Terror on the Jewish street? Poland's Zionist press on violence, generational conflict and the limits of youth politics

• In Event: Youth, Culture and Politics among Polish Jews in the 1930s

Abstract

In the summer of 1933, Avraham Stavsky, a Polish Jewish member of the right-wing Zionist youth movement Betar, was arrested for the murder of Chaim Arlosoroff in Tel Aviv. In the wake of Arlosoroff’s murder and Stavsky’s arrest, violent clashes broke out in towns and cities across Poland between Betar and members of left-wing Zionist movements, including Ha-shomer ha-tsa’ir, He-halutz, Gordonia and Poalei Tsiyon.Polish Jewish journalists from across the Zionist political spectrum described the brawls as “acts of terror” and “pogroms,” and warned of a civil war, or even a khurbn, or total destruction, that Jewish youth threatened to bring into the ‘Jewish street.’
The reactions of Poland’s most popular Zionist newspapers to these events underscore the extent to which veteran Zionist activists perceived Jewish youth to be a threat. Left-leaning Zionist leaders coalesced around Haynt to accuse Betar and its leader, Vladimir Jabotinsky, of poisoning Jewish youth with fascist ideals and practices. Jabotinsky responded in kind, rallying supporters of the Zionist Right toMoment, which repeatedly blamed the violence among Jewish youth on the communist-inspired ‘class hatred’ of the Zionist Left. What is so remarkable about these accusations is the extent to which the contributors to Haynt and Moment—despite their vehement opposition to one another—wrote in remarkably similar ways about the widening gap between the attitudes and behaviors of ‘old’ Zionists and members of Zionist youth movements who were coming of age in 1930s Poland. This paper presents the nearly symmetrical images of Jewish youth produced by both papers throughout the summer of 1933. In doing so, it will explore how veteran Zionist leaders across the political spectrum in Poland envisioned the summer violence as a manifestation of a ‘conflict of generations’ within the Zionist movement, which they described as a confrontation between the political extremism of Europe and the democratic traditions of Zionism. The paper will also examine how these journalists used the Arlosoroff murder to reassess the role of Jewish youth in Polish Jewish politics, and to reflect upon the impact of Eastern European political culture on Jewish life in Mandate Palestine.

author

• Daniel Kupfert Heller, McGill University