The Bund: Fighting Fascism, Fighting Zionism (w/ Molly Crabapple)

In this powerful episode of Know Your Enemy, host Sam Adler-Bell interviews artist and author Molly Crabapple about her deeply researched and emotionally resonant book, *Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund*. The Bund, founded in 1897 in the Tsarist Empire, was a secular, socialist, anti-Zionist Jewish revolutionary movement that sought to fight for the dignity and liberation of Jewish workers in Eastern Europe while building solidarity across ethnic lines. Crabapple traces the Bund’s rise from grassroots organizing in shtetls like Volkovisk to its pivotal role in Russian revolutionary politics, its fierce opposition to Zionism, and its ultimate tragic fate under Stalinist repression and the Holocaust. The conversation delves into the Bund’s radical commitment to 'hereness'—the belief that Jews could and should flourish in their ancestral lands—contrasted with Zionism’s exodus narrative. The episode culminates in a harrowing yet inspiring account of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, where Bundists and left-wing Zionists briefly united in armed resistance, only to be abandoned by both the Polish Home Army and the Red Army. Crabapple argues that the Bund’s prescience about the dangers of nationalism and settler colonialism—especially in the rise of figures like Jabotinsky and the modern Israeli state—explains why the movement continues to provoke intense hostility from Zionists today. The episode is a profound meditation on Jewish identity, revolutionary ethics, and the enduring relevance of anti-nationalist, internationalist socialism in the face of contemporary genocidal violence. Key takeaways include: 1) The Bund’s vision of 'hereness'—Jewish flourishing in Eastern Europe through solidarity, not exile—offers a radical alternative to Zionist ethno-nationalism. 2) The Bund’s opposition to Zionism was not based on anti-Semitism but on a principled rejection of racial nationalism and collaboration with anti-Semites. 3) The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was a moment of rare, desperate solidarity between Bundists and left-wing Zionists, underscoring that resistance was possible even in extremity. 4) The failure of international solidarity—especially from the Polish Home Army and the Red Army—exposes the limits of revolutionary idealism when not backed by real power. 5) The Bund’s warnings about the fascist potential of Zionism were tragically accurate, and their legacy remains a vital counter-narrative to the myth of Jewish strength through militarism. The episode ends with a searing indictment of how Zionism uses the Holocaust to justify present-day violence in Gaza, while the Bund’s story remains a beacon of hope for a more humane, inclusive Jewish future.