all explicitly identified as Jewish.[citation needed]
As Zionism developed as a political movement, Labor Zionist parties such as Ber Borochov's Poale Zion emerged. Other left-wing Jewish nationalist movements included territorialism, which sought a homeland for the Jewish people but not necessarily in Palestine; Jewish autonomism, which advocated for non-territorial national rights for Jews within multinational empires; and folkism, promoted by Simon Dubnow, which emphasized the cultural identity of Yiddish-speaking Jews.[citation needed]
As Eastern European Jews migrated West from the 1880s onward, these ideological movements took root in growing Jewish communities, including the East End of London, Paris’s Pletzl, New York City's Lower East Side, and Buenos Aires. London had an active Jewish anarchist movement, in which the non-Jewish German writer Rudolf Rocker was a central figure. In the United States, a significant Jewish socialist movement developed, exemplified by the Yiddish-language daily The Forward and trade unions such as the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. Notable figures in these circles included Rose Schneiderman, Abraham Cahan, Morris Winchevsky, and David Dubinsky.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Jews played a significant role in the social democratic parties of Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Poland. Historian Enzo Traverso has used the term "Judeo-Marxism" to describe the distinct contributions of Jewish socialists to Marxist thought. These ranged from cosmopolitan perspectives opposing nationalism, as seen in the views of Rosa Luxemburg and, to a lesser extent, Leon Trotsky, to positions more accommodating of cultural nationalism, as represented by the Austromarxists and Vladimir Medem.
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Jewish left
The Jewish left refers to Jewish individuals or organizations that identify with or support left-wing or social liberal causes, consciously as Jews. There is no singular organization or movement that constitutes the Jewish left.
Jews have been major forces in the history of the labor movement, the settlement house movement, the women's rights movement, anti-racist and anti-colonialist work, and anti-fascist and anti-capitalist organizations of many forms in Europe, the United States, Australia, Algeria, Iraq, Ethiopia, South Africa, Palestine, and the State of Israel.
Jews have a history of involvement in anarchism, socialism, Marxism, and Western liberalism. The expression "on the left" encompasses a range of political positions. Many individuals associated with left-wing politics have been Jews born into Jewish families, with varying degrees of connection to Jewish communities, cultures, traditions, or religious practices.
Jewish leftist thought has roots in the Haskalah, led by thinkers such as Moses Mendelssohn, as well as in the support of European Jews, including Ludwig Börne, for republican ideals following the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the movement for Jewish emancipation spread across Europe and was closely associated with the emergence of political liberalism, which emphasized Enlightenment principles of rights and equality before the law. At the time, liberals were considered part of the political left, and emancipated Jews, as they became more integrated into the political culture of their respective nations, were often associated with liberal political parties. Many Jews supported the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Revolutions of 1848. In England, Jews tended to support the Liberal Party, which had led the parliamentary struggle for Jewish emancipation, a political dynamic described by some scholars as "the liberal Jewish compromise".
During the late 19th century, industrialisation led to the emergence of a Jewish working class in the cities of Eastern and Central Europe, followed by the development of a Jewish labor movement. The Jewish Labour Bund was established in Lithuania, Poland, and Russia in 1897, and various Jewish socialist organizations formed across the Russian Empire's Pale of Settlement. Additionally, individuals of Jewish origin participated in anarchist, socialist, social democratic, and communist movements, though not all explicitly identified as Jewish.[citation needed]
As Zionism developed as a political movement, Labor Zionist parties such as Ber Borochov's Poale Zion emerged. Other left-wing Jewish nationalist movements included territorialism, which sought a homeland for the Jewish people but not necessarily in Palestine; Jewish autonomism, which advocated for non-territorial national rights for Jews within multinational empires; and folkism, promoted by Simon Dubnow, which emphasized the cultural identity of Yiddish-speaking Jews.[citation needed]
As Eastern European Jews migrated West from the 1880s onward, these ideological movements took root in growing Jewish communities, including the East End of London, Paris’s Pletzl, New York City's Lower East Side, and Buenos Aires. London had an active Jewish anarchist movement, in which the non-Jewish German writer Rudolf Rocker was a central figure. In the United States, a significant Jewish socialist movement developed, exemplified by the Yiddish-language daily The Forward and trade unions such as the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. Notable figures in these circles included Rose Schneiderman, Abraham Cahan, Morris Winchevsky, and David Dubinsky.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Jews played a significant role in the social democratic parties of Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Poland. Historian Enzo Traverso has used the term "Judeo-Marxism" to describe the distinct contributions of Jewish socialists to Marxist thought. These ranged from cosmopolitan perspectives opposing nationalism, as seen in the views of Rosa Luxemburg and, to a lesser extent, Leon Trotsky, to positions more accommodating of cultural nationalism, as represented by the Austromarxists and Vladimir Medem.