The Zionist War on Yiddish in Palestine

Editor's note: This is a version of Elia Ayoub’s Master’s thesis about the war on Yiddish in Palestine written in 2016, graciously abbreviated and adapted for publication in Der Spekter. Source citations have been changed to links for easier reading. To read the original full essay

Bundism Today, Part 2: Yiddishkeit

The Bundist approach at no real point degenerated into Jewish chauvinism, tribalism, or nationalism. In building an autonomous, non-separatist Jewish force in the labour, environmental, feminist, housing, queer, urbanist, and other socioeconomic liberation movements, we should strive to do the same.

Andy Singer's Observations: Ghetto

Editor's note: With the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising having just passed, we offer this observation by political cartoonist Andy Singer about the perverted parallels of Israel's actions and Jewish history. I've been drawing and publishing cartoons since 1991. My clients were mostly

Daloy Politsey: a Yiddish “Fuck the Police” for May Day

In honor of May Day, Der Spekter is proud to share: a kleztronica commentary on “Daloy Politsey,” the latest single by New York-based artist Chaia.

The Jews and the Left in America: Reprint from Jewish Socialist Critique, 1979

The issues faced by Jewish Americans in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, and their assessment of the New Left, are no less crucial to us now in 2025, having witnessed the failure of neoliberalism and the rise of right-wing populism.

Di Shvue/The Oath: A Bilingual Version of the Bundist Anthem

A Yiddish-to-English translation, and new musical rendition, of the classic Bundist anthem Di Shvue (The Oath).

Philosemitism, Project Esther, & the Hijacking of Jewish Identity

Project Esther exemplifies the efforts to position Jews in opposition to “the progressive left's obsession with LGBTQ+ and all other minorities” and exposes the right’s attempt to wield Jewishness for its Christian Nationalist ends.

Introducing the ‘Tuers’: Translations from Doyres Bundistn, part 1

Translator’s Introduction: דורות בונדיסטן [Doyres Bundistn] was edited by the Bundist Jacob Sholem Hertz, who published many books about the history of the General Jewish Labor Bund. These three volumes contain over 500 short biographical entries about rank-and-file Bundists by various authors.  The Bundist term for an activist, “tuer”

Bundism Today, Part 1: Bundist Organizing Principles

If Bundists are known in local Jewish communities as radicals hated by the establishment, but respected for their strength and inspiring in their message by a significant part of the general Jewish population, we will be in a fantastic position.

Peter Beinart's Fantasy of Persuasion

Peter Beinart's new book employs Jewish scripture and tribalism in an attempt to win over Zionists. But can such arguments ever convince the blind?

Ungodly Psalms: Protocols of the Youth of Zion

Resolution 1a. Whereas we have lived long enough in the world of our elders, as laid out in Appendix A, the book of Ungodly Psalms; whereas, moreover, we have grown tired of reading and living the fire and floods, the ruin, wandering, exile, ash and mud, etc.; be it here

Doikayt in the Desi Diaspora

April 25, 2023, was a typical spring Tuesday outside the California State Capitol: thermostats across Sacramento climbing well into the eighties by noon, harried staffers’ and lobbyists’ hair and makeup wilting in the heat as they ducked out to grab to-go salads from one of the many nondescript lunch cafés