For democrats in general, and progressive Jews in particular, the fight against fascism was a priority. It intensified in France from 1934 onwards.
At the end of 1935, a vast Jewish Democratic Popular Movement was launched on the initiative of immigrant Communist Jews. Their associations, already very active, were increasingly dynamic: dispensaries, vacation camps, women’s movement, choir, culture, sport, mutual aid…
In May 1936, France was in turmoil, with a coalition of left-wing parties forming the Front Populaire, massively supported by immigrant Jews.
But in Spain, civil war was about to tear the country apart. The Republic was in peril. By the end of July, many militant immigrant Jews had joined the Spanish Republican fighters, then enlisted in the International Brigades. Their objective: to come to the aid of the Spanish Republic under attack from Franco, with the support ofHitler and Mussolini.
Always committed to the anti-fascist struggle, they wielded their weapons, like all other brigadists, alongside the Spanish Republicans.
In Eastern Europe, these militants had already fought against authoritarian, anti-Communist regimes to defend what they called “human emancipation”. They had confronted anti-Jewish hatred in their various countries of origin long before the anti-Semitic upsurge of the 1930s in Europe, and had acquired the practice of going underground.
In Spain, they mingled with the other fighters, but some wished to bear witness to the specific participation of Yiddish-speaking Jews in the defense of the Republic, and joined the Botwin company, which brought together Jews from several countries and displayed on its flag the internationalist motto, “For your freedom and ours”.
The text is written in Spanish, Polish and Yiddish.
In September 1937, on the initiative of progressive Jewish organizations, the World Congress for the Defense of Yiddish Culture was held in Paris, at a time when Yiddish culture was at its peak but threatened by the European political context. Participants from all walks of life, united by an awareness of a common danger, reached a consensus on the defense of Yiddish culture in the face of anti-Semitism and fascism.
