05/12/2026
Prior to the establishment of the state of Israel, our ancestors warned that a Jewish ethnostate would dangerously undermine freedom and democracy.
Henryk Erlich (1882-1942) was one of many of our ancestors in the Jewish Labor Bund who opposed Zionism. Instead of creating a Jewish supremacist state in Palestine, the Bundists fought antisemitism, capitalism, and tyranny in the places they called home. Even in the darkest hours, Bundists courageously advocated solidarity. They built coalitions with their neighbors, other socialists of Eastern Europe, and struggled for liberation of working people.
Zionist history purposely erases the stories of the Bund and of anti-Zionist Jews of many lineages, trying to make Judaism synonymous with the state of Israel. And they silence and punish those who challenge this narrative.
But across the world and across history anti-Zionist Jews have always risen up against genocide, apartheid, and Jewish supremacy. We stand on the shoulders of our ancestors and continue their struggle.
Here Where We Live is Our Country, the bestselling book by JVP member Molly Crabapple, gives us the opportunity to learn from our ancestors and recover the history of the Bund that has been repressed in so many Jewish communities.
May our study of the past expand our sense of what might be possible and fuel our commitment to a liberated future.
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JVP Action, our 501c4 organization, is now doing business as JVP; JVP Lab, our 501c3 organization, continues separately and remains focused on our nonpartisan educational and cultural work.