Young Jewish hiking association

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The Jung-Jüdischer Wanderbund ( JJWB ) was a German-Jewish youth association founded at the beginning of the 20th century . The JJWB linked the ideas and sociability of the German youth movement , from which Jews were largely excluded, with Jewish ways of life.

history

There are different statements about the beginnings of the YYWB. According to Beate Lehmann, the association was founded "in 1911 as an independent and emancipated youth and hiking group under the umbrella of the Association of Jewish Youth Associations (VJJD)". Other sources claim the association was only founded in 1920. The different information explains that there were different predecessor organizations, each with their own history. “In 1920 the 'Young Jewish Wandering Association' (JJWB) was founded in Frankenberg. It emerged from the 'Association of Jewish Youth Associations in Germany', the so-called 'Neutral Association' (founded in 1907), retained the slogan of neutrality in general and Jewish-political issues and initially saw its purpose almost exclusively in the maintenance of hiking. “The year 1920 was also the year in which the first federal meeting of the JJWB took place.

The members of the JJWB came from smaller communities that were less assimilated and more attached to the Jewish tradition. In April 1931 Gustav Goldzieher wrote in the newsletter of the comrades :

“The members of the JJWB (Jung-Jüdischer Wanderbund) do not come mostly from a middle-class family like our comrades, but mostly from the Jewish, or more precisely Eastern Jewish, proletariat. From here everything that can be said about the YYWF comes naturally. One sees the oppression of the proletariat that one experiences firsthand; hence his socialist attitude. But one also feels the special Jewish oppression, how one is described by others as being of foreign origin, how the Jews are branded as people by the outside world. That is why they come together to alleviate the plight of the Jews, both spiritual and physical, and to eliminate as far as possible. And this is what one hopes to be able to achieve through Zionism.
From all this, today's task of the JJWB, to form the youth movement for the construction of a socialist Palestine, arose. And you can say that he completely fulfills this task. "

But just as the association was described as genuinely Zionist from the perspective of 1931, its development was not so straightforward. As late as 1921, at the second federal meeting, a Zionist program was rejected, and a split ensued. Some of the members joined the Blau-Weiß association, the Bund für Jüdisches Jugendwandern in Germany , while others organized themselves into the Young Jüdische Schar , which apparently did not break away from the JJWB completely. Some of the resigned members finally joined together in a new group and called themselves Brith Haolim ("League of Immigrants").

Within the JJWB, however, the turn to Zionism could no longer be stopped. It finally culminated in December 1922 with the commitment to the Frankenberger Formula .

“At the Bundestag in Frankenberg (1922) the so-called 'Frankenberg Formula' was adopted, which began with the words: 'We are committed to the Jewish community'. When the 'Brith Hanoar' (a summary of all the associations that belonged to the world ' Hechaluz ') was founded in Gdansk in the winter of 1924, the JJWB and the 'Brith Haolim' from Germany joined. This created the basis for a reunification of the two leagues, which was decided in the spring of 1925 at a joint leadership conference. There was now a federation in Germany that saw itself as a youth movement for the Zionist workers. In 1925 it comprised between 1,500 and 2,000 members. Until 1930 the federal government was called JJWB; from then on he was called 'Brith Haolim'. "

The German state association of Hechaluz was founded at a meeting in Berlin from December 14 to 16, 1922.

In 1923 the JJWB also merged with the Jewish People's Home in Berlin's Scheunenviertel . In 1930 Franz Lichtenstein, who had long been a member of the federal management of the JJWB, wrote about this merger that it was “extremely fruitful, because the socialist and Zionist program of the JJWB was in line with the ideas of the Volksheim and its employees found the merger to be an enrichment, because they were now able to carry the people's home idea out to a much larger part of the Jewish youth ”.

Gustav Goldzieher, already quoted above, describes the work of the JJWB in 1931 as follows:

“The JJWB represents the vast majority of those coming from Germany to the Hajsharah and Aliyah from among its ranks . The education of the JJWB has one goal in mind, 'socialist Zionism'; it is therefore a 'tendency education'. One can compare the JJWB with the SAJ or KJ , that is, with a party youth who consciously educates its members in the direction of the party, to become an instrument of the party. The JJWB is educating in the direction of the Workers' Party in Palestine or the Poale Zion in Germany to Hachsharah and Aliyah: one works through Jewish history, one reads socialist writings. One learns Hebrew and one discusses daily political issues of Zionism. You go out on a Sunday too; but that should only be an addition that is not so important. "

The JJWB also took trips on the Sabbath and on public holidays , "in an almost defiant rejection of religious traditions".

In February 1933, Brit Haolim and Kadima merged to form Habonim Noar Chaluzi - Jewish youth community (builders, Chaluzische Jugend).

There is little evidence of known people who were active in the JJWB-Brith Haolim. In addition to the already mentioned, but not identifiable Franz Lichtenstein, there is only a reference to his membership in the JJWB in the short biography of the journalist and essayist Kurt Loewenstein (1902–1973).

literature

  • Beate Lehmann: Siegfried Lehmann and the Jewish people's home in Berlin's Scheunenviertel , in: Sabine Hering, Harald Lordick, Gerd Stecklina (ed.): Jewish youth movement and social practice , Fachhochschulverlag, Frankfurt am Main 2017, ISBN 978-3-943787-77- 1 , pp. 103-122.
  • Hermann Meier-Cronemeyer : Jewish youth movement . In: Germania Judaica. Bulletin of the Cologne Library for the History of German Judaism , New Series, Vol. 8, Issue 1–4 (= Issue 27–30 of the NF in total), Du Mont Schauberg, Cologne 1969, pp. 1–122.
  • Jehuda Reinharz (ed.): Documents on the history of German Zionism 1882-1933 , JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen 1981, ISBN 3-16-743272-1 .
  • Arnold Paucker : In: Ders .: German Jews in the struggle for law and freedom. Studies on defense, self-assertion and resistance of German Jews since the end of the 19th century . Hentrich & Hentrich, Teetz 2003, ISBN 3-933471-46-X , pp. 183-204.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Beate Lehmann: Siegfried Lehmann and the Jewish people's home in Berlin's Scheunenviertel , p. 118.
  2. ↑ So on a website of the Humboldt University in Berlin: Young Jüdischer Wanderbund
  3. ^ A b Jehuda Reinharz (ed.): Documents on the history of German Zionism 1882–1933 , note on p. 358.
  4. ↑ a b Gustav Goldzieher: From JJWB in: comrades-Newsletter , April 1931, pp 11-12.
  5. ↑ Beate Lehmann: Siegfried Lehmann and the Jewish People's Home in Berlin's Scheunenviertel , p. 118.
  6. ↑ See the overview of the mergers and the splits at the JJWB in Suska Döpp: Jüdische Jugendbewegung in Köln 1906–1938 . Lit, Münster 1997, ISBN 3-8258-3210-4 , p. 242 .
  7. ↑ Jehuda Reinharz (ed.): Documents on the history of German Zionism 1882-1933 . JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen 1981, pp. 328-329.
  8. ^ Franz Lichtenstein, quoted from Sabine Haustein, Anja Waller: Jüdische Settlements in Europa. Approaches to a transnational social, gender and ideological historical research , Medaon - www.medaon.de, Issue 4, 2009. The person Franz Lichtenstein cannot be clearly identified. There is both Franz Lichtenstein, murdered in Auschwitz in 1943, for whom a stumbling block was laid in Berlin ( Stolperstein for Franz Lichtenstein ), and an "author Franz Lichtenstein, who was born around 1900 [who] worked at Simplicissimus . During the Nazi era, he emigrated to Israel. He died in Tel Aviv in 1997 and never lived to see the publication of his book. ”( Franz Lichtenstein - biography & résumé ). His volume of poetry, published in 1997, is entitled The time that slipped away from us .
  9. ^ Suska Döpp: Jewish youth movement in Cologne 1906–1938 . Lit, Münster 1997, p. 104.
  10. ^ Hermann Meier-Cronemeyer: Jewish youth movement . In: Germania Judaica , New Series, Vol. 8, Du Mont Schauberg, Cologne 1969, pp. 1–122, here p. 108.
  11. ^ Art. Loewenstein, Kurt . In: Encyclopaedia Judaica, accessed April 6, 2019.