Fragments of Revolution: The Jewish Labor Bund and the Making of American Jewish Political Identity

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dc.contributorAslam, Ali
dc.contributorCzitrom, Daniel
dc.contributor.advisorHilton, Adam
dc.contributor.authorSchiffer, Molly
dc.date.accessioned2020-06-01T23:39:54Z
dc.date.available2020-06-01T23:39:54Z
dc.date.gradyear2020en_US
dc.date.issued2020-06-01
dc.description.abstractHow are political identities formed? This thesis takes a historical-institutionalist, process-based view of the phenomenon of political identity formation in the United States, specifically focusing on the mixed impacts that party actors as agents asserting ideational claims have on the consolidation of in-group belonging. Using the case of the Jewish Labor Bund, a revolutionary socialist party in the Tsarist-administered Pale of Settlement from 1897-1943, this thesis traces Bundist party diaspora members’ movement from the Pale to New York City in the early 20th century, using historical process tracing to causally establish the relationship between three facets of Bundist ideology—cultural national autonomy socialism, Yiddishism, and trade unionism—and the formation of a post-diasporic American Jewish identity in New York City. Ultimately, this thesis concludes that the result of the “party diaspora” asserting its ideational commitments was the marginalization of cultural-national autonomy socialism, the depoliticization of Yiddishism, and the incorporation of trade unionism into the Jewish labor movement—suggesting that political identity is not unitary, but itself contested. These insights indicate that a process-based view of identity formation which incorporates historical contingency, institutional encounter, and the agency of political actors has substantial benefits for the study of identity, diaspora populations, and the movement of ideas in political science.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipPoliticsen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10166/6029
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.rights.restrictedpublicen_US
dc.subjectJudaismen_US
dc.subjectpoliticsen_US
dc.subjectpolitical partiesen_US
dc.subjectlabor unionsen_US
dc.subjectJewish Labor Bunden_US
dc.subjectdiaspora studiesen_US
dc.subjectsocialismen_US
dc.subjectcultural-national autonomyen_US
dc.subjectYiddishismen_US
dc.subjectYiddishen_US
dc.subjectparty-in-diasporaen_US
dc.subjectJewish-American studiesen_US
dc.subjectidentityen_US
dc.subjectideologyen_US
dc.subjectprocess tracingen_US
dc.subjectAmerican political developmenten_US
dc.subjecthistorical institutionalismen_US
dc.subjectPale of Settlementen_US
dc.subjectRussian Revolutionen_US
dc.titleFragments of Revolution: The Jewish Labor Bund and the Making of American Jewish Political Identityen_US
dc.typeThesis
mhc.degreeUndergraduateen_US
mhc.institutionMount Holyoke College

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