Vladimir Medem

His great interest in the world of Yiddish-speaking workers, and in the problem of political antisemitism, drew him to become active in the Jewish Labour Bund (whose supporters were known as Bundists).

Founded in 1897 in Vilna, Russian Empire (modern Vilnius, Lithuania) Medem would be crucial in shaping both the politics and the ideology of the Bund.

[2] Medem viewed Zionism as an existential threat to the Bundist cause, since he believed emigration of Jewish revolutionaries from the Russian Empire would dilute their strength.

These objectives received support in Central and Western Europe, e.g. from Austromarxists, and especially in several Jewish immigrant workers' clubs in Paris, whose members described themselves as Bundists.

His educational policy ambitions culminated in 1929 in the founding of the Medem Library [de; fr], which at 30,000 volumes is now the largest Yiddish cultural institution in Europe.