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A review by outcolder
Revolutionary Yiddishland: A History of Jewish Radicalism by Sylvie Klingberg, Alain Brossat
4.0
A very moving tapestry of Marxian movements in the Pale of Settlement from the revolutionary interwar years through to the death of Stalin. Any book covering Jewish history in this period, you know it's not going to have a happy end but the twist here is that these people, betrayed by the parties that claimed to represent their ideals, wind up in Israel where they are forced to accept the existence of a state whose formation they had always opposed. This thread runs throughout the book, that the majority of politically active Yiddish speakers were actually anti-Zionist and the book also makes the point that the majority of Zionists were anti-Yiddish culture. It's not all black-and-white of course.
Others have taken this book to task for its unfortunate subtitle. This is in no way a comprehensive history of Jewish Radicalism. Anarchism is briefly mentioned in the chapter on the Spanish Civil War, and even less in the section about the Russian Revolution or the Russian Civil War. Especially grievous is the complete absence of the Makhno movement. Surely there were Yiddish speakers there.
However, this book is mainly about putting into context the interviews the authors made of radicals who were living in Israel in the 1980s. For Yiddish-speaking anarchists, one would have to interview radicals in New York City and London. It is also easy to imagine that many people who learned about this project did not want to be interviewed. They would not want their activist past to draw attention from Israeli authorities. After surviving Nazis and Stalinist purges, their paranoia might be well-founded. Who knows what creepy spooks might be lurking in Tel Aviv?
This book is a good sampler, I think, of subjects that are probably better addressed in more in-depth works. Jews in the Spanish Civil War is the subject of the excellent [b:Schalom Libertad! : Juden im spanischen Bürgerkrieg|1534475|Schalom Libertad! Juden im spanischen Bürgerkrieg|Arno Lustiger|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1184852126l/1534475._SY75_.jpg|1526580] and there are many works out there about Jewish history in Russia and the Soviet Union. Conflicts and cooperation between Jewish and Arab workers in British Palestine has also seen a few studies.
From the introduction, I got the impression that the authors returned to their French publisher with reams of interview transcriptions and then were told to junk most of that and give a lot of context instead. I would like to see a new edition with the full text of the interviews, surely in the intervening 40 years since the first edition there is no one living who would be endangered by any more detail. It's the snippets of the interviews that really give this book its life. There are quite a few anecdotes here that are just incredible, and often bring a whole situation to small point where everything seems clear.
The authors are sympathetic to Marxism but view Stalin and his era with clear vision. Trotsky and Lenin however could have stood some more criticism here. For me, the most egregious moment is when they off-handedly state that Romania and Israel have a good relationship which is quite a way to gloss over 'communist' Romania's ploy of charging thousands for Jewish exit visas to Israel that Zionist organizations were happy to pay, making Jews Romania's number one export in the 1980s. "A good relationship" between two criminal enterprises.
There was so much injustice during that wicked time and the people the authors interviewed were just caught up trying to make things better. This book turned the flame up on the angry coals in me. I would recommend it, just with the caveats I explained in this review.
Others have taken this book to task for its unfortunate subtitle. This is in no way a comprehensive history of Jewish Radicalism. Anarchism is briefly mentioned in the chapter on the Spanish Civil War, and even less in the section about the Russian Revolution or the Russian Civil War. Especially grievous is the complete absence of the Makhno movement. Surely there were Yiddish speakers there.
However, this book is mainly about putting into context the interviews the authors made of radicals who were living in Israel in the 1980s. For Yiddish-speaking anarchists, one would have to interview radicals in New York City and London. It is also easy to imagine that many people who learned about this project did not want to be interviewed. They would not want their activist past to draw attention from Israeli authorities. After surviving Nazis and Stalinist purges, their paranoia might be well-founded. Who knows what creepy spooks might be lurking in Tel Aviv?
This book is a good sampler, I think, of subjects that are probably better addressed in more in-depth works. Jews in the Spanish Civil War is the subject of the excellent [b:Schalom Libertad! : Juden im spanischen Bürgerkrieg|1534475|Schalom Libertad! Juden im spanischen Bürgerkrieg|Arno Lustiger|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1184852126l/1534475._SY75_.jpg|1526580] and there are many works out there about Jewish history in Russia and the Soviet Union. Conflicts and cooperation between Jewish and Arab workers in British Palestine has also seen a few studies.
From the introduction, I got the impression that the authors returned to their French publisher with reams of interview transcriptions and then were told to junk most of that and give a lot of context instead. I would like to see a new edition with the full text of the interviews, surely in the intervening 40 years since the first edition there is no one living who would be endangered by any more detail. It's the snippets of the interviews that really give this book its life. There are quite a few anecdotes here that are just incredible, and often bring a whole situation to small point where everything seems clear.
The authors are sympathetic to Marxism but view Stalin and his era with clear vision. Trotsky and Lenin however could have stood some more criticism here. For me, the most egregious moment is when they off-handedly state that Romania and Israel have a good relationship which is quite a way to gloss over 'communist' Romania's ploy of charging thousands for Jewish exit visas to Israel that Zionist organizations were happy to pay, making Jews Romania's number one export in the 1980s. "A good relationship" between two criminal enterprises.
There was so much injustice during that wicked time and the people the authors interviewed were just caught up trying to make things better. This book turned the flame up on the angry coals in me. I would recommend it, just with the caveats I explained in this review.