Abstract
This chapter focus on the efforts of the three Yiddishist political parties—the Bund, Poale-Zion and the Folkspartei—that were active in the fields of welfare, education and culture in Poland during the first half of the Great War. At a time of great adversity for the civilian population, these parties attempted to improve the lives of ordinary people through welfare and civil defence activity. The German occupation brought with it a relatively liberal approach to the political activity of the national minorities which allowed these parties to expand their activities into the fields of Yiddish education and culture. This arousal of Jewish political activity led to the formation of new Jewish political communities around each party, which ultimately laid the ground for the ‘golden years’ of Jewish culture and education in inter-war Poland.
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Notes
- 1.
Shlomo Netzer (1980), The Struggle of Polish Jewry for Civil and National Minority Rights: 1918–1922 [in Hebrew] (Tel-Aviv, The Diaspora Research Institute), 13–47.
- 2.
Jacob Lestchinsky (1922), Yidishe Folk in Tsifern (The Jewish People in Numbers) [in Yiddish] (Berlin, Klal-Farlag), Table 15.
- 3.
For more on Jewish politics under Tsarist rule, see Vladimir Levin (2016), From Revolution to War: Jewish Politics in Russia, 1907–1914 [in Hebrew] (Jerusalem, Zalman Shazar).
- 4.
Shimon Frost (1998), Schooling as a Socio-Political Expression: Jewish Education in Interwar Poland (Jerusalem, The Magnes Press), 28.
- 5.
Sabina Levin (1997), Chapters in the History of Jewish Education in Poland in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries [in Hebrew] (Tel-Aviv, The Diaspora Research Institute) 196–211.
- 6.
Marcos Silber (2001), ‘The New Poland will Nurture All of Its Children: The Efforts in Central Europe to Achieve Autonomy for the Jews of Congress Poland During World War I’ [in Hebrew], Tel-Aviv (Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Tel-Aviv University); Jonathan Frankel (1988), ‘An Introductory Essay—The Paradoxical Politics of Marginality: Thoughts on the Jewish Situation During the Years 1914–1921’, Studies in Contemporary Jewry 4, 3–21.
- 7.
Miriam R. Eisenstein (1950), Jewish Schools in Poland 1919–1939: Their Philosophy and Development (New York, King’s Crown Press); Shimon Frost (1998), Schooling as a Socio-Political Expression: Jewish Education in Interwar Poland (Jerusalem, The Magnes Press).
- 8.
Regard the ideology of the Russian Bund, see Moshe Mishkinski (1981), The Beginning of the Jewish Labor Movement in Russia [in Hebrew] (Tel-Aviv, Hakibbutz Hameuchad); Jonathan Frankel (1989), Prophecy and Politics: Socialism, Nationalism and the Russian Jews 1862–1917 [in Hebrew] (Tel-Aviv, Am Oved); and Yoav Peled (1997), Class and Ethnicity in the Pale: The Political Economy of Jewish Worker’s Nationalism in Late Imperial Russia [in Hebrew] (Tel-Aviv, Hakibbutz Hameuchad).
- 9.
Matityahu Mintz (1986), Friend and Opponent: Yitshak Tabenkin in Poalei-Zion Party 1905–1912 [in Hebrew] (Efa’al, Yad Tabenkin), 26.
- 10.
Kalman Ian Weiser (2001), ‘The Politics of Yiddish: Noyekh Prilutski and the Folkspartey in Poland 1900–1926’, New York (Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Colombia University).
- 11.
Ernest Gellner (1987), Culture, Identity, and Politics (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press).
- 12.
HaTsfira (25 August 1914), ‘Yediot Mi Łódź’ (News from Łódź) [in Hebrew]; HaTsfira (31 August 1914), ‘Yediot Mi Łódź’ (News from Łódź) [in Hebrew]; and Jacob Hertz (1958), Di geschychte fun Bund in Lodz (The History of the Bund in Lodz) [in Yiddish] (New York, Unzer Tsait), 237.
- 13.
Marcos Silber (2006), ‘Ruling Practices and Multiple Cultures: Jews, Poles and Germans in Łódź During WWI’, Simon Dubnow Insitute Yearbook, 5 (2006), 191; Emanuel Nowogródzki (2001), The Jewish Labor Bund in Poland 1915–1939: From Its Emergence as an Independent Political Party Until the Beginning of World War II [in Polish] (Rockville, Shengold Books), 3.
- 14.
HaTsfira (12 August 1914), ‘Yediot Mi Łódź’ (News from Łódź) [in Hebrew].
- 15.
Jonathan Frankel (1988), ‘An Introductory Essay—The Paradoxical Politics of Marginality: Thoughts on the Jewish Situation During the Years 1914–1921’, Studies in Contemporary Jewry 4, 3–21; Arye Gelbard (1987), Stirring Times: The Russian Bund in Revolutionary Days [in Hebrew] (Tel-Aviv, The Diaspora Research Institute), 17.
- 16.
Semion Goldin (2000), ‘Deportation of Jews by the Russian Military Command 1914–1915’, Jews in Eastern Europe 1:41, 40–72.
- 17.
Alexander Guterman (1997), The Warsaw Jewish Community Between the Two World Wars: National Autonomy Enchained by Law and Reality 1917–1939 [in Hebrew] (Tel-Aviv, The Diaspora Research Institute), 52–53.
- 18.
HaTsfira (29 November 1914), ‘Yediot Mi Łódź’ (News from Łódź) [in Hebrew].
- 19.
HaTsfira (28 August 1914), ‘Yediot Mi Łódź’ (News from Łódź) [in Hebrew].
- 20.
YIVO, P3/1114, Das juedische hilfskomite fuer Polen (The Jewish Help Committees in Poland) [in German]; Zalman Kratko (1975), ‘Di yiddishe propessionele bavegong in congress poylen in der zeit fun der ershter velt milhume’ (The Jewish Proffesional Movements in Congress Poland During First World War) [in Yiddish] Gal-Ed 2, 116.
- 21.
Konrad Zieliński (2004), ‘Polski i zydowski ruch robotniczy w Królestwie Polskim w latach I wojny swiatowej’ (Polish and Jewish Labor Movement in the Poland During the First World War) [in Polish], Studia Judaica 7:1, 53.
- 22.
Danota Dombrovska and Avraham Wein, eds. (1970), Pinkas HaKehilot, Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities from Their Foundation Till After the Holocaust [in Hebrew] (Jerusalem, Yad Vashem), 171.
- 23.
Lebens-Fragen (18 February 1916), ‘Provintz- Międzyrzecz’ (From the City Międzyrzecz) [in Yiddish].
- 24.
Lebens Fragen (9 March 1917), ‘provinz- Białystok’ (From the City Białystok) [in Yiddish].
- 25.
Victor Shulman (1946), Di Yidn In Poyln (The Jews in Poland) [in Yiddish] (New York, Unzer Tsait), 859.
- 26.
Hayim Solomon Kazdan (1966), ‘In der tsait fun der ershter velt milhume 1914–1917’ (In the Years of the First World War), in Herts Aronson, ed. (1966), Nowogrodzki, Dobnow –Erlich eds. Di geshikhte fun Bund 3 (The History of the Bund 3) [in Yiddish] (New York, Unser Tsait), 34.
- 27.
Lebens Fragen (5 May 1916; 10 November 1916), ‘provintz’ (From the Cities) [in Yiddish].
- 28.
YIVO, Autobiography ♯3796.
- 29.
YIVO, P3/1114, Das juedische hilfskomite fuer Polen (The Jewish Help Committees in Poland) [in German].
- 30.
YIVO, 1400MG2, Box 38, Folder 430, Przeciw niszczeniu fabryk (Against the Destruction of Factories) [in Polish].
- 31.
Lebens Fragen (16 June 1916), ‘Das vohl-platform fun socialistishen vohl blok’ (The Election Platform of the Socialist-Block) [in Yiddish].
- 32.
Zalman Kratko (1975), ‘Di yiddishe propessionele bavegong in congress poylen in der zeit fun der ershter velt milhume’ (The Jewish Professional Movements in Congress Poland During First World War) [in Yiddish], Gal-Ed 2, 119–120.
- 33.
Ibid.
- 34.
Tzvi Fractor (1957), ‘The Jewish Militia in the Year 1915’, in Meir Blumental and Nahman Kuzan, eds. Encyclopaedia of the Diaspora-Lublin (Jerusalem, New York Public Library), 327.
- 35.
Anshel Reiss (1970), ‘The Jews of Eastern Galicia at the Rebirth of Poland’ [in Yiddish], in Arieh Tartakower, ed. Yearbook, 3, 71–90.
- 36.
Lebens-Fragen (18 February 1916), ‘Provintz- Międzyrzecz’ (From the City Międzyrzecz) [in Yiddish].
- 37.
Anshel Reiss (1970), ‘The Jews of Eastern Galicia at the Rebirth of Poland’ [in Yiddish], in Arieh Tartakower, ed. Yearbook, 3 (1970), 71.
- 38.
Yitshak Lev (1953), ‘Poalei-Zion Left’, in Yitshak Gruenbaum, ed. Encyclopaedia of the Diaspora- Warsaw (Jerusalem, New York Public Library), 97–98.
- 39.
Kalman Ian Weiser (2001), ‘The Politics of Yiddish: Noyekh Prilutski and the Folkspartey in Poland 1900–1926’, New York (Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Colombia University), 194.
- 40.
Marcos Silber (1998/1999), ‘Jews and Polish in Poland 1916’ [in Hebrew], Zmanim, 85, 78–83.
- 41.
Emma Or-Tal Zohar (2011), ‘The Bund and Poalei-Zion in Poland: The Cope with the Collapse of the Imperial Order and the Establishment of Poland as a Nation-State 1914–1921’ [in Hebrew] (Haifa, Thesis Submitted for Master Degree, Haifa University).
- 42.
We can see that of 90 seats, 15 were Jewish. This, of course doesn’t reflect at all the electoral power of the Jewish population in Warsaw; situation that was caused due to discrimination in the election methods. The statistics indicated that nearly 45% of the population in the city were Jewish those days.
- 43.
For example, Lebens Fragen (16 June 1916), ‘Das vohl-platform fun sotsialistishen vohl-blok’ (The Election-Platform of the Socialist-Block) [in Yiddish]; Prac. Reg. MBP w Łodzi, Blok socjalistyczny (The Socialist Block) [in Polish]; Der Moment (7 June 1916), ‘Di yudishe folks-komitet’ (The Jewish National Committee—The Folkspartey) [in Yiddish]; and Der Moment (12 June 1916), ‘Di Farvohl bavegung. A oifruf tsu di yidishe elteren!’ [in Yiddish].
- 44.
Miroslav Hroch (1994), The Social Interpretation of Linguistic Demands in European National Movements (Florence, European University Institute); Benedict Anderson (1983), Imagined Communities (London, Verso).
- 45.
The Yiddish was the most widespread language among the Jewish population in Poland those days; with more than 90% of Yiddish speaking as a mother tongue.
- 46.
Lebens Fragen (16 June 1916), ‘Das vohl-platform fun sotsialistishen vohl-blok’ (The Election-Platform of the Socialist-Block) [in Yiddish]; Der Moment (7 June 1916), ‘Di yudishe folks-komitet’ (The Jewish National Committee—The Folkspartey) [in Yiddish].
- 47.
Marcos Silber (2001), The New Poland, 156–157.
- 48.
Sabina Levin (1997), Chapters in the History of Jewish Education in Poland.
- 49.
Marcos Silber, ‘The New Poland Will Nurture’, 150.
- 50.
Ibid., 153.
- 51.
Ibid.
- 52.
Vladimir Medem (1879–1923) was born in a converted to Christianity family. Medem studied Law at Kiev University, where he was exposed to socialist ideas. In 1900 he joined the Bund and soon became one of the party’s leaders. In 1913 he was imprisoned by the tsarist regime due to his political activity, and was not discharged until the German had concurred Warsaw. Since then he started to act in the framework of the Polish Bund. He was the editor of the party’s newspaper, the Lebens Fragen, where he published many of his thoughts and plans. In the early 1920s Medem immigrated to New York, where he acted as the main fundraiser for the polish Bund.
- 53.
Nowogródzki claims that this series of articles was signed under the name ‘Komets Alef’ (O) since the Yiddish version of them was translated by Maurycy Orzech, one the Bund’s leaders, as Yiddish was not Medem’s mother tongue. Emanuel Nowogródzki (2001), The Jewish Labor Bund in Poland 1915–1939: From Its Emergence as an Independent Political Party Until the Beginning of World War II [in Polish] (Rockville, Shengold Books), 342.
- 54.
Lebens Fragen (9 February 1916), ‘Di Folkshul’ (The National School) [in Yiddish].
- 55.
Lebens Fragen (3 November 1916), ‘Vegen Di Folkshul IV- Der Shprah’ (Regarding the National School 5—The Language) [in Yiddish].
- 56.
Lebens Fragen (11 October 1916), ‘Vegen Di Folkshul II- Di Form’ (Regarding the National School 2—The Program) [in Yiddish].
- 57.
Lebens Fragen (6 October 1916), ‘Vegen Di Folkshul I- Tsilen un oifgeben’ (Regarding the National School 1—Goals and Problems) [in Yiddish]; Lebens Fragen (27 October 1916), ‘Vegen Di Folkshul III- Di mitlen’ (Regarding the National School 3—Resources) [in Yiddish].
- 58.
Hayyim Solomon Kazdan (1947), Di geshikhte fun yidishn shulvezn in umophengikn poyln (The History of Yiddish Schools in Independent Poland) [in Yiddish] (Mexico, Gezelshaft Kultur Un Hilf), 33–34.
- 59.
Ibid., 23.
- 60.
Ibid., 25.
- 61.
More on the cultural organizations and institutions affiliated to the Bund, see also Jack Jacobs (2009), Bundist- Counterculture in Interwar Poland (New York, Syracuse University Press).
- 62.
Kazdan (1947), Di geshikhte fun yidishn, 52.
- 63.
Yiddishist educational activity in Congress Poland was chiefly directed by the Shul- un Folksbildung-fareyn (School and Public Education Association), an organization dedicated to the creation of a Yiddish model elementary school and the coordination of adult education programs. Though founded in 1915, the School Association was not legally recognized by German authorities until March 1916. The School Association’s administration comprised Bundists, Poale Zionists, and non-party elements, including Shoyl Stupnitski and Noyekh Prilutski, who served as its president. Kazdan (1947), Di geshikhte fun yidishn, 53–54.
- 64.
Zohar (2011), ‘The Bund and Poalei-Zion in Poland’.
- 65.
Lebens Fragen (18 February 1916), ‘provinz- Białystok’ (From the City of Białystok) [in Yiddish].
- 66.
Lebens Fragen (18 February 1916), ‘provinz- Międzyrzecz’ (From the City of Międzyrzecz) [in Yiddish].
- 67.
Lebens Fragen (5 May 1916), ‘provinz- Ostrow’ (From the City of Ostrów) [in Yiddish].
- 68.
Lebens Fragen (10 November 1916), ‘provinz- Pułtusk’ (From the City of Pułtusk) [in Yiddish].
- 69.
Lebens Fragen (8 August 1916), ‘provinz- Łosice’ (From the City of Łosice) [in Yiddish].
- 70.
Lebens Fragen (8 August 1916; 3 November 1916), ‘provinz’ (From the Cities) [in Yiddish].
- 71.
Ido Bassok (2011), Youthful Plots: Autobiographies of Polish-Jewish Youth Between the Two World Wars [in Hebrew] (Tel-Aviv, The Diaspora Research Institute).
- 72.
Bina Garncarska-Kadary (1995), In Search of Their Way—Poalei-Zion: The Left in Poland Up to World War II [in Hebrew] (Tel-Aviv, The Diaspora Research Institute), 236.
- 73.
Ibid., 39–42.
- 74.
Jacob Dinzon (1858–1919), Born in Kaunas in 1858 to a Hasidic family, he moved to Warsaw in 1884, where he worked as a Yiddish writer and Y. L Perets’ assistant. During the First World War Dinzon established a Yiddish school network in Warsaw.
- 75.
Hersh Dovid Nomberg was educated in Hebrew but was fluent in many languages. He settled in Warsaw in 1897 and was close to Y. L Perets, who inspired him to start writing in Yiddish. In 1916 he founded with Dinzon and Prilutski the ‘Yiddish Writers and Journalists Union’. During the 20s he replaced Noah Prilutski as the Folkspartei member in the Polish sejm.
- 76.
Garncarska-Kadary (1995), In Search of Their Way, 40.
- 77.
Garncarska-Kadary (1995), In Search of Their Way.
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Zohar, E. (2019). Bread, Butter and Education: The Yiddishist Movements in Poland, 1914–1916. In: Madigan, E., Reuveni, G. (eds) The Jewish Experience of the First World War. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54896-2_4
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