The Maccabaean

THE most important proletarian Jewish parties in Russia sprang from two sources: namely, from socialism as such and from the nationalist movement. There were two parallel lines of development. On the one hand certain strata of socialistically inclined Jews were compelled to recognize nationalist aspirations, on the other hand a number of Jewish nationalists (or rather Zionists) accepted the socialist program and made it a plank in their platform.

Moreover, the difference in origin did not disappear with the further development of these factions, which were so bitterly opposed to each other. Whereas the quondam anti-nationalist, or at least non-nationalist Jewish socialists were, at first against their will and after severe internal dissension, driven to acknowledge the nationalist idea in deference to existing circumstances, the Zionist elements with socialist inclinations underwent the opposite process of development. Far from being hostile to socialism, they had as a matter of fact laid restrictions on themselves, because they were of the opinion that the Jews had to achieve a national status before dedicating their whole strength and energy to the cause of socialism. Many of those who yearned toward the socialist ideal mentally and spiritually had practiced self-abnegation because they were convinced that it was the first and foremost task of the Jewish people to acquire normal conditions for its national development through territorial concentration.

Besides, class conflict, properly speaking, found only a limited sphere in the life of the Jewish masses in Russia, for their national struggles with the labor elements of neighboring races assumed tremendous proportions. The Jewish proletariat in Russia suffered far more because of its being Jewish than through class conflicts.

For many years, the Russian as well as the Galician Jews, were face to face with the historic fact, that as a result of disabilities and national struggles, they were not even in a position to "prole- tarize themselves" as the technical phrase has it. The Jews have not succeeded in creating a considerable working class anywhere but in America. The number of Jewish factory workers in Russia (about 45,000, according to the results of the ICA investigations at the beginning of this century) was even smaller than the number of Jewish farmers, although the latter could not increase since the Jews had been forbidden the purchase of land in Russia. It is true that there were hundreds of thousands of Jewish journeymen and apprentices engaged in trades in Russia, who were also in a position to wage a class conflict. But it is a matter of general knowledge that the Russian-Jewish master artisans themselves live under miserable conditions and therefore it is evident that here too class conflict could not be built

upon a stable foundation, and often assumed grotesque forms.

A whole literature has arisen on the way in which the principle: "Proletarians of all countries, unite!" was only a decade ago trampled under foot by non-Jewish elements in industrial centers such as Lodz, Bialystok, etc. As early as the year 1898, these conditions were partially brought to light by a Zionist of that period after a tour of investigation through Russian Poland, in a pamphlet entitled "Among the Jewish Proletarians," (previously published in Die Welt). All later inquiries not of a biased character confirmed the fact that the Jewish workmen were crowded out of certain branches of manufacture by the non-Jewish workmen. What is more, these same inquiries revealed the fact that prodigious masses of Jewish middlemen were ruined because the development of capitalism, combined with the growth of the co-operative movement, rendered their existence superfluous. A tremendous "ragamuffin-proletariat" sprang into being among the Jews which found no employment either for its hands or for its intellect and had no choice but to migrate to trans-Atlantic countries and in a lesser degree to England and France. Thus the cruel reality in the difficult struggle for existence assumed an entirely different aspect for the European Jews from what it had in the normal economic development of other peoples.

The recognition of these specifically Jewish economic conditions was reflected in various reports rendered at the Zionist Congresses, as well as in an impressive communication delivered during the magnificent conference of the Russian Zionists at Minsk in 1902. The intellectually lofty democratic Zionist faction founded in 1901 was an outcome of similar views, in fact it included the economic struggle of the Jewish working classes in its immediate Zionist program. Although it also supported socialist ideals in its program published in the summer of 1902, it could not constitute itself into a permanent organization because of its heterogeneous character, as it did not devote itself exclusively to the cause of the Jewish proletariat. Nevertheless, with its theoretic basing of Zionism, it contributed much to a comprehension of the Jewish situation as a whole, as well as to the democratizing of Zionism. Moreover, it was the ultimate and most powerful factor in the founding of proletarian Zionist factions, into which many of its members were absorbed.

When the proletarian Zionist parties finally came into being, they brought with them the conviction that territorial concentration was an historic necessity for the Jewish people, if for no other reason than that the proletarizing of the Jewish masses and the consummation of class conflict would be impossible without it. In this way, they translated into the vernacular