Poale Zion

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Poale Zion (also spelled Poalei Tziyon or Poaley Syjon, meaning "Workers of Zion") was a Movement of Marxist Zionist Jewish workers circles founded in various Russian cities about the turn of the century after the Bund rejected Zionism in 1901.

1 Formation
2 Split
3 Legacy
4 Source
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Formation

Poale Zion came into existence in the United States in 1903. In 1906 a formal Poale Zion party was formed in Poltava, Ukraine under the leadership of Ber Borochov, and other groups were soon formed elsewhere in Europe, particularly in Poland. The key features of its ideology were acceptance of the Marxist view of history with the addition of the role of nationalism, which Borochov believed could not be ignored as a factor in historical development. A Jewish proletariat would come into being in the land of Israel, according to Poale Zion, and would then take part in the class struggle.

In 1906, party branches were formed in Austria, Palestine and other countries. In Ottoman Palestine, Poale Zion founded the Hashomer guard organization that guarded settlements, and took up the ideology of "conquest of labor" (Kibbush Ha'avoda) and Avoda Ivrit ("Hebrew labor"). Poale Zion set up employment offices, kitchens and health services for members. These eventually evolved into the institutions of labor Zionism in Israel. During World War I, Poale Zion was instrumental in recruiting members to the Jewish Legion.

In Poland and other central and eastern European countries, Poale Zion functioned until World War II, when most members who did not migrate to Palestine ultimately perished in the Holocaust. In the USA, Poalei Tzion founded the Hechalutz movement, the Yiddishe Arbeiters Farband, and Habonim Dror.

[edit] Split

Poale Zion eventually split into Left and Right factions in 1919-1920, following a similar division that occurred in the Second International and at least partially resulting from some activists' concern with the ongoing chaos and violence occurring in Bolshevik-controlled Russia.

The right wing (also known as Rightist Poale Zion, Poale Zion Right, or simply Poale Zion) was non-Marxist, favored a more moderate socialist program and strongly affiliated itself with the Second International, essentially becoming a social-democratic party. Since their immigration to Palestine in 1906 and 1907, the major leaders of Poale Zion had been David Ben-Gurion, who joined a local Poalei Tziyon group in 1904 as a student at the University of Warsaw, and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, a close friend of Borochov's and early member of the Poltava group. After the split the two Benim ("the Bens") continued to control and direct Poale Zion Right in Palestine, eventually merging it with other movements to form larger constituencies.

The left wing (also known as Leftist Poale Zion or Poale Zion Left) did not consider the Second International radical enough and some went so far as to accuse members who associated with it to have betrayed Borochov's revolutionary principles (ironically, Borochov had begun to modify his ideology as early as 1914, and publicly identified as a social-democrat the year before his death). Poale Zion Left, which supported the Bolshevik revolution, continued to be strongly sympathetic to Marxism and Communism, and repeatedly lobbied the Soviet Union for membership in the Communist International. Their attempts were unsuccessful, as the Soviets (particularly non-Zionist Jewish members) continued to be suspicious of Zionism's nationalist tendencies, and some party leaders also held personal grudges against the group's members.

The Poale Zion in Palestine split into right and left wings at its Febraury/March 1919 conference. In October 1919, a faction of the Left Poale Zion founded the Mifleget Poalim Sozialistiim (Socialist Workers Party) which would be renamed the Jewish Communist Party in 1921, split in 1922 over the question of Zionism with one faction taking the name Palestinian Communist Party and the more anti-Zionist faction becoming the Communist Party of Palestine. These factions would reunite as the Palestine Communist Party in 1923 and become an official section of the Communist International. Another faction of the Left Poale Zion aligned with the kibbutz movement Hashomer Hatzair, founded in Europe in 1919, would eventually become the Mapam party.

The Poale Zion Left in Russia participated in the Bolshevik revolution. Borochov himself returned to Russia following the February Revolution and organized brigades of Poale Zion activists[1], nicknamed "Borochov Brigades", to fight in the Red Army. The party remained legal until 1928 when it was liquidated by the NKVD. Most other Zionist organizations had been closed down in 1919, and it seems likely that Poale Zion Left was allowed to continue to operate because it had been an officially recognized "Communistic" party. In 1919, the Communists of the Poale Zion Left split to form the Jewish Communist Party which ultimately joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, leading to a sharp loss of membership in Russia. The left faction enjoyed more success and popularity in Britain and Poland until World War II.

As well as their differing attitudes towards Stalinism, the two wings of Poale Zion also parted ways concerning the use of and development of Yiddish and Yiddish culture, with the Left generally being more supportive of Yiddish culture, similar to the members of the Jewish Bund, with the Right bloc identifying more strongly with the emerging modern Hebrew movement that became popular among the Zionist movement during the early 1900s.

For a brief period following the war, both factions of Poale Zion were reported as legal and "functioning" political parties in Poland, but it is unclear how viable they continued to be. As part of the large-scale ban on Jewish political parties in post-war Poland by the Communist leadership, both Poale Zion groups were disbanded in February, 1950.

[edit] Legacy

The Holocaust-era Jewish resistance group ŻOB was formed from a coalition including Hashomer Hatzair, Dror, Bnei Akiva, the Jewish Bund, various Jewish Communist groups, and both factions of Poale Zion.

Several notable Jewish resistance fighters during the Holocaust, particularly those involved in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, were members of Poale Zion. They include:

Adolf Berman, Warsaw ZOB fighter; Secretary of Zegota. (Poale Zion Left)
Hersz Berlinksi, member of Warsaw ZOB Command (Poale Zion Left)
Yochanan Morgenstern, member of Warsaw ZOB Command (Poale Zion Right)
Emmanuel Ringelblum, member of Warsaw ZOB; chronicler of the Warsaw Ghetto. (Poale Zion Left)

Additionally, several well-known Zionist leaders and politicians were members of Poale Zion, including Ben-Gurion, Ben-Zvi, kibbutz leader Yitzhak Tabenkin and Jewish Agency Executive member Shlomo Kaplansky.

After World War I, David Ben-Gurion integrated most of Poale Zion Right in Palestine into his Labour Unity party, which became Mapai by the 1930s. Poale Zion Left merged with Hashomer Hatzair and other left-wing parties to form Mapam in 1948, which later gave rise to the modern Meretz-Yachad. In 1946, a split in Mapai led to the creation of another small party, Labour Unity - Zion Workers, which united with Mapam in 1948. In 1954, a small group of Mapam dissidents left the party, again assuming the Labour Unity - Zion Workers name. That party eventually became part of the Alignment in a 1965 merger with Mapai (and later included Rafi and Mapam). In 1992, the Alignment became the Israeli Labour Party.