The Problem with the Bund
Jewish Peoplehood and Culture are Great, as Long as Jews Aren’t Murdered or Discriminated Against
Apr 07, 2026
The Bund is trending. The activist grouping around the journal Jewish Currents has been lauding it for a while as they build out their brand. Now, a new book by Molly Crabapple, charting her own family’s history, makes a case for a new Bundist culture to take hold as distinct from Zionism.
Searching for an authentic Jewish identity that aligns with a socialist politics, a new generation has found the Bund. I get it. There was a vibrant cultural life back in the “old country,” with music, literature, theater, politics. All these things deserve recentering and revival.
It’s all great, except that the premise for the Bund as Jews’ savior is painfully misguided.
The idea of the Bund—that Jews could live culturally and freely among non-Jews and be shielded from harm—was destroyed by two horrors—Nazism and Stalinism.
These were the very reason that Zionism evolved.
There is one way in which Bundists and Zionists converged, and this is an important one—both movements saw Jews as a people, not simply as a religion. Keep in mind, because it leads one clearly to the notion of a Jewish state. It’s hard to see it as otherwise.
Let’s go back a bit in history. Jews always lived in Europe at the largesse of whoever ruled. They were never seen as equal citizens in the countries in which they lived. Their lives were restricted based on who governed. This included what professions they could practice, university admissions, and where they could live.
As the religious fundamentalism that held sway over many Eastern European Jews evaporated and modernity and the enlightenment brought new intellectual frameworks to Jewish communities, new forms of identity were experimented with. The Bund—a cultural identity where Jews could live an authentic Jewish life in the countries where they found themselves—was one of these formulations. Another one was Zionism.
Zionism was founded at the end of the 1800s, at a time when nationalisms were rife, and revolutions were taking hold. There were variations of left-wing Zionism, moderate, and right-wing Zionism. All of them, however, shared one determination—that the Jewish people would never be safe or free outside of a land that they could control, a Jewish homeland.
The Bund was founded at the same time as Jews in Eastern Europe turned to Zionism. Both ideologies were the result of historical changes including the collapse of the Hapsburg Empire and the rise of Russia as a regional power. Jews, who were protected by the Hapsburgs, were more vulnerable as nation states evolved, revolutions ensued, and a modern world was born. Intellectuals and activists made different determinations based on what they thought would protect them as Jews and allow Jewish life to flourish.
It’s frankly difficult to see as satisfactory the argument that the Bund allowed Jewish life to flourish, when, in fact, 6 million Jews were murdered in Europe. And it wasn’t simply the Nazis who murdered Jews. So, too, did Marxist (I would stay Stalinist) supposed allies.
I have admiration for the Bund, and for some of its leaders, especially Marek Edelman, who survived World War II to fight communism and became a leader of the Solidarity Movement before his death. And Henryck Erlich, who died at the hands of the Soviets who condemned him to death with a false accusation, as part of their anti-Semitic attacks on Jewish socialists. But these were leaders who were prosecuted as were so many others by socialists (or people calling themselves socialists since I would argue that a true socialist is a democrat who doesn’t discriminate against anyone for who they may be).
The Bund joined together with other Jewish groups to create the Jewish Fighting Organization, a revolutionary movement that led Jews inside the Warsaw Ghetto to revolt against their Polish and Nazi oppressors. This was a rare situation where Jews engaged in different politics –not simply Zionist or anti-Zionist, but also from the left and the right, came together to try valiantly and desperately to save their people. The JFO was led by a Marxist Zionist named Mordechai Aneliewizc. There is a street named after him in Poland today, that crosses in front of the massive and historic Polin Museum, the museum that tells the story of Polish Jewry. There is also a testament to the JFO and the communal house in which they lived and led, at the address Mila 18. There is nothing remaining there but a mound of grass and a gigantic memorial stone.
I was in a socialist-Zionist youth movement started by Anielewicz and his comrades called Hashomer Hatzair. They believe that by emigrating to Israel and creating an economy for workers and by workers, they could lose their position as middlemen in a capitalist economy, and determine their own future. Many of them sought a binational state with the Palestinians. The political ancestors of these young heroes created the kibbutzim and the Peace now movement and today, run a bi-national school for Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel as well as a non-profit that promotes shared society.
The Zionist left has shrunk for sure. It’s hardly calling the shots in an Israel today that is ruled by an extreme form of right wing and messianic Zionism.
But in its simplest definition, Zionism means that Jewish people can and should determine their own future, not be determined by kings or despots or dictators or even presidents. For culture to thrive, those who create the culture must be alive and free.
There are a lot of ways to be a Jewish leftist. I prefer one that keeps me alive.