Of Nationhood
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Preface DREAMS OF NATIONHOOD American Jewish Communists and the Soviet Birobidzhan Project, 1924-1951 i A BBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS JEWISH IDENTITIES IN POST MODERN SOCIETY Series Editor: Roberta Rosenberg Farber – Yeshiva University Editorial Board: Sara Abosch – University of Memphis Geoffrey Alderman – University of Buckingham Yoram Bilu – Hebrew University Steven M. Cohen – Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion Bryan Daves – Yeshiva University Sergio Della Pergola – Hebrew University Simcha Fishbane – Touro College Deborah Dash Moore – University of Michigan Uzi Rebhun – Hebrew University Reeva Simon –Yeshiva University Chaim I. Waxman – Rutgers University ii Preface Dreams of Nationhood: American Jewish Communists and the Soviet Birobidzhan Project, 1924-1951 Henry Felix Srebrnik Boston 2010 iii List of Illustrations Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Srebrnik, Henry Felix. American Jewish communists and the Soviet Birobidzhan project, 1924-1951 / Henry Felix Srebrnik. p. cm. -- (Jewish identities in post modern society) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-936235-11-7 (hardback) 1. Jews--United States--Politics and government--20th century. 2. Jewish communists--United States--History--20th century. 3. Communism--United States--History--20th century. 4. Icor. 5. Birobidzhan (Russia)--History. 6. Evreiskaia avtonomnaia oblast (Russia)--History. I. Title. E184.J4S74 2010 973'.04924--dc22 2010024428 Copyright © 2010 Academic Studies Press All rights reserved Cover and interior design by Adell Medovoy Published by Academic Studies Press in 2010 28 Montfern Avenue Brighton, MA 02135, USA [email protected] www.academicstudiespress.com iv Effective December 12th, 2017, this book will be subject to a CC-BY-NC license. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. 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Published by Academic Studies Press 28 Montfern Avenue Brighton, MA 02135, USA [email protected] www.academicstudiespress.com Preface TABLE OF CONTENTS Abbreviations ..... vii List of Illustrations ..... ix Preface ..... xiii Introduction: American Jews, Communism, the ICOR and Birobidzhan ..... 1 The Formation of Ambijan ..... 29 The “People’s Delegation” and the Popular Front, 1935-1939 ..... 55 Wartime Aid to the Soviet Union: the ICOR ..... 83 Wartime Aid to the Soviet Union: Ambijan ..... 101 The Postwar Orphans' Campaign and the Ambijan-ICOR Merger ..... 119 The Glory Years, 1946-1948 ..... 139 Ambijan and the Creation of Israel ..... 165 The Gathering Storm: McCarthyism, Cold War, and Decline ..... 189 Islands of Resistance, 1949-1950 ..... 215 Conclusion: From Hope to Hoax ..... 229 Appendix: Paul Novick’s 1936 Visit to the Jewish Autonomous ..... 249 Region Appendix: George Koval ..... 253 Selected Bibliography ..... 255 Index ..... 283 v A BBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS vi ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ACWA Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America Ambijan American Committee for the Settlement of Jews in Birobidjan Artef (Yiddish) Workers Theater Group (Arbeter Teater Farband) Comintern Communist (Third) International CPSU Communist Party of the Soviet Union CPUSA Communist Party of the United States of America FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation GEZERD (Yiddish) Association for the Settlement of Jewish Toilers on the Land (Alfarbandishe Gezelshaft farn Aynordenen Oyf Erd Arbetndike Yidn) ICOR (Yiddish) Association for Jewish Colonization in the Soviet Union (Gezelshaft far Yidishe Kolonizatsye in Ratn- Farband) ILGWU International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union ITO (Yiddish) Jewish Territorialist Organization (Yidishe Teritorialistishe Organizatsye) IWO International Workers Order (Internatsyonaler Arbeter Ordn) JAFC Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee in the Soviet Union (Yevreysky Antifashistsky Komitet) JAR Jewish Autonomous Region JPC Jewish Peoples Committee Joint American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee JPFO Jewish People’s Fraternal Order (Yidishn Fraternaln Folks-ordn) vii A BBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS KOMERD (Yiddish) Committee for the Settlement of Jewish Toilers on the Land (Komitet farn Aynordenen Oyf Erd Arbetndike Yidn) KOMZET (Russian) Committee for the Settlement of Jewish Toilers on the Land (Komitet po Zemel’nomu Ustroistvu Trudyaschikhsya Evre’ev) ORT World Union of Societies for Promotion of Artisanal and Agricultural Work Among the Jews (World ORT Union) OZET (Russian) Association for the Settlement of Jewish Toilers on the Land (Obschestvennyi Komitet po Zemel’nomy Ustroistvu Evreiskikh Trudyaschikhsya) Proletpen (Yiddish) Proletarian Writers Union (Proletarisher Shrayber Fareyn) UJA United Jewish Appeal USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics WC Workmen’s Circle (Arbeter Ring) Yevsektsiya (Russian) Jewish Section of the Soviet Communist Party (Yevreyskaya Sektsiya) YKUF World Jewish Cultural Union (Alveltlekher Yidisher Kultur Farband) viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS List of Illustrations Map of Birobidzhan, 1941, from Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, 1941 ....preface, page 28 Lord Marley, from Birobidjan: A New Hope for Oppressed European Jews ....chapter 1, page 53 Cover of Biro Bidjan as I Saw It, 1934, by Lord Marley ....chapter 1, page 53 B.Z. Goldberg, Schottenstein-Jesselson Library of the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia ....chapter 1, page 54 Pamphlet advertising Anna Louise Strong lecture, Feb. 6, 1936, Russian Relief Collection, Yeshiva University Archives, New York ....chapter 1, page 54 Cover of Ambijan pamphlet Birobidzhan: The Jewish Autonomous Territory ....chapter 1, page 54 Chicago Ambijan Invitation for Lord Marley Dinner, November 1936, Chicago Jewish Archives, Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies, Chicago ....chapter 2, page 81 Invitation for the People’s Delegation, Los Angeles, May 1936, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York ....chapter 2, page 81 Delegates to the Plenum of the ICOR National Executive, New York, Feb. 28, 1937, Nailebn-New Life, April 1937 ....chapter 2, page 81 Cover of Nailebn-New Life, April 1938 (English side) ....chapter 2, page 82 Cover of Nailebn-New Life, April 1938 (Yiddish side) ....chapter 2, page 82 Shloime Almazov, Nailebn-New Life, April 1939 ....chapter 2, page 82 Professor Charles Kuntz, Nailebn-New Life, June 1940 ....chapter 3, page 100 ix List of Illustrations Shloime Mikhoels (on left) at the gravesite of Sholem Aleichem, New York, 1943 (B.Z. Goldberg’s son Mitchell is at the right), Schottenstein-Jesselson Library of the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia ....chapter 3, page 100 Watches for the Red Army, Ambijan Bulletin, April 1943 ....chapter 4, page 118 Ad for Maud’s Summer-Ray, New Masses, June 3, 1941 ....chapter 4, page 118 Ambijan National Conference, Nov. 25-26, 1944, Ambijan Bulletin, June 1945 ....chapter 4, page 118 Chicago Ambijan Leadership, Sentinel, Chicago, May 16, 1946 ....chapter 5, page 138 Senator Claude Pepper on cover of Sentinel, Chicago, June 20, 1946 ....chapter 5, page 138 National Conference for Birobidzhan, March 9-10, 1946, Ambijan Bulletin, April 1946 ....chapter 5, page 138 Ad for Einstein Fund Dinner, Sentinel, Chicago, Dec. 4, 1947 ....chapter 5, page 163 Flyer advertising concert for Birobidzhan, Town Hall, New York, May 1947, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York ....chapter 6, page 164 Flyer advertising Bronx Ambijan Concert for 20th Anniversary of Birobidzhan, April 1948, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York ....chapter 6, page 164 Gina Medem, from A Lebnsveg ....chapter 7, page 187 Chicago Ambijan telegram to David Ben-Gurion, May 12, 1948, Chicago Jewish Archives, Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies, Chicago ....chapter 7, page 187 Andrei Gromyko on cover of fl yer for American-Soviet- Palestine Friendship Dinner, 1947, Schottenstein-Jesselson Library of the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia ....chapter 7, page 188 Paul Novick, courtesy Jewish Currents ....chapter 8, page 214 x Preface Albert Einstein on cover of Ambijan Bulletin, January- February 1950 ....chapter 8, page 214 Flyer advertising Ambijan conference celebrating 15th anniversary of Birobidzhan as a Jewish Autonomous Region, 1949 (English side), YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York ....chapter 9, page 227 Flyer advertising Ambijan conference celebrating 15th anniversary of Birobidzhan as a Jewish Autonomous Region, 1949 (Yiddish side), YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York ....chapter 9, page 228 xi Preface xii Preface PREFACE The American Jewish Communist movement, active within the Jewish community for some three decades, included two left-of-center movements whose main aim was to provide support for the Soviet project to establish a Jewish socialist republic in the Birobidzhan region in the far east of the Soviet Union. The fi rst of these groups,