‘Universal Freedom’ and the Balfour declaration: watershed moments for radical Jewish politics

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe end of the First World War brought both a nationalist transformation of political space and discourse in East-Central Europe, as well as a revolutionary wave, originating in Russia, that radically challenged the existing order. The article analysis how Jewish-national activists saw these developments as opportunities and challenges and aimed to become part in the shaping of a new world. Concentrating primarily on the discussions and political practices of the socialist-Zionist Poale Zion movement, it intends to expand the discussion over the supposed triumph of nationalism in the context of the ‘Wilsonian moment’ at the end of the First World War, asking in what form the communist promise of universal freedom represented a viable alternative. As the British Balfour Declaration lead to a supposed awakening of Palestine-oriented feelings of national belonging, the revolution represented a counter-proposal for emancipation in Central and Eastern Europe in the experience of many activists. The article follows a number of Jewish revolutionary activists looking at how their framework of political practices determined how they perceived the dual promises of national and social liberation and what consequences they drew from this. Where circumstances allowed a close cooperation between them and the wider labour movement – both in respect to revolutionary policies and defence against anti-Jewish violence – activists tended to progressively reject concepts of national unity and perceived the fate of the Jewish working class to be bound to that of the communist movement; a number of them subsequently began rejecting concepts of national belonging and national politics. The article analyzes at how this process was understood and discussed by both the radicals and their opponents, who often interpreted this revolutionary activism as a rejection of the nation as such.