Meet the Jewish ‘Troublemakers’ Who Zionists Hated

In her new book 'Here Where We Live Is Our Country', Molly Crabapple does something both radical and disarmingly simple: she tells a story that was never supposed to be remembered.

Through years of research and her signature visual storytelling, Molly resurrects the world of the Bund – a once mass movement of Jewish socialist revolutionaries who were unabashedly anti-nationalist and insisted that liberation could only come through struggle and solidarity, wherever Jews already lived. In this new episode of ‘Beyond Israelism’, Molly Crabapple and Simone Zimmerman revive the Bund’s lost history and political tradition.

Bundists organized workers, built schools and summer camps, created art and literature, and fought against the competing forces of European fascism and the Zionist movement who were both urging Jews to flee Europe.

While most Bundists were murdered in the Nazi gas chambers and Soviet gulags, some, like Marek Edelman – a leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising – carried that commitment forward long after the Holocaust, insisting that Jewish identity demanded standing with the oppressed, including with Palestinians. It is for this reason — the Bund’s principled anti-Zionism — that they have been mostly excluded from history.

‘Beyond Israelism with Simone Zimmerman’ is a provocative new video podcast series from Tikkun Olam Productions, the team behind the viral and award-winning 2023 film Israelism. In this series, Simone will host bold and inspiring conversations that face, head on, the growing global reckoning with Zionism, the debates over Jewish identity, and the urgent struggle for Palestinian freedom. The episodes will unpack the myths of Zionism; dive deep into the meaning of Palestinian liberation, and through raw and fearless discussions examine the Jewish relationship with Israel.

NOTE: This episode has been re-published to address audio issues.

*This interview was published 10 days earlier on Zeteo.com. If you want early access to exclusive content and hardhitting, independent journalism, subscribe on Substack here

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