Blog

Essays, interviews, listicles, podcasts, and much more, covering all aspects of Yiddish culture.

Blog

The Bund by the Numbers: The Ebbs and Flows of a Jewish Radical Party

The Jew­ish Labor Bund was a major force in Russ­ian Jew­ish life, expand­ing the polit­i­cal are­na to be more demo­c­ra­t­ic in nature and dri­ving the cre­ation of a new polit­i­cal and eco­nom­ic dis­course in Yid­dish. So I was shocked to learn that in 1910, the Bund had a mere 609 mem­bers — down from approx­i­mate­ly 35,000 five years ear­li­er. The speed with which the Bund and oth­er Jew­ish polit­i­cal par­ties in the Russ­ian Empire could rise, fall, and rise again reflects the pres­sures the com­mu­ni­ty was under, result­ing in both sober cau­tion and dar­ing, des­per­ate dreams.

SIGN UP FOR OUR MONTHLY NEWSLETTER