Socialists, Communists, Bundists and Zionists: Jews on the left in the 1930s

The contemporary narrative of Jewish history is one of ghettos, pogroms, suffering, oppression – Jews as the eternal victims. But in the 1930s, Jewish political currents engaged with non-Jewish socialists in struggle: they fought fascists, engaged in tenants' strikes, formed defence groups, led mass demonstrations and linked up with the struggles of other oppressed groups. From New York to London to Warsaw, Jews engaged in class struggle and fought anti-Semitism as part of a wider left. Janey Stone, co-author of forthcoming book The Radical Jewish Tradition: Revolutionaries, Resistance Fighters and Firebrands, will look at the different political currents and how their strategies played out in this tempestuous decade.