'hereness'
I grew up in a predominantly Christian white suburban Chicago town with Jewish grandparents living about 45 min away. They moved out to Colorado when I was 10. I never felt ostracized growing up for being partly Jewish. If anything, I felt special because of it. My immediate family was very much secular, but my dad could recite the Hannukah prayer in Hebrew and that's a cherished memory. A few years ago he took a DNA test and learned he is 98% Ashkenazi Jewish. Through online researching and family lore, I know that my great grandparents and older were likely from Eastern Europe in Poland or Russia, depending on the year as the borders often changed. Early this morning, 4/26/25, I learned two new-to-me words, that require still much more reading and reflection on my part: Bundism and doikayt, the latter meaning "hereness" in Yiddish. Bundism was a political movement that developed at the same time as Zionism in Europe in the late 1800s. In direct conflict with Zionism, the movement was for staying in Poland and making life there work. Bundists were a socialist party that actually found itself somewhat in conflict with Lenin's dream for Russia.
Tonight, I stumbled upon an unfamiliar phrase: The Pale of Settlement. Could it be that some of my family immigrated here during the pogroms of the late 1800s/early 1900s? I wish I knew more about my own family history. Thinking about the idea of doikayt, that "where we live is our home", really resonates with me. With lingering questions about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which was co-founded by Bundist Marek Edelman, I went to sleep.
I came back this post Sunday afternoon, 4/27/25, after reading more on the topic and listening to a couple of podcasts. I wanted to revise this writing and make it more cohesive, and I hope that by the time you're reading this it will be understandable. I have some answers to questions I had last night, but I still want to learn more.
I feel like I'm tending a garden of knowledge in my mind, and I can see so many paths to follow. I might get lost in my head. That happens. Integrating it all with everything else I've learned over the last 18 months will take time.
An article:
https://jacobin.com/2022/06/jewish-labor-bund-nazi-genocide-wwii-labor-migration-anti-zionism
Podcasts:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2rkbQGgDK9C2P1G0BybR0l?si=vuy3ftSxT2Wt9X2g_Tsssw
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2Dyuxsrwt4OfenYEz3Llaq?si=CRpw93b-SpSo-YIOBEwkqw
