Poale Zion
Encyclopedia
Poale Zion was a Movement of Marxist
Zionist
Jewish workers circles founded in various cities of the Russian Empire
about the turn of the century after the Bund rejected Zionism
in 1901.
in the early 1900s. A branch of Poale Zion came into existence in New York City
in 1903. Branches were formed in London and Leeds in 1903/04 and 1905 respectively. In November 1905 the Poale Zion (Workers of Zion) Party was founded in Palestine
and a month later the Socialist Jewish Labour Party (Poale Zion) was formed in the United States
and Canada
. In March 1906 the Jewish Social Democratic Labour Party (Poale Zion)
was created in Russia. In 1906 a formal Poale Zion party was formed in Poltava
, Ukraine, under the leadership of Ber Borochov
, and other groups were soon formed elsewhere in Europe, including in Poland
, Austria
and the UK.
The key features of the ideology of early Poale Zion were acceptance of the Marxist view of history with the addition of the role of nationalism
, which Borochov believed could not be ignored as a factor in historical development. A Jewish proletariat would come into being in the land of Israel, according to Poale Zion, and would then take part in the class struggle
. These views were set out in Borochov's Our Platform, published in 1906.
A World Union of Poale Zion was formed. Its second congress in 1909 emphasised practical socialist projects in Palestine. In Ottoman Palestine, Poale Zion founded the Hashomer
guard organization that guarded settlements of the Yishuv
, and took up the ideology of "conquest of labor" (Kibbush Ha'avoda) and Avoda Ivrit ("Hebrew labor
"). Poale Zion set up employment offices, kitchens and health services for members. These eventually evolved into the institutions of labor Zionism in Israel. During World War I
, Poale Zion was instrumental in recruiting members to the Jewish Legion
.
Poale Zion was active in Britain during World War I, under the leadership of J Pomeranz and Morris Meyer, and influential on the British labour movement, including on the drafting (by Sidney Webb and Arthur Henderson
) of the Labour Party’s War Aims Memorandum, recognising the 'right of return
' of Jews to Palestine, a document which preceded the Balfour Declaration by three months.
and at least partially resulting from some activists' concern with the ongoing chaos and violence occurring in Bolshevik-controlled Russia.
The right wing (also known as Rightist Poale Zion, Poale Zion Right, or simply Poale Zion) was non-Marxist, favored a more moderate socialist program and strongly affiliated itself with the Second International, essentially becoming a social-democratic party. Since their immigration to Palestine in 1906 and 1907, the major leaders of Poale Zion had been David Ben-Gurion
, who joined a local Poalei Tziyon group in 1904 as a student at the University of Warsaw
, and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi
, a close friend of Borochov's and early member of the Poltava group. After the split the two Benim ("the Bens") continued to control and direct Poale Zion Right in Palestine, eventually merging it with other movements to form larger constituencies.
The left wing (also known as Leftist Poale Zion or Poale Zion Left) did not consider the Second International radical enough and some went so far as to accuse members who associated with it to have betrayed Borochov's revolutionary principles (ironically, Borochov had begun to modify his ideology as early as 1914, and publicly identified as a social-democrat the year before his death). Poale Zion Left, which supported the Bolshevik revolution, continued to be strongly sympathetic to Marxism
and Communism
, and repeatedly lobbied the Soviet Union for membership in the Communist International. Their attempts were unsuccessful, as the Soviets (particularly non-Zionist Jewish members) continued to be suspicious of Zionism's nationalist tendencies, and some party leaders also held personal grudges against the group's members.
The Poale Zion in Palestine
split into right and left wings at its February/March 1919 conference. In October 1919, a faction of the Left Poale Zion founded the Mifleget Poalim Sozialistiim (Socialist Workers Party) which would be renamed the Jewish Communist Party in 1921, split in 1922 over the question of Zionism with one faction taking the name Palestinian Communist Party
and the more anti-Zionist faction becoming the Communist Party of Palestine
. The former retained its links to the Poale Zion left. These two factions would reunite as the Palestine Communist Party
in 1923 and become an official section of the Communist International. Another faction of the Left Poale Zion aligned with the kibbutz movement Hashomer Hatzair
, founded in Europe in 1919, would eventually become the Mapam
party. The Poale Zion Right under Ben Gurion's leadership formed Ahdut HaAvoda
in 1919 which in 1930 would merge with another party to become Mapai
, the predecessor of the modern Israeli Labor Party.
The Poale Zion Left in Russia participated in the Bolshevik
revolution. Borochov himself returned to Russia following the February Revolution
and organized brigades of Poale Zion activists http://www.hagshama.org.il/en/resources/view.asp?id=1343, nicknamed "Borochov Brigades", to fight in the Red Army
. The party remained legal until 1928 when it was liquidated by the NKVD
. Most other Zionist organizations had been closed down in 1919, and it seems likely that Poale Zion Left was allowed to continue to operate because it had been an officially recognized "Communistic" party. In 1919, the Communists of the Poale Zion Left split to form the Jewish Communist Party which ultimately joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
, leading to a sharp loss of membership in Russia. The left faction enjoyed more success and popularity in Britain and Poland until World War II.
The World Union of Poalei Zion (i.e. the PZ rightwing) was a member of the Labour and Socialist International
between 1923 and 1930 (as its Palestinian section).
As of 1928, the World Union of Poalei Zion (i.e. the PZ rightwing) claimed to have 22,500 members in its sections around the world; 5,000 in Poland and the United States, 4,000 in Palestine, 3,000 in Russia, 1,000 in Lithuania, Romania, Argentina and the United Kingdom, 500 in Latvia and another 1,000 scattered across countries such as Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, France and Brazil. The general secretary of the World Union of Poalei Zion at the time was B. Locker. The World Union had a women's wing, the Women's Organization for the Pioneer Women in Palestine.
As well as their differing attitudes towards Stalinism
, the two wings of Poale Zion also parted ways concerning the use of and development of Yiddish and Yiddish culture, with the Left generally being more supportive of Yiddish culture, similar to the members of the Jewish Bund, with the Right bloc identifying more strongly with the emerging modern Hebrew movement that became popular among the Zionist movement during the early 1900s.
For a brief period following the war, both factions of Poale Zion were reported as legal and "functioning" political parties in Poland, but it is unclear how viable they continued to be. As part of the large-scale ban on Jewish political parties in post-war Poland by the Communist leadership, both Poale Zion groups were disbanded in February, 1950.
was formed from a coalition including Hashomer Hatzair
, Dror
, Bnei Akiva
, the Jewish Bund
, various Jewish Communist groups, and both factions of Poale Zion.
Several notable Jewish resistance fighters during the Holocaust, particularly those involved in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
, were members of Poale Zion. They include:
Additionally, several well-known Zionist leaders and politicians were members of Poale Zion, including Ben-Gurion, Ben-Zvi, kibbutz movement leader Yitzhak Tabenkin
and Jewish Agency Executive member Shlomo Kaplansky.
, David Ben-Gurion
integrated most of Poale Zion Right in Palestine
into his Ahdut HaAvoda
party, which became Mapai
by the 1930s. The Poale Zion Left merged with the kibbutz-based Hashomer Hatzair
and the urban-based Socialist League to form Mapam
in 1948, which later merged with two smaller parties, Ratz and Shinui to form Meretz-Yachad
. In 1946, a split in Mapai led to the creation of another small party, Ahdut HaAvoda - Zion Workers
, which united with Mapam in 1948. In 1954, a small group of Mapam dissidents left the party, again assuming the Ahdut HaAvoda - Zion Workers
name. That party eventually became part of the Alignment
in a 1965 merger with Mapai
(and later included Rafi and Mapam
). In 1992, the Alignment became the Israeli Labour Party.
In North America, Poale Zion founded the HeHalutz
movement, the Farband
and Habonim Dror
, and later the Labor Zionist Organization of America, which merged with other groups into the Labor Zionist Alliance, which rebranded itself in 2007 as Ameinu
.
In Britain, Poale Zion rebranded itself in 2004 as the Jewish Labour Movement
.
Internationally, the Poale Zion right is represented within the World Zionist Organization
by World Labour Zionist Movement
; the group "to the left" of the WLZM within the WZO is the World Union of Meretz.
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
Zionist
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
Jewish workers circles founded in various cities of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
about the turn of the century after the Bund rejected Zionism
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
in 1901.
Formation and early years
Poale Zion parties and organisations were started across the Jewish diasporaDiaspora
A diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of...
in the early 1900s. A branch of Poale Zion came into existence in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1903. Branches were formed in London and Leeds in 1903/04 and 1905 respectively. In November 1905 the Poale Zion (Workers of Zion) Party was founded in Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
and a month later the Socialist Jewish Labour Party (Poale Zion) was formed in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. In March 1906 the Jewish Social Democratic Labour Party (Poale Zion)
Jewish Communist Labour Party (Poalei Zion)
The Jewish Communist Labour Party was the new name, from 1922 to its dissolution in 1928, of the Jewish Social Democratic Labour Party , a Zionist socialist political party founded in 1906, part of the international Poalei Zion movement.The JSDLP had suffered a major split in August 1919, when a...
was created in Russia. In 1906 a formal Poale Zion party was formed in Poltava
Poltava
Poltava is a city in located on the Vorskla River in central Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Poltava Oblast , as well as the surrounding Poltava Raion of the oblast. Poltava's estimated population is 298,652 ....
, Ukraine, under the leadership of Ber Borochov
Ber Borochov
Dov Ber Borochov was a Marxist Zionist and one of the founders of the Labor Zionist movement as well as a pioneer in the study of Yiddish as a language....
, and other groups were soon formed elsewhere in Europe, including in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
and the UK.
The key features of the ideology of early Poale Zion were acceptance of the Marxist view of history with the addition of the role of nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
, which Borochov believed could not be ignored as a factor in historical development. A Jewish proletariat would come into being in the land of Israel, according to Poale Zion, and would then take part in the class struggle
Class struggle
Class struggle is the active expression of a class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote "The [written] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle"....
. These views were set out in Borochov's Our Platform, published in 1906.
A World Union of Poale Zion was formed. Its second congress in 1909 emphasised practical socialist projects in Palestine. In Ottoman Palestine, Poale Zion founded the Hashomer
Hashomer
Hashomer was a Jewish defense organization in Palestine founded out of Bar-Giora in April 1909. It ceased to operate after the founding of the Haganah in 1920. The purpose of Hashomer was to provide guard services for Jewish settlements in the Yishuv, freeing Jewish communities from dependence...
guard organization that guarded settlements of the Yishuv
Yishuv
The Yishuv or Ha-Yishuv is the term referring to the body of Jewish residents in Palestine before the establishment of the State of Israel...
, and took up the ideology of "conquest of labor" (Kibbush Ha'avoda) and Avoda Ivrit ("Hebrew labor
Hebrew labor
Hebrew labor refers to the concept of hiring Jewish workers in Ottoman and Mandate Palestine.-Ottoman era:During the Second Aliyah period many Jewish immigrants to Palestine sought year round jobs on the agricultural tracts and plantations of their co-religionists who had arrived during the First...
"). Poale Zion set up employment offices, kitchens and health services for members. These eventually evolved into the institutions of labor Zionism in Israel. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Poale Zion was instrumental in recruiting members to the Jewish Legion
Jewish Legion
The Jewish Legion was the name for five battalions of Jewish volunteers established as the British Army's 38th through 42nd Battalions of the Royal Fusiliers...
.
Poale Zion was active in Britain during World War I, under the leadership of J Pomeranz and Morris Meyer, and influential on the British labour movement, including on the drafting (by Sidney Webb and Arthur Henderson
Arthur Henderson
Arthur Henderson was a British iron moulder and Labour politician. He was the 1934 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and he served three short terms as the Leader of the Labour Party from 1908–1910, 1914–1917 and 1931-1932....
) of the Labour Party’s War Aims Memorandum, recognising the 'right of return
Right of return
The term right of return refers to a principle of international law, codified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, giving any person the right to return to, and re-enter, his or her country of origin...
' of Jews to Palestine, a document which preceded the Balfour Declaration by three months.
Split
Poale Zion split into Left and Right factions in 1919-1920, following a similar division that occurred in the Second InternationalSecond International
The Second International , the original Socialist International, was an organization of socialist and labour parties formed in Paris on July 14, 1889. At the Paris meeting delegations from 20 countries participated...
and at least partially resulting from some activists' concern with the ongoing chaos and violence occurring in Bolshevik-controlled Russia.
The right wing (also known as Rightist Poale Zion, Poale Zion Right, or simply Poale Zion) was non-Marxist, favored a more moderate socialist program and strongly affiliated itself with the Second International, essentially becoming a social-democratic party. Since their immigration to Palestine in 1906 and 1907, the major leaders of Poale Zion had been David Ben-Gurion
David Ben-Gurion
' was the first Prime Minister of Israel.Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, led him to become a major Zionist leader and Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization in 1946...
, who joined a local Poalei Tziyon group in 1904 as a student at the University of Warsaw
University of Warsaw
The University of Warsaw is the largest university in Poland and one of the most prestigious, ranked as best Polish university in 2010 and 2011...
, and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi
Yitzhak Ben-Zvi
Yitzhak Ben-Zvi was a historian, Labor Zionist leader, the second and longest-serving President of Israel.-Biography:...
, a close friend of Borochov's and early member of the Poltava group. After the split the two Benim ("the Bens") continued to control and direct Poale Zion Right in Palestine, eventually merging it with other movements to form larger constituencies.
The left wing (also known as Leftist Poale Zion or Poale Zion Left) did not consider the Second International radical enough and some went so far as to accuse members who associated with it to have betrayed Borochov's revolutionary principles (ironically, Borochov had begun to modify his ideology as early as 1914, and publicly identified as a social-democrat the year before his death). Poale Zion Left, which supported the Bolshevik revolution, continued to be strongly sympathetic to Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
and Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
, and repeatedly lobbied the Soviet Union for membership in the Communist International. Their attempts were unsuccessful, as the Soviets (particularly non-Zionist Jewish members) continued to be suspicious of Zionism's nationalist tendencies, and some party leaders also held personal grudges against the group's members.
The Poale Zion in Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
split into right and left wings at its February/March 1919 conference. In October 1919, a faction of the Left Poale Zion founded the Mifleget Poalim Sozialistiim (Socialist Workers Party) which would be renamed the Jewish Communist Party in 1921, split in 1922 over the question of Zionism with one faction taking the name Palestinian Communist Party
Palestinian Communist Party (1922)
The Palestinian Communist Party was a communist party in Palestine 1922-1923. It was born through a split in the Jewish Communist Party . A major difference between the two parties was the attitude towards Zionism...
and the more anti-Zionist faction becoming the Communist Party of Palestine
Communist Party of Palestine
The Communist Party of Palestine was a communist party in Palestine 1922-1923. It was formed through a split in the Po‘alei Tziyon which lead to the formation of the Jewish Communist Party and another faction forming the Palestinian Communist Party). A major difference between the two parties was...
. The former retained its links to the Poale Zion left. These two factions would reunite as the Palestine Communist Party
Palestine Communist Party
The Palestine Communist Party was a political party in British Mandate of Palestine formed in 1923 through the merger of the Palestinian Communist Party and the Communist Party of Palestine...
in 1923 and become an official section of the Communist International. Another faction of the Left Poale Zion aligned with the kibbutz movement Hashomer Hatzair
Hashomer Hatzair
Hashomer Hatzair is a Socialist–Zionist youth movement founded in 1913 in Galicia, Austria-Hungary, and was also the name of the group's political party in the Yishuv in the pre-1948 British Mandate of Palestine...
, founded in Europe in 1919, would eventually become the Mapam
Mapam
Mapam was a political party in Israel and is one of the ancestors of the modern-day Meretz party.-History:Mapam was formed by a January 1948 merger of the Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party and Ahdut HaAvoda Poale Zion Movement. The party was originally Marxist-Zionist in its outlook and represented...
party. The Poale Zion Right under Ben Gurion's leadership formed Ahdut HaAvoda
Ahdut HaAvoda
Ahdut HaAvoda was the name used by a sequence of political parties that existed firstly during Mandate Palestine and later in Israel. Its original version, led by David Ben-Gurion, is one of the main ancestors of the modern-day Israeli Labor Party....
in 1919 which in 1930 would merge with another party to become Mapai
Mapai
Mapai was a left-wing political party in Israel, and was the dominant force in Israeli politics until its merger into the Israeli Labor Party in 1968...
, the predecessor of the modern Israeli Labor Party.
The Poale Zion Left in Russia participated in the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
revolution. Borochov himself returned to Russia following the February Revolution
February Revolution
The February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd in March . Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire...
and organized brigades of Poale Zion activists http://www.hagshama.org.il/en/resources/view.asp?id=1343, nicknamed "Borochov Brigades", to fight in the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
. The party remained legal until 1928 when it was liquidated by the NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
. Most other Zionist organizations had been closed down in 1919, and it seems likely that Poale Zion Left was allowed to continue to operate because it had been an officially recognized "Communistic" party. In 1919, the Communists of the Poale Zion Left split to form the Jewish Communist Party which ultimately joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
, leading to a sharp loss of membership in Russia. The left faction enjoyed more success and popularity in Britain and Poland until World War II.
The World Union of Poalei Zion (i.e. the PZ rightwing) was a member of the Labour and Socialist International
Labour and Socialist International
The Labour and Socialist International was an international organization of socialist and labour parties, active between 1923 and 1940. The LSI was a forerunner of the present-day Socialist International....
between 1923 and 1930 (as its Palestinian section).
As of 1928, the World Union of Poalei Zion (i.e. the PZ rightwing) claimed to have 22,500 members in its sections around the world; 5,000 in Poland and the United States, 4,000 in Palestine, 3,000 in Russia, 1,000 in Lithuania, Romania, Argentina and the United Kingdom, 500 in Latvia and another 1,000 scattered across countries such as Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, France and Brazil. The general secretary of the World Union of Poalei Zion at the time was B. Locker. The World Union had a women's wing, the Women's Organization for the Pioneer Women in Palestine.
As well as their differing attitudes towards Stalinism
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
, the two wings of Poale Zion also parted ways concerning the use of and development of Yiddish and Yiddish culture, with the Left generally being more supportive of Yiddish culture, similar to the members of the Jewish Bund, with the Right bloc identifying more strongly with the emerging modern Hebrew movement that became popular among the Zionist movement during the early 1900s.
For a brief period following the war, both factions of Poale Zion were reported as legal and "functioning" political parties in Poland, but it is unclear how viable they continued to be. As part of the large-scale ban on Jewish political parties in post-war Poland by the Communist leadership, both Poale Zion groups were disbanded in February, 1950.
The Holocaust
The Holocaust-era Jewish resistance group ŻOBZOB
ZOB can refer to:*Jewish Combat Organization*Cleveland Air Route Traffic Control Center*Berlin Zoologischer Garten railway station*Electronic Music Producer...
was formed from a coalition including Hashomer Hatzair
Hashomer Hatzair
Hashomer Hatzair is a Socialist–Zionist youth movement founded in 1913 in Galicia, Austria-Hungary, and was also the name of the group's political party in the Yishuv in the pre-1948 British Mandate of Palestine...
, Dror
Habonim Dror
Habonim Dror is a Jewish Labour Zionist youth movement formed by the merger in 1982 of the Habonim and Dror youth movements. Habonim Dror's sister movement in Israel is Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed, the Working and Studying Youth.-Ideology:...
, Bnei Akiva
Bnei Akiva
Bnei Akiva is the largest religious Zionist youth movement in the world, with over 125,000 members in 37 countries. It was established in Mandate Palestine in 1929.-History:...
, the Jewish Bund
General Jewish Labor Union
The General Jewish Labour Bund of Lithuania, Poland and Russia , generally called The Bund or the Jewish Labour Bund, was a secular Jewish socialist party in the Russian Empire, active between 1897 and 1920. Remnants of the party remain active in the diaspora as well as in Israel...
, various Jewish Communist groups, and both factions of Poale Zion.
Several notable Jewish resistance fighters during the Holocaust, particularly those involved in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in German occupied Poland during World War II, and which opposed Nazi Germany's effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to Treblinka extermination camp....
, were members of Poale Zion. They include:
- Adolf BermanAdolf Berman-Biography:Born in Warsaw under the Russian Empire , Berman attended the University of Warsaw, where he earned a PhD in philosophy...
, Warsaw ZOB fighter; Secretary of ZegotaZegota"Żegota" , also known as the "Konrad Żegota Committee", was a codename for the Polish Council to Aid Jews , an underground organization of Polish resistance in German-occupied Poland from 1942 to 1945....
. (Poale Zion Left) - Hersz Berlinski, member of Warsaw ZOB Command (Poale Zion Left)
- Yochanan Morgenstern, member of Warsaw ZOB Command (Poale Zion Right)
- Emanuel RingelblumEmanuel RingelblumEmanuel Ringelblum was a Polish-Jewish historian, politician and social worker, known for his Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto, Notes on the Refugees in Zbąszyn chronicling the deportation of Jews from the town of Zbąszyń, and the so-called Ringelblum's Archives of the Warsaw Ghetto.-Before the war:He...
, member of Warsaw ZOB; chronicler of the Warsaw Ghetto. (Poale Zion Left)
Additionally, several well-known Zionist leaders and politicians were members of Poale Zion, including Ben-Gurion, Ben-Zvi, kibbutz movement leader Yitzhak Tabenkin
Yitzhak Tabenkin
-External links:...
and Jewish Agency Executive member Shlomo Kaplansky.
Poale Zion's legacy
After World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, David Ben-Gurion
David Ben-Gurion
' was the first Prime Minister of Israel.Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, led him to become a major Zionist leader and Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization in 1946...
integrated most of Poale Zion Right in Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
into his Ahdut HaAvoda
Ahdut HaAvoda
Ahdut HaAvoda was the name used by a sequence of political parties that existed firstly during Mandate Palestine and later in Israel. Its original version, led by David Ben-Gurion, is one of the main ancestors of the modern-day Israeli Labor Party....
party, which became Mapai
Mapai
Mapai was a left-wing political party in Israel, and was the dominant force in Israeli politics until its merger into the Israeli Labor Party in 1968...
by the 1930s. The Poale Zion Left merged with the kibbutz-based Hashomer Hatzair
Hashomer Hatzair
Hashomer Hatzair is a Socialist–Zionist youth movement founded in 1913 in Galicia, Austria-Hungary, and was also the name of the group's political party in the Yishuv in the pre-1948 British Mandate of Palestine...
and the urban-based Socialist League to form Mapam
Mapam
Mapam was a political party in Israel and is one of the ancestors of the modern-day Meretz party.-History:Mapam was formed by a January 1948 merger of the Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party and Ahdut HaAvoda Poale Zion Movement. The party was originally Marxist-Zionist in its outlook and represented...
in 1948, which later merged with two smaller parties, Ratz and Shinui to form Meretz-Yachad
Meretz-Yachad
New Movement-Meretz , previously known as Meretz, then Yachad, and then Meretz-Yachad is a left-wing, Zionist, social democratic political party in Israel....
. In 1946, a split in Mapai led to the creation of another small party, Ahdut HaAvoda - Zion Workers
Ahdut HaAvoda
Ahdut HaAvoda was the name used by a sequence of political parties that existed firstly during Mandate Palestine and later in Israel. Its original version, led by David Ben-Gurion, is one of the main ancestors of the modern-day Israeli Labor Party....
, which united with Mapam in 1948. In 1954, a small group of Mapam dissidents left the party, again assuming the Ahdut HaAvoda - Zion Workers
Ahdut HaAvoda
Ahdut HaAvoda was the name used by a sequence of political parties that existed firstly during Mandate Palestine and later in Israel. Its original version, led by David Ben-Gurion, is one of the main ancestors of the modern-day Israeli Labor Party....
name. That party eventually became part of the Alignment
Alignment (political party)
The Alignment was an alliance of the major left-wing parties in Israel between the 1960s and 1990s. It was established in 1965 as an alliance of Mapai and Ahdut HaAvoda but was dissolved three years later when the two parties and Rafi formally merged into the Israeli Labor Party...
in a 1965 merger with Mapai
Mapai
Mapai was a left-wing political party in Israel, and was the dominant force in Israeli politics until its merger into the Israeli Labor Party in 1968...
(and later included Rafi and Mapam
Mapam
Mapam was a political party in Israel and is one of the ancestors of the modern-day Meretz party.-History:Mapam was formed by a January 1948 merger of the Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party and Ahdut HaAvoda Poale Zion Movement. The party was originally Marxist-Zionist in its outlook and represented...
). In 1992, the Alignment became the Israeli Labour Party.
In North America, Poale Zion founded the HeHalutz
Hehalutz
Hechalutz was an association of Jewish youth whose aim was to train its members to settle in the Land of Israel, which became an umbrella organization of the pioneering Zionist youth movements....
movement, the Farband
Farband
There were at least two American Jewish organizations colloquially known as the Farband -- the Communist-oriented Yidisher Kultur Farband and the Labor Zionist-oriented Yidish Natsionaler Arbeter Farband .-YKUF / Jewish Culture Association:The Yidisher Kultur Farband There were at least two...
and Habonim Dror
Habonim Dror
Habonim Dror is a Jewish Labour Zionist youth movement formed by the merger in 1982 of the Habonim and Dror youth movements. Habonim Dror's sister movement in Israel is Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed, the Working and Studying Youth.-Ideology:...
, and later the Labor Zionist Organization of America, which merged with other groups into the Labor Zionist Alliance, which rebranded itself in 2007 as Ameinu
Ameinu
Ameinu is an American Jewish Zionist organization. Established in 2004 as the successor to the Labor Zionist Alliance, it is the continuation of Labor Zionist activity in the United States that began with the founding of Poale Zion in 1905....
.
In Britain, Poale Zion rebranded itself in 2004 as the Jewish Labour Movement
Jewish Labour Movement
The Jewish Labour Movement , founded in 2004, is the successor organisation to Poale Zion. It is affiliated with the Labour Party in the UK as a Socialist society....
.
Internationally, the Poale Zion right is represented within the World Zionist Organization
World Zionist Organization
The World Zionist Organization , or WZO, was founded as the Zionist Organization , or ZO, in 1897 at the First Zionist Congress, held from August 29 to August 31 in Basel, Switzerland...
by World Labour Zionist Movement
Labor Zionism
Labor Zionism can be described as the major stream of the left wing of the Zionist movement. It was, for many years, the most significant tendency among Zionists and Zionist organizational structure...
; the group "to the left" of the WLZM within the WZO is the World Union of Meretz.
See also
- Jewish Communist Labour Party (Poalei Zion)Jewish Communist Labour Party (Poalei Zion)The Jewish Communist Labour Party was the new name, from 1922 to its dissolution in 1928, of the Jewish Social Democratic Labour Party , a Zionist socialist political party founded in 1906, part of the international Poalei Zion movement.The JSDLP had suffered a major split in August 1919, when a...
- Jewish Communist Party (Poalei Zion)
- Jewish Communist Union (Poalei Zion)Jewish Communist Union (Poalei Zion)Jewish Communist Union , Komverband was the name taken by the Left World Union of Poalei Zion in 1921. Komverband had members in Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Austria, Italy, Poland and other countries. In 1922 Komverband shifted its headquarters from Vienna to Danzig, in preparation for a party...
- Agudat Israel WorkersAgudat Israel WorkersPoalei Agudat Yisrael was a political party in Poland, and is a minor political party and settlement movement in Israel. It is also known as PAI or PAGI, its Hebrew acronym .-History:...
(Poalei Agudat Yisrael) - Mifleget Poale Zion VeHaHugim HaMarksistim beEretz YisraelMifleget Poale Zion VeHaHugim HaMarksistim beEretz YisraelMifleget Poale Zion VeHaHugim HaMarksistim beEretz Yisrael was the youth group of a faction of Poale Zion, the labour Zionist movement, in Mandate Palestine in the 1930s, which later merged into the Revolutionary Communist League...
- Labour Zionism
- GordoniaGordonia youth movementGordonia was a Zionist youth movement. The movement's doctrines were based on the beliefs of Aaron David Gordon, i.e. the salvation of Eretz Yisrael and the Jewish People through manual labor and the revival of the Hebrew language...
- FarbandFarbandThere were at least two American Jewish organizations colloquially known as the Farband -- the Communist-oriented Yidisher Kultur Farband and the Labor Zionist-oriented Yidish Natsionaler Arbeter Farband .-YKUF / Jewish Culture Association:The Yidisher Kultur Farband There were at least two...
- Jewish leftJewish leftThe term "Jewish left" describes Jews who identify with or support left wing, occasionally liberal causes, consciously as Jews, either as individuals or through organizations. There is no one organization or movement which constitutes the "Jewish left," however...
External links
- A brief history of Labor and Socialist Zionism
- Poale Zion
- The National Question and Class Struggle - Ber Borochov 1905
- Poalei Tziyon - Our Platform -1906 Sets out the essential of Borochovian Marxist Zionism.
- The Economic Development of the Jewish People - Ber Borochov 1916
- Poalei Tziyon Peace Manifesto - 1917
- Eretz Yisrael in our program and tactics, Ber Borochov, 1917
- Description of Poale Zion split- 1935
- More detail on the split- 1937
- Diapositive Dictionary: Parties and political organizations
- Jewish Labour Movement: History