Jewish Communist Union in Ukraine

The Jewish Communist Union in Ukraine (Yiddish: אידישער קאמוניסטישער פארבאנד אויף אוקראינע), also known as Komfarband (קאמפארבאנד), was a Jewish communist political party in Ukraine. Komfarband was formed on May 22, 1919, through the merger of the Jewish Communist Labour Bund (Kombund) and the United Jewish Communist Party (Komfareynikte).[1][2][3] The Komfarband had some 4,000 members.[4] Moisei Rafes and Mikhail Levitan were key leaders of Komfarband.[5] The newspaper Komunistishe fon was the organ of Komfarband.[5] Komfarband had three members in the All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee of Soviets.[6]

On July 4, 1919 the Central Committee of Komfarband sent a memorandum to the Ukrainian People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, urging it to shut down Zionist political organizations and their related educational and cultural institutions.[3][7][8][9] The memorandum was followed by crack-down on the Zionist leadership in Ukraine.[3] A few days later, commenting on the offensive against the Zionists, Rafes stated that the actions had been taken on the initiative of the Jewish communists and that the actions was an expression of 'Jewish civil war' and 'concretization of the dictatorship of the proletariat on the 'Jewish street'.'[3]

On July 16, 1919 Komfarband held a party conference in Kiev, which requested a merger with the Communist Party (bolshevik) of Ukraine.[10] Komfarband sought to be recognized as an autonomous Jewish organization within the CP(b)U.[1] The CP(b)U rejected this request, but by mid-August 1919 allowed individual members of Komfarband to become party members.[1] Komfarband members took active part in the struggle against Anton Denikin's White Army in August 1919.[4] 1,757 former members of the Komfarband joined the CP(b)U in 1919.[1][4] Komunistishe fon became the organ of the Jewish sections of the CP(b)U.[5]

  1. ^ a b c d Brendan McGeever (26 September 2019). The Bolshevik Response to Antisemitism in the Russian Revolution. Cambridge University Press. pp. 142, 145. ISBN 978-1-107-19599-8.
  2. ^ Earl Browder (1968). Communist International. Greenwood Reprint Corporation. p. 80.
  3. ^ a b c d Jehoshua A. Gilboa; Yehoshuna A. Gilboa (1982). A Language Silenced: The Suppression of Hebrew Literature and Culture in the Soviet Union. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. pp. 82–83, 282. ISBN 978-0-8386-3072-3.
  4. ^ a b c Nora Levin (December 1990). The Jews in the Soviet Union Since 1917: Paradox of Survival. NYU Press. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-8147-5051-3.
  5. ^ a b c Kenneth B. Moss (30 October 2009). Jewish Renaissance in the Russian Revolution. Harvard University Press. p. 258. ISBN 978-0-674-03510-2.
  6. ^ Zvi Gitelman (8 March 2015). Jewish Nationality and Soviet Politics: The Jewish Sections of the CPSU, 1917-1930. Princeton University Press. p. 202. ISBN 978-1-4008-6913-8.
  7. ^ Joseph B. Schechtman (1966). Zionism and Zionists in Soviet Russia: Greatness and Drama. Zionist Organization of America. p. 18.
  8. ^ Lionel Kochan (1971). Les Juifs en Union Soviétique depuis 1917. Calmann-Lévy. p. 147.
  9. ^ Wiener Library Bulletin. 1976. p. 28.
  10. ^ שבות. המכון לחקר התפוצות. 1996. p. 121.