The General Jewish Labour Bund in Romania was a Jewish

History of the Jews in Romania

The history of Jews in Romania concerns the Jews of Romania and of Romanian origins, from their first mention on what is nowadays Romanian territory....

 socialist party in Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

, adhering to the political line of the General Jewish Labour Bund. Founded in 1922, shortly after the establishment of Greater Romania

Greater Romania

The Greater Romania generally refers to the territory of Romania in the years between the First World War and the Second World War, the largest geographical extent of Romania up to that time and its largest peacetime extent ever ; more precisely, it refers to the territory of the Kingdom of...

, it united Jewish socialists in Bukovina

Bukovina

Bukovina is a historical region on the northern slopes of the northeastern Carpathian Mountains and the adjoining plains.-Name:The name Bukovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy, which became...

, Bessarabia

Bessarabia

Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....

 and the Romanian Old Kingdom

Romanian Old Kingdom

The Romanian Old Kingdom is a colloquial term referring to the territory covered by the first independent Romanian nation state, which was composed of the Danubian Principalities—Wallachia and Moldavia...

. Standing for the lay

Laity

In religious organizations, the laity comprises all people who are not in the clergy. A person who is a member of a religious order who is not ordained legitimate clergy is considered as a member of the laity, even though they are members of a religious order .In the past in Christian cultures, the...

 wing of the Jewish representative movement, the Romanian Bund had atheistic

Atheism

Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...

 leanings and offered an alternative to the mainstream Jewish organization. Like other Bundist groups, but unlike the Marxist

Marxism

Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...

-inspired Poale Zion

Poale Zion

Poale Zion was a Movement of Marxist Zionist Jewish workers circles founded in various cities of the Russian Empire about the turn of the century after the Bund rejected Zionism in 1901.-Formation and early years:Poale Zion parties and organisations were started across the Jewish diaspora in the...

 bodies of Bessarabia, it rejected Zionism

Zionism

Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...

.

History

In 1922 the Bundists of Bukovina (who had belonged to the Jewish Social Democratic Party

Jewish Social Democratic Party

The Jewish Social Democratic Party was a political party in Galicia and later also Bukovina, established in a split from the Polish Social Democratic Party of Galicia in 1905...

 in Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...

) decided to approach the Jewish socialists from the Old Kingdom and Bessarabia and propose a unification. The General Jewish Labour Bund in Romania was founded at a conference in Cernăuţi (now Chernivtsi

Chernivtsi

Chernivtsi is the administrative center of Chernivtsi Oblast in southwestern Ukraine. The city is situated on the upper course of the River Prut, a tributary of the Danube, in the northern part of the historic region of Bukovina, which is currently divided between Romania and Ukraine...

, Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

) on January 6-7, 1923. At the founding conference there were four delegates from the Old Kingdom, three from Bessarabia and from Bukovina there were delegates from Cernăuţi, Rădăuţi

Radauti

Rădăuţi is a municipality in Suceava County, Romania with a population of 27,759 inhabitants.-Geography and demographics:Rădăuţi is situated in Bucovina, northern Moldavia, on a plain between the Suceava and Suceviţa rivers, north from Suceava, at 375 m altitude...

, Suceava

Suceava

Suceava is the Suceava County seat in Bukovina, Moldavia region, in north-eastern Romania. The city was the capital of the Principality of Moldavia from 1388 to 1565.-History:...

, Siret

Siret

Siret is a town in Romania, Suceava County, one of the oldest towns in, and a former capital of, the former principality of Moldavia. It is located 2 km from the border with Ukraine, being one of the main border passing points in the North of the country, having both a road border post and a...

 and Storojineţ. Soon after the founding of the party, a support organization was founded in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, called the Gross Rumänische Arbeiter Liga ("Greater Romanian Workers League").

During the interwar period

Interwar period

Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....

, the General Jewish Labour Bund stood as one of several small organizations which represented the enlarged Jewish community of Greater Romania, covering the ground between the right-wing representatives of Jewish nationalism and the far left

Far left

Far left, also known as the revolutionary left, radical left and extreme left are terms which refer to the highest degree of leftist positions among left-wing politics...

. The party had its main strength in Bessarabia, and to a lesser extent in Bukovina. Well represented at kehilla

Kehilla (modern)

The Kehilla is the local Jewish communal structure that was reinstated in the early twentieth century as a modern, secular, and religious sequel of the Qahal in Central and Eastern Europe, more particularly in Poland's Second Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukrainian People's Republic,...

elections in the Bessarbian city of Chişinău

Chisinau

Chișinău is the capital and largest municipality of Moldova. It is also its main industrial and commercial centre and is located in the middle of the country, on the river Bîc...

, it lacked political presence in Transylvania

Transylvania

Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

. The party had a strong influence in the Yiddish

Yiddish language

Yiddish is a High German language of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world. It developed as a fusion of German dialects with Hebrew, Aramaic, Slavic languages and traces of Romance languages...

 school movement in Bessarabia, but was in competition over political support with the Zionists at Poale Zion and the Agudat Yisrael of Haredi Jews

Haredi Judaism

Haredi or Charedi/Chareidi Judaism is the most conservative form of Orthodox Judaism, often referred to as ultra-Orthodox. A follower of Haredi Judaism is called a Haredi ....

. In Bukovina, the Bund was secondary to the Jewish Autonomist

Jewish Autonomism

Jewish Autonomism was a non-Zionist political movement that emerged in Eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th century. One of its major proponents was a historian and activist Simon Dubnow, who also called his ideology folkism....

 movement led by Benno Straucher

Benno Straucher

Benno or Beno Straucher was a Bukovina-born Austro–Hungarian lawyer, politician and Jewish community representative, who spent the final part of his career in Romania. A Jewish nationalist influenced by classical liberalism and Zionism, he first held political offices in Czernowitz city...

 and his Jewish National People's Party

Jewish National People's Party

The Jewish National People's Party was a regional Jewish political party founded in 1906 in the Bukovina Austrian crown land by Benno Straucher, elected at the Austrian Parliament's Abgeordnetenhaus for the Jewish National Party since 1897...

.

At the 1922 Senate election in Czernowitz, the Bundist Leon Gheller, standing for the Romanian Social Democratic Party

Romanian Social Democratic Party (defunct)

The Romanian Social Democratic Party was a social-democratic political party in Romania. It published the magazine România Muncitoare, and later Socialismul, Lumea Nouă, and Libertatea.-Early party:...

, was defeated by 1,991 votes to 3,800 for Salo Weisselberger

Salo Weisselberger

Dr. Salo Weisselberger , Jewish leader, jurist and judge, was a member of Bukovina's Landtag during the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Mayor of Czernowitz in 1912-1914, a member of the Senate of Romania, and then a member of its Chamber of Deputies.Salo Weisselberger was born in Dracynetz, near...

. The seat was beforehand occupied by another Social Democrat, George Grigorovici.

Another (former) Bundist, Litman Ghelerter, led to the creation in July 1928 with Ştefan Voitec of a splinter group from the Romanian Social Democratic Party, the Workers Socialist Party of Romania (PSMR).

Although it survived the disappearance of its Russian mother party (persecuted by the Soviet authorities after 1920), the General Jewish Labour Bund of Romania itself ceased to function at the time of the Second World War.