Life’s a Riot with Jew Versus Jew: Intra-Jewish Violence on Yom Kippur

• In Event: Radical Jewish Politics in the Street through Photography, Literature, and Violence

Abstract

It would seem unlikely that Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, would serve as the impetus for Jews to physically attack one another. But as a wave of secularism coursed through Jewish communities during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Day of Repentance often saw pitched battles between traditional Jews and those attempting to create new, secular Jewish identities, often by way of public provocation.

Yom Kippur violence was typically precipitated by antinomian behavior on the part of highly politicized Jewish communities intent on bringing attention to their causes by performing distinctly anti-religious acts on the holiday. Yom Kippur dances were first organized by anarchists during the mid-1880s. Jewish socialists and other leftist groups subsequently engaged in similarly provocative acts on the holiday during the interwar period in both North America and Poland. These activities promoted anti-religious behavior the purpose of which was to build communities of like-minded non-believers. These activities often elicited severe reactions on the part of traditional Jews and sometimes resulted in violent attacks.

Such Yom Kippur violence received wide attention in the Yiddish press and, not infrequently in the English language press. Typically presented as a type of immoral sensation that desecrated a solemn holiday, reporters capitalized on Yom Kippur related violence in order to captivate readers. However, editorialists lamented these events as embarrassing and unnecessary intra-ethnic convulsions. Press reactions to Yom Kippur violence differs in significant ways from the moralizing tones of the Jewish press, to the exoticizing of an immigrant community by the English language press.

This paper will consider intra-Jewish Yom Kippur violence as a phenomenon that reflects an attempt to create a secular Jewish identity as well as an attempt to maintain traditional culture by means of force. Additionally, the manner in which these events were presented by journalists in both the English and Yiddish language press will be explored.

Author

• Edward Portnoy, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research