Fareynikte_bilingual_meeting_poster_1917

United Jewish Socialist Workers Party (, ''fareynikte yidishe sotsialistishe arbeter-partey'') was a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

that emerged in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

in the wake of the 1917

February Revolution The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia ...

. Members of the party along with the Poalei Zion participated in the government of Ukraine and condemned the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

. Its followers were generally known simply for the first portion of the name ''Fareynikte'' (פֿאַראײניקטע) - 'United'. Politically the party favored national personal autonomy for the Jewish community.Ėstraĭkh, G. ''In Harness: Yiddish Writers' Romance with Communism. Judaic traditions in literature, music, and art.''

Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States. With a population of 148,620 and a Syracuse metropolitan area, metropolitan area of 662,057, it is the fifth-most populated city and 13 ...

: Syracuse University Press, 2005. p. 30 The party upheld the ideas of building a secular Jewish community. Fareynikte was founded in June 1917 through the merger of two groups, the Zionist Socialist Workers Party (SSRP) ( Socialist-Territorialists) and the Jewish Socialist Workers Party (SERP). SERP's ideology was based particularly upon "

autonomism Autonomism or ''autonomismo'', also known as autonomist Marxism or autonomous Marxism, is an anti-capitalist social movement and Marxist-based theoretical current that first emerged in Italy in the 1960s from workerism (). Later, post-Marxist ...

". Note that some of the leaders from those two parties did not join Fareynikte, but rather became "Folkists" ( Folkspartei). Both SSRP and SERP had emerged from the Vozrozhdenie group. As of early 1918, ''Fareynikte'' was the largest Jewish autonomist political party in the independent Ukraine. The Faraynikte's program claimed "unity of the Jewish worker's class as an integral part of the 'extraterritorial' Jewish nation and international proletariat". The previous arguments in regard to the way of implementing the territorialists program have been declared as less important. The focal point of the party program a "national-individual autonomy". For a brief period the party acquired a major influence, particularly in Ukraine where it played an important role in an attempt to organize the Jewish national autonomy. In September 1917 Fareynikte petitioned to the Provisional Government to declare the equality of language. In the 1917 elections in Russia, the party obtained around 8% of the Jewish votes.Pinkus, Benjamin.
The Jews of the Soviet Union: The History of a National Minority. Soviet and East European studies
'.

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

: Cambridge University Press, 1988. p. 44 ''Fareynikt'' Moishe Zilberfarb was Deputy-Secretary of Jewish Affairs in the

General Secretariat of Ukraine The General Secretariat of Ukraine () was the autonomous Ukrainian executive government of the Russian Republic from June 28, 1917, to January 22, 1918. For most of its existence it was headed by Volodymyr Vynnychenko. The secretariat was cre ...

, the main executive institution of the

Ukrainian People's Republic The Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) was a short-lived state in Eastern Europe. Prior to its proclamation, the Central Council of Ukraine was elected in March 1917 Ukraine after the Russian Revolution, as a result of the February Revolution, ...

from June 28, 1917 to January 22, 1918. ''Fareynikte'' ran some

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

newspapers in Ukraine. It published the '' Naye tsayt'' (New Time) in

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

September 1917-May 1919. Prior to the publishing of ''Naye tsayt'', the party published ''Der yidisher proletarier'' from Kyiv. In Poland, dissidents from the ''Fareynikte'' party joined the

Communist Party of Poland The interwar Communist Party of Poland (, KPP) was a communist party active in Poland during the Second Polish Republic. It resulted from a December 1918 merger of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL) and the ...

.Jaff Schatz. Jews and the communist movement in interwar Poland. In: Jonathan Frankel
Dark Times, Dire Decisions: Jews and Communism. Studies in Contemporary Jewry.
Oxford University Press US, 2005, p. 20. The remainder of the party, which had taken the name Jewish Socialist Workers Party 'Ferajnigte' in Poland, merged into the Independent Socialist Labour Party in 1922.Strobel, G. W. (1962). Arbeiterschaft und Linksparteien in Polen 1928—1938. Jahrbücher Für Geschichte Osteuropas, 10(1), 67–102. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41041893

References

{{Authority control 1917 establishments in Russia 1922 disestablishments in Poland Defunct socialist parties in Poland Defunct socialist parties in Ukraine Jewish Polish history Interwar Jewish political parties in Poland Jewish socialism Jewish Ukrainian history Labour parties in Ukraine Political parties disestablished in 1937 Political parties established in 1917 Political parties in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic Political parties of minorities in Ukraine Political parties of the Russian Revolution Secular Jewish culture in Europe Political parties in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

See also

References