Marxism and Jewish Nationalism

Abstract

It has become by now almost a cliche to say that nationalism and nationalist movements have proved to be an Achilles heel to Marxism, both analytically and politically. Regis Debray described how 'it was the subject of the nation which first . . . allowed me to see as a decisive but not ultimate stage in our understanding of history. Efraim Nimni2 and Gavin Kitching 3, however, emphasize that an 'amazing theoretical gap' on the nature of the national phenomenon exists both in and other models of sociological analysis. As is concerned with changing the world as well as understanding it, the price which Marxists have suffered by misunderstanding and underestimating nationalism has often been not only an intellectual frustration, but also a collapse of their political programs and organizations if not actual persecution and extermination by ex'partners' in various 'national fronts'. Jewish nationalism in general, and zionism as the self-proclaiming national liberation movement of the Jews in particular, have posed an even more difficult problem than most for the Left, and its attitudes towards them have been even more ambiguous. Tom Nairn claims that 'it is in dealing with the enigma of nationalism that Marxism is irrevocably '4 thrust against the limits of its own western origin, its Eurocentric nature' I would argue that what emerges from the Marxist literature on Jewish nationalism is that in its approach to this issue (whether favourable or unfavourable) is thrust against its limits in dealing with national movements which developed in Europe itself. Marxists have attempted to retain a dialectical relationship between ideology and praxis, but the Jewish question seems to have eluded such attempts. In this paper I shall examine the three major Marxist ideological approaches to Jewish nationalism Borochovism, Bundism, and Leninism as they developed and flourished in East Europe at the beginning of the