We, Traitors

“I am awed by the work of archival reclamation [Tankus and Beirich] did. I can’t wait till you all get to read this book.” —Molly Crabapple

In this collection of never-before-translated Bundist writing, the largest Jewish socialist party in history explains its opposition to Zionism in its own words.

Faced with the threat of violence looming over the early twentieth century, Bundists doubled down on their politics of solidarity with all oppressed peoples, not just Jews. But as their political successes mounted, so did criticism from Zionists, who called them “traitors.” And after Zionism became hegemonic in the wake of the Holocaust, the Bund’s vast corpus of anti-Zionist writings languished untranslated in Yiddish—until now.

This volume presents texts from the most prominent leaders, orators, and thinkers of the Bund: from critical travelogues from Palestine to furious takedowns of Zionist propaganda, from eyewitness accounts of Zionist violence against Palestinians to groundbreaking visions of a future where Jews, Palestinians, and oppressed peoples everywhere could find liberation through socialism. 

Bundists’ revolutionary fervor and sense of social justice can tempt us to lionize them as heroes. But here, in their own words, we come to understand them in all their cultural and historical specificity: noble and petty, inclusive and exoticizing. One thing, however, becomes absolutely clear: anti-Zionism has been at the center of Jewish politics for far longer than most people imagine. 

Nathan Tankus is a writer, researcher, and president of the publication Notes on the Crises. He is the author of the forthcoming book The Trump-Musk Payments Crisis: A 250-Year History, under contract with Viking Press.

Eyshe Beirich is a professional Yiddish translator and scholar living in Toronto, ON. His translations and writings have been featured in Jewish Currents, Der Spekter, In geveb, Afn Shvel, the Yiddish Forverts, among others. He has taught Yiddish and Yiddish literature at the University of Toronto, Columbia University, the University of Chicago, and at Yiddish programs and institutions across the world.

Kaleem Hawa is a doctoral student in English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He is a recipient of a 2023 Arts Writers Grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. He has written about the work of Walid Daqqa, Ghassan Kanafani, Kassem Hawal, and Patricio Guzmán, among others, and has been published in the New York Review of Books, The White Review, The Nation, The Journal of Palestine Studies, and elsewhere.

ISBN: 9798888909683

Publication date: July 6, 2027

Introduction by Kaleem Hawa 
Translator’s Introduction by Eyshe Beirich
A Note on Transliterations 

I. The Truth About Palestine (1925) by Victor Alter
Foreword
The Holy Land 
Moses Made a Mistake 
The Third Exile 
The Jewish Majority in Palestine 
A Look from Smorgon 
An Expensive Pleasure 
The Double Utopia 
The Coming Messiah and the Jewish Polish Socialist Party 
The Opposition, or a Storm in a Glass 
My Interview with the Arabs 
The End of a Dream 
On Language and Historical Right 
Conclusion 

II. Bundist Writings on Zionism, Palestine, and Socialism 
Bundists, the Arabs of Warsaw (1925) by Borekh Shefner 
On Bundist Matters (1927) by Victor Alter 
Socialism in Struggle (1927) by Victor Alter 
A Difficult Confrontation with the Arabs (1929) by Yoysef Brumberg
The Destruction of Zionism (1929) by Yoysef “Khmurner” Leshtshinski 
We, Traitors (1929) by Victor Alter 
Jewish Blood (1929) by Victor Alter 
What Zionism Can Be, What Zionism May Be (1929) by Benzion “Zivion” Hoffman 
The Arabs—And What Else? (1929) by Jacob Pat 
Egypt and India (1930) by Victor Alter 
Labor Zionists, or Eternal Court Jews (1931) by Victor Alter 
The Bankruptcy of Hebrew Education (1932) by Chaim-Shloyme Kazdan 
From the Hebraist State (1932) by Yisroel Rubin 
Tomorrow It Will Be Our Pride (1932) by Victor Alter 
30 Years of Zionism … and David Ben-Gurion (1933) by Yoysef “Khmurner” Leshtshinski 
No, We Are Not the Chosen People (1933) by Henryk Erlich
The Struggle Against Arab Labor in Palestine (1934) by Yoysef “Khmurner” Leshtshinski 
Jews Are in Exile in Palestine, Too (1934) by Dovid “Aryeh” Naymark 
Zionism’s Grave Found in Palestine (1934) by Dovid “Aryeh” Naymark 
God Give Us a Little War (1935) by Dovid “Aryeh” Naymark 
The Wind is Blowing in Our Sails (1935) by Victor Alter 
For Us, Jews (1936) by Victor Alter 
Socialism and the Jewish Question (1937) by Victor Alter 
Reckoning with Zionist Theory (1937) by Victor Alter 
Our Hands Spilled This Blood (1938) by Dovid “Aryeh” Naymark 
Zionism and Anti-Semitism (1938) by Henryk Erlich 
Zionism and Anti-fascism (1938) by Henryk Erlich 
Zionism and the Arabs (1938) by Henryk Erlich 
What is the Source of Our Inspiration? (1938) by Jacob Pat 

Afterword by Nathan Tankus 
Authors In This Volume 
Bund Lexicon 
Acknowledgements 
Bibliography