1st Edition

Class Struggle and the Jewish Nation

By Ber Borochov Copyright 1983
    228 Pages
    by Routledge

    228 Pages
    by Routledge

    This volume contains the first broad selection of essays made available in English by Ber Borochov, one of the leading intellectuals of the early Zionist movement. Borochov founded the Labor Zionist party in 1906, and was the pillar of the Israeli Labor party from whose ranks arose such figures as David Ben-Gurion and Itzhak Ben-Tsvi. He is best remembered for his ability to synthesize socialism and nationalism.Borochov argues that early Marxist theory failed to understand the causes of nationalism and views it only as a temporary phenomenon. Borochov tried to synthesize socialism with Jewish nationalism. Zionism was a movement necessary to free oppressed Eastern European Jews and permit them to further socialist ideals in their own nation-state. The dilemma is that socialist internationalism requires national culture to be of no further value once a socialist victory occurs in a country. Borochov's essays provide an important, if largely unknown perspective on these questions.

    Acknowledgments, Introduction: Ber Borochov and Socialist Zionism,, by Mitchell Cohen, 1. On Questions of Zionist Theory, 2. The National Question and the Class Struggle, 3. Our Platform, 4. The Jubilee of the Jewish Labor Movement, 5. Anti-Zionist Front, 6. Jewish Anti-Semitism, 7. Difficulties of Poale Zionism, 8. The Aims of Yiddish Philology, 9. Hebraismus Militans, 10. National Helplessness versus National Self-Help, 11. Two Currents in Poale Zionism, 12. The Socialism of Poale Zion Here, 13. Healthy and Sick Socialism, 14. The Economic Development of the Jewish People, 15. The Terrorist and the Shomer, 16. Reminiscences: On the Occasion of the Tenth Anniversary of the Poale Zion in Russia, 1906-16, 17. At the Cradle of Zionist Socialism, 18. A. Lieberman: Father of Jewish Socialism, 19. Facing Reality, 20. Eretz Israel in Our Program and Tactics, Appendix: Declaration to the Hollando-Scandinavian Socialist Committee Submitted by the Jewish Socialist Labor Confederation Poale Zion, Glossary

    Biography

    Ber Borochov (Author)