Bund Archives
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Brief Description:

The Bund archives was formed as a topical collection on the Bund's history, and on related topics such as Jewish and general socialist groups, other political movements, Yiddish culture, and the Holocaust. In addition, a large number of organizations and individuals donated their records and papers to the Bund Archives. Among papers of individuals the following should be mentioned: Raphael Abramovitch; Israel Abramson; Boris Aisurovich; Aleksandrowicz family; Meir David Alter; Berl Ambaras; Grigori Aronson; David Berkingoff; Leib Berman; Lucjan Blit; Dina Blond; Abraham Cahan; Jacob Celemenski; Joseph Cohen; Lazar Epstein; Rafal Federman; Leo Finkelstein; Jerzy Gliksman; Bernard Goldstein; Aaron Goodleman; Liebman Hersch; Jacob Hertz; Morris Hillquit; Herschel Himelfarb; Ludwik Honigwill; Arcadius Kahan; Chaim Kazdan; Joseph Kissman; Vladimir Kosovsky; Franz Kursky; Jacob Levine; Isaac Luden; Abraham Manievich; Shlomo Mendelson; Meir Mendelson; John Mill; Shmuel Milman; Emanuel Nowogrodsky; Leon Oler; Rose Pesotta; Noah Portnoy; Emanuel Scherer; Elias Schulman; Pinchas Schwartz; Boruch Shefner; Isaac Nachman Steinberg; Mendl Sudarsky; Szaje Szechatow; Ahrne Thorne;  Tsivyon (Ben-Zion Hoffman);  Charles Zimmerman; William Zuckerman. Records of organizations include United Hebrew Trades, various locals of the ILGWU and the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union.    

The collection is noted for the vast quantities of printed matter ranging from leaflets and pamphlets  to complete runs of periodicals. Included are illegal propaganda pamphlets and periodicals of Bund's earliest period which were published abroad and smuggled into Russia, and proclamations and brochures printed in clandestine printing shops inside Russia. Printed materials, are richly represented in all other topical divisions of the Archives. The collection also includes photographs, posters, minutes, reports, correspondence, financial ledgers, manuscripts, biographical materials.    

The collection is divided into the following subject areas:

Jewish Labor Bund: Jewish labor movement before the Bund. Bund in Russia, 1897-1923 (including records of the Bund Foreign Commitee in Geneva, 1898-1919, of the Central Bureau of Bundist Groups Abroad and of Bund cells in the Tsarist army). Bund in Galicia and Bukovina under Austrian rule. Bund in Poland, 1915-1948 (including records of the Bund Central Committee and of the local branches, records of the Zukunft, the SKIF, the TSYSHO, and materials about the Bund in the displaced persons camps). Bundist publications. Biography materials and filled-in questionnaires about Bund activists, arranged alphabetically by name.    

Jewish political movements: Zionism; Poale-Zion; Zionists-Socialists; Territorialists; Folkists; religious groups; biographies.    

International socialist movement: Socialist International; Free Trade Unions (ICFTU); socialist parties in Germany, Great Britain, France, and other European countries; biographies.  

Russian revolutionary parties from 1873: Narodnaya Volya (populists); Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party (RSDRP); the  Mensheviks; the Bolsheviks; the Socialist- Revolutionary Party (S.R.); Revolutions of 1905 and 1917; Jews in Russian revolutionary parties; biographies.

Polish revolutionary movements from 1880: The Proletaryat; Polish Socialist Party (P.P.S.); The Social Democratic Party of the Kingdom of Poland and of Lithuania (S.D.K.P.I.L.); trade unions in Poland; Jewish sections in the Socialist parties in Eastern Europe; biographies.    

Anarchism: anarchism in Europe; anarchism in the U.S.; Jewish anarchists in the U.S.; biographies.    

Communism, from 1918: The Comintern and aspects of Marxism-Leninism; Soviet Union; Poland; other countries; United States; Jewish Communists in Soviet Union, Poland, Israel, United States, Canada; biographies of communist leaders, of Jewish communists, and of Trotskyites.    

World War II period and the Holocaust: extermination camps in Poland; ghettos in Poland including photographs of the Lodz Ghetto; underground publications of the Bund in Poland and France; records of the Bund's participation in the Polish government-in-exile in London; other aspects of the Holocaust and its aftermath; Erlich-Alter affair.    

The Jewish labor movement and Jewish socialists in North America: United Hebrew Trades; Workmens' Circle; Jewish Labor Committee; International Ladies Garment Workers' Union; The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America; Jewish labor cooperatives and leagues; Jewish socialist groups; biographies.    

Labor and socialist movement in the United States: trade unions; Socialist Party; various socialist groups; biographies.    

Yiddish culture: schools; cultural institutions; publications and press; personalities.

Held at:
YIVO Online Guide
Record Series Number: RG 1400 /RG 1400 
Created by: Bund Archives
Volume: 0.0
Acquired: 00/00/1992.
Subject Index
Anarchism
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Canada
Children
China
Colonies and Colonization Projects
Communism
Concentration, Death, Labor, and Internment camps
Culture
Denmark
Displaced Persons and DP Camps
Education
England
France
Germany
Ghettos, Holocaust
Great Britain
Health and Health Care
Holocaust and Aftermath
Hungary
Immigration and Emigration
Italy
Jewish Labor Bund
Labor Movements
Literature
Poland
Politics and Political Parties
Press, Jewish
Radio, Yiddish
Resistance, World War II
Revolutions and Revolutionary Movements
Rumania
Russia
Scholarship
Socialism
South Africa
Soviet Union
Spain
Sports
Summer Camps
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
Ukraine
Unions
United States
USSR
Writers
Yiddish secular movement
Youth Groups
Zionism
Genres/Forms of Material
Documents - Collection
Acquisition Notes: Transferred from the Bund Archives of the Jewish Labor Movement to YIVO, 1992
Finding Aid Revisions: 1995/01/25 ; 1999/03/25 ; GMB
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