United Jewish Socialist Workers Party

United Jewish Socialist Workers Party
Leader	Moishe Zilberfarb (Ukraine)
Founded	1917-1920 (Ukraine) 1917-1937 (Poland)
Ideology	Socialism
Politics of Ukraine Political parties Elections Politics of Poland Political parties Elections

United Jewish Socialist Workers Party (Yiddish: פֿאַראײניקטע ייִדישע סאָציאַליסטישע אַרבעטער־פּאַרטיי‎, fareynikte yidishe sotsialistishe arbeter-partey) was a political party in Poland and Ukraine. Members of the party along with the Poalei Zion participated in the government of Ukraine and condemned the October Revolution in Petrograd proposing a peaceful resolution of political changes in Russia.

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.^[1] The party upheld the ideas of building a secular Jewish community.^[2]

Fareynikte was founded in June^[3] 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". 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.^[1][4]

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.^[5]

Fareynikt Moishe Zilberfarb was Deputy-Secretary of Jewish Affairs in the General Secretariat of Ukraine, the main executive institution of the Ukrainian People's Republic from June 28, 1917 to January 22, 1918.^[6][7]

Fareynikte ran some Yiddish newspapers in Ukraine. It published the Naye tsayt (New Time) in Kiev September 1917-May 1919.^[1] Prior to the publishing of Naye tsayt, the party published Der yidisher proletarier from Kiev.^[8]

In Poland, dissidents from the Fareynikte party joined the Communist Party of Poland.^[9]

References

1. Ėstraĭkh, G. In Harness: Yiddish Writers' Romance with Communism. Judaic traditions in literature, music, and art. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 2005. p. 30
2. Berkowitz, Michael. Nationalism, Zionism and Ethnic Mobilization of the Jews in 1900 and Beyond. IJS studies in Judaica, v. 2. Leiden: Brill, 2004. p. 225
3. Virtual Jewish Encyclopedia (Russian)
4. 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. 79.
5. Pinkus, Benjamin. The Jews of the Soviet Union: The History of a National Minority. Soviet and East European studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. p. 44
6. Frankel, Jonathan (1984). Prophecy and politics: socialism, nationalism, and the Russian Jews, 1862-1917. Cambridge University Press. p. 686. ISBN 978-0-521-26919-3.
7. Encyclopedia of Ukraine
8. Mintz, M. (March 1982). "The Secretariat of Internationality Affairs (Sekretariiat mizhnatsional’nykh sprav) of the Ukrainian General Secretariat (1917-1918)" (PDF). Harvard Ukrainian Studies (Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A.: Ukrainian Research Institute of Harvard University) VI (1). Retrieved 2009-11-08.
9. 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.