"What a bitter irony that after the utter destruction brought upon the Jewish people by fascism, the latter's methods of terror are now triumphant in Jewish life."
Jewish Voice for Peace & Molly Crabapple on Ig:
From serving as an editor to a Bundist newspaper to organizing underground Nazi resistance in Lithuania during WWII, Shloyme Mendelson devoted his life to organizing workers and resisting facism. We honor his courage and devotion to liberation.
In the last article published before his death, Shloyme described how Zionists employed fascist “methods of terror.” We know the utter brutality that Zionism has wrought against Palestinians, Lebanese, Iranians, and so many others. As we recover anti-Zionist Jewish history we are also learning about Zionist acts of terror intended to crush dissent within the Jewish community, which Shloyme writes about. A Bundist newspaper from 1948 details how Zionists went to great lengths to coerce Jews into support for Zionism: In a post-war refugee camp in Europe, Zionists withheld food rations from Jews who refused to join Zionist paramilitaries and even publicly beat someone for their refusal. In Argentina, Zionists forbid community members who did not give money to Israel from entering synagogue or burying their dead in the cemetery. To this day, leaders within the Jewish Zionist establishment disparage and punish Jewish anti-Zionists because we threaten their myth that Judaism is synonymous with the state of Israel. But despite repression, there have always been Jews who refused conscription into Zionism.
Here Where We Live is Our Country, the bestselling book by JVP member Molly Crabapple, gives us the opportunity to learn from our ancestors and recover this history.
May our study of the past strengthen our fight for a liberated future.
Zol lebn der Bund, zol lebn Palestine
Long live the Bund, long live Palestine