Jewish left
Jewish leftist thought has roots in the Haskalah, led by thinkers such as Moses Mendelssohn, as well as in the support of European Jews, including Ludwig Börne, for republican ideals following the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the movement for Jewish emancipation spread across Europe and was closely associated with the emergence of political liberalism, which emphasized Enlightenment principles of rights and equality before the law.
[citation needed] As Zionism developed as a political movement, Labor Zionist parties such as Ber Borochov's Poale Zion emerged.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Jews played a significant role in the social democratic parties of Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Poland.
Many Jews became involved in communist parties, constituting large proportions of their membership in many countries, including Great Britain and the United States.
With the rise of fascism in parts of Europe during the 1920s and 1930s, many Jews became active in left-wing movements, particularly Communist parties, which were at the forefront of antifascist efforts.
In Britain, Jews and leftist activists fought Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists, including at the Battle of Cable Street in 1936.
Martin Buber incorporated Hasidic Jewish thought into his anarchist philosophy, while Gershom Scholem combined anarchism with his scholarship on Kabbalah.
Walter Benjamin was influenced by both Marxism and Jewish messianism, and Gustav Landauer, a religious Jew, identified as a libertarian communist.
Organizations such as Poale Zion, the Histadrut labour union, and the Mapai party played a central role in the establishment of the State of Israel, with Labor Zionist politicians including David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir among its founders.
Modern Labor Zionist organizations include Habonim Dror, Histadrut, Na’amat, Hashomer Hatzair, the Kibbutz Movement, and Givat Haviva.
Several Jewish individuals were among the defendants in the Rivonia Trial, including Joe Slovo, Denis Goldberg, Lionel Bernstein, Bob Hepple, Arthur Goldreich, Harold Wolpe, and James Kantor.
While a majority of American Jews during this period continued to report feeling attached to the State of Israel, younger generations increasingly voiced criticism of the Israeli government and expressed greater sympathy for Palestinians compared to their predecessors.
[20] After the 2016 election, liberal and leftist Jewish organizations with a range of positions on Zionism experienced significant growth in the United States.
This resurgence was supported by new publications, such as Kenyon Zimmer’s Immigrants Against the State (2015), and the reissuing of documentaries like The Free Voice of Labor, which chronicles the final days of the Fraye Arbeter Shtime.
[30] A new wave of the resurgence of Jewish left-wing activism emerged in late 2023, coinciding with the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip following the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel.
[45] Groups such as J Street and the Anti-Defamation League opposed calls for a ceasefire and expressed support for continued Israeli military operations in Gaza, leading to internal dissent and staff resignations.
[56][57][58][59] Following the onset of Israeli military operations in Gaza, staff members from nearly all Progressive Israel Network organizations signed an open letter advocating for a ceasefire.
Israeli social liberal, Labor Zionist, and left-wing parties have included: Notable figures associated with these parties have included Amir Peretz, Meir Vilner, Shulamit Aloni, Uri Avnery, Yossi Beilin, Ran Cohen, Matti Peled, Amnon Rubinstein, Dov Khenin and Yossi Sarid.
British Jews have played a significant role in left-wing politics in the United Kingdom, particularly within the Labour Party and, to a lesser extent, the Liberal Democrats.
Academics and intellectuals such as Harold Laski, Nicholas Kaldor, Victor Gollancz, and Karl Mannheim contributed to the ideological foundations of British socialism.
Notable early Labour politicians included Lewis Silkin, a minister in Clement Attlee’s government, Sydney Silverman, who played a key role in the abolition of capital punishment in Britain, and Manny Shinwell, a leader of the Red Clydeside movement and later Secretary of State for War.
Following the World War II, the Labour Party formed a government, and several newly elected Jewish MPs were associated with the socialist left, influenced by events such as the Battle of Cable Street.
These included Herschel Austin, Maurice Edelman, and Ian Mikardo, as well as Phil Piratin, one of the four Communist Party MPs in British history.
Another Jewish Labour politician of this era, Leo Abse, played a notable role in the decriminalization of homosexuality and liberalisation to divorce laws.
One of Miliband's Shadow Cabinet members, Ivan Lewis, as well as advisers David Axelrod, Arnie Graf, and The Lord Glasman are all Jewish.
Since the foundation of the Liberal Democrats, several Jews have achieved prominence: David Alliance, Luciana Berger, the aforementioned Alex Carlisle, Miranda Green, Olly Grender, Sally Hamwee, Evan Harris, Susan Kramer, Anthony Lester, Jonathan Marks, Julia Neuberger, Monroe Palmer, Paul Strasburger, and Lynne Featherstone, who became a Minister in the Cameron-Clegg coalition.
