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On religion and the left: Does socialism have to mean atheism?
Between 1890 and 1920, more than 2 million Jewish immigrants left Eastern Europe for the United States. In escaping the oppression and poverty of their autocratic governments, this population brought with them a bubbling desire for revolution that would ultimately blossom into a full-fledged anarchist movement led almost exclusively by women. Names both recognizable and oft-forgotten — Emma Goldman, Rose Pesotta, Mollie Steimer, and others — stood firmly at the forefront of organizing labor unions, leftist cultural groups, and media dissemination.
The force and energy behind this movement can be felt in the highly reactionary, U.S.-government-lead efforts to tear it out by the roots. Yet, while the work of these women may be honored in leftist circles, their Judaism is strikingly — and perhaps unfortunately — absent from the conversation. While there is much to be said about unspoken undercurrents of anti-semitism in today’s leftists, it is also the concept of spirituality as a whole that is met with a shrugging of the shoulders, as though it were all but irrelevant to today’s organizing work. Despite this, the role of religious organizations within communities often operate in parallel to leftist organizations, and collaboration and coordination between the two offers the potential for revelation.
