Judaism, Yiddish Peoplehood, and American Radicalism

Verbeeten, David

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-73120-9_4

David Verbeeten⁶

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements ((PSHSM))

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Abstract

Eastern European Jewish immigrants to the United States in the early twentieth century were known for political radicalism. This chapter explores the life and activities of Alexander Bittelman, a radical Jewish immigrant to New York from the Ukraine who went on to help found the American Communist Party. Bittelman’s case, although extreme in relation to his peers, sheds lights on the motivations and inspirations of his upwardly mobile cohort in gravitating toward a variety of left-wing movements and ideologies. This aspiration was officially secular, yet, as Bittelman came to recognize, the impetus behind this ethnic political phenomenon inevitably drew on religious ideas and feelings that had been a part of many radical Jews’ upbringings and that continued to permeate their milieu.

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Notes

1.
Ezra Mendelsohn, “Introduction,” Essential Papers on Jews and the Left, ed. J. Reinharz and A. Shapira (New York and London: New York University Press, 1997), 2.
2.
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3.
Norman Podhoretz, Why Are Jews Liberals? (New York: Doubleday, 2009).
4.
Leonard Dinnerstein, Anti-Semitism in America (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), 245.
5.
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6.
Lawrence H. Fuchs, The Political Behavior of American Jews (Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1956), 178.
7.
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8.
Michael Alexander, Jazz Age Jews (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), 1–9.
9.
On Bittelman’s status within the Communist Party, see William Z. Foster , statement to national committee, April 15, 1951 in Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives (TAM), New York University, New York, NY, Alex Bittelman Papers (62.1), 62.1/3/14.
10.
Alexander Bittelman, Things I Have Learned: An Autobiography, manuscript, 1962–1963 in TAM/62/3-8-17. Henceforward TIHL.
11.
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12.
TIHL, 17, 30.
13.
TIHL, 16, 15.
14.
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15.
TIHL, 31, 43, 41.
16.
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17.
TIHL, 46, 47, 48.
18.
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19.
TIHL, 108, 111, 112.
20.
TIHL, 109. Emphasis in original.
21.
TIHL, 270, 244, 245.
22.
TIHL, 219, 225, 223, 235, 270, 244, 245.
23.
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24.
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25.
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26.
Tony Michels, A Fire in Their Hearts: Yiddish Socialists in New York (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005), 3.
27.
Harry Burgin, History of the Jewish Workers Movement, trans. anonymous, typescript, 30 November 1914 in TAM, Herzin Bergin Typescript (249), 249/1/1, 32.
28.
Kahan, “Economic Opportunities and Some Pilgrims’ Progress,” 251.
29.
Bernard Harshav, Language in Time of Revolution (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 47.
30.
Daniel Soyer, “Class Conscious Workers as Immigrant Entrepreneurs: The Ambiguity of Class among Eastern European Jewish Immigrants to the United States at the Turn of the Twentieth Century,” Labor History 42, no. 1 (2001): 52, 59, 58. See also the documents in TAM/037/R-7325/1 that record donations by Jewish businessmen to Jewish socialist politicians.
31.
Maurice Samuel, Jews on Approval (New York: Liveright Publishers, 1933), 198.
32.
William S. Berlin, On the Edge of Politics: The Roots of Jewish Political Thought in America (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1978), 5.
33.
TIHL, 108–109.
34.
Terry Martin, The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923–1939 (New York: Cornell University Press, 2001), 1.
35.
David Shneer, Yiddish and the Creation of Soviet Jewish Culture, 1918–1930 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 2.
36.
Ewa Morawska, “Changing Images of the Old Country in the Development of Ethnic Identity Among East European Immigrants, 1880s–1930: A Comparison of Jewish and Slavic Representations,” YIVO Annual of Jewish Social Science, ed. Jack Kugelmass (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, 1993), 21: 276–277, 294–297.
37.
Nathan Glazer, The Social Basis of American Communism (New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1961), 165.
38.
Daniel Soyer, “Back to the Future: American Jews Visit the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s,” Jewish Social Studies 6, no. 3 (2000): 129.
39.
TIHL, 385.
40.
TIHL, 365, 378, 377.
41.
TIHL, 377.
42.
Jeffrey Veidlinger, The Moscow State Yiddish Theater: Jewish Culture on the Soviet Stage (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000), 17.
43.
TIHL, 379.
44.
Paul Novick was expelled from Communist Party for revisionism and Zionism in 1972, but he still “affirmed his backing for democratic socialism and for the Soviet Union ‘the way it was during the Lenin period, when Jewish culture flourished.’” Peter B. Flint, “Paul Novick Is Dead; Editor, 97, Helped Start Yiddish Daily,” New York Times, 22 August 1989, D23.
45.
TIHL, 1059.
46.
TIHL, 1086.
47.
TIHL, 1088.
48.
James R. Barrett, William Z. Foster and the Tragedy of American Radicalism (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1999), 190.
49.
Alexander Bittelman, The Advance of the United Front (New York: Workers Library, 1934), 5.
50.
Alexander Bittelman, How to Win Social Justice: Can Coughlin and Lemke Do It? (New York: Workers Library, 1936), 22.
51.
Alexander Bittelman, “The Party and the People’s Front,” Party Building and Political Leadership (New York: Workers Library, 1937), 78, 79.
52.
Alexander Bittelman, Break the Economic and Political Sabotage of the Monopolists (New York: Workers Library, 1937), 5.
53.
TIHL, 623. Cf. Theodore Draper, American Communism and Soviet Russia: The Formative Period (London: Macmillan, 1960), 89.
54.
Melech Epstein, The Jew and Communism: The Story of Early Communist Victories and Ultimate Defeats in the Jewish Community, USA, 1919–1941 (New York: Trade Union Sponsoring Committee, 1959), 401.
55.
TIHL, 672, 674.
56.
TIHL, 672, 674.
57.
Alexander Bittelman, Jewish Unity for Victory (New York: Workers Library Publishers, 1943), 6.
58.
TIHL, 680, 675. Cf. Isaac Deutscher, “Israel’s Spiritual Climate,” The Non-Jewish Jew and Other Essays, ed. Tamara Deutscher (London: Oxford University Press, 1968), 112.
59.
TIHL, 692.
60.
TIHL, 692.
61.
Epstein, Jew and Communism, 401, 319.
62.
Israel Amter and Sadie Van Veen Amter, untitled, autobiographical typescript, 1950 and 1965 (revised), TAM (079), 204 in 079/1.
63.
TIHL, 869–871. Emphasis added.
64.
Alexander Bittelman, “Ethics and Politics in World Communism,” draft article, c. 1954, 30 in TAM/62.1/1/17.
65.
Martin, Affirmative Action Empire, 429.
66.
Jonathan Frankel and Benjamin Pinkus (eds), The Soviet Government and the Jews, 1948–1967: A Documented Study (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 1–7; Arno Lustiger, Stalin and the Jews: The Red Book—The Tragedy of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee and the Soviet Jews (New York: Enigma Books, 2003), 195–220.
67.
TIHL, 376–377, 1219–1221.
68.
TIHL, 948–949.
69.
Alexander Bittelman, Jewish Survival: A Marxist Outlook, typescript, 1960–1961, 189 in TAM/62.1/4/12.
70.
Ibid., 143.
71.
Ibid., 134.
72.
Ibid., 189. Emphasis in original.
73.
Will Herberg , “Socialism, Zionism and Messianic Passion,” Midstream 2 (1956): 65.
74.
Irving Howe , World of Our Fathers: The Journey of East European Jews to America and the Life They Found and Made (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1976), 223.
75.
TIHL, 142–143.
76.
David Horowitz, Radical Son: A Journey Through Time (New York: Free Press, 1997), 42.
77.
TIHL, 656.
78.
TIHL, 1047, 888.

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Toronto, ON, Canada
David Verbeeten

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History Department, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA
Leilah Danielson
Department of History, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA
Marian Mollin
Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo, Blindern, Oslo, Norway
Doug Rossinow

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Verbeeten, D. (2018). Judaism, Yiddish Peoplehood, and American Radicalism. In: Danielson, L., Mollin, M., Rossinow, D. (eds) The Religious Left in Modern America. Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73120-9_4

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73120-9_4
Published: 16 May 2018
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-73119-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-73120-9
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