Jewish Anarchism: Difference between revisions

'''Jewish Anarchism''' ('''JewAn''') is the belief that mortal kings and rulers are bound to become tyrants, and that the true "Kingdom under G_d" described in the Torah is anarchy.

 

'''Secular Jewish Anarchism''', also known as '''Jewish Atheist Anarchism''', is a form of Jewish Anarchism that is guided by secular principles than religious principles. Many people of Jewish origin, such as Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, Paul Goodman, Murray Bookchin, Volin, Gustav Landauer, David Graeber, and Noam Chomsky have played a role in the history of anarchism. However, as well as these anarchists of Jewish origin, there have also been specifically Jewish anarchist movements, within the Yiddish-speaking communities of Eastern and Central Europe, and the Western cities to which they migrated, from the late nineteenth century until the Second World War. All the members of the first anarchist group in the Russian Empire, which was formed in 1903 in Białystok, were Jews. Yiddish-speaking Jews participated in the International Anarchist Congress of Amsterdam in 1907.

'''Religious Jewish Anarchism''' is a form of Jewish Anarchism that is guided by religious principles. While many Jewish anarchists were irreligious or sometimes vehemently anti-religious, there were also a few religious anarchists and pro-anarchist thinkers, who combined contemporary radical ideas with traditional Judaism. Some secular anti-authoritarians, such as Abba Gordin and Erich Fromm, also noticed remarkable similarity between anarchism and many Kabbalistic ideas, especially in their Hasidic interpretation. Some Jewish mystical groups were based on anti-authoritarian principles, somewhat similar to the Christian Quakers and Dukhobors. Martin Buber, a deeply religious philosopher, had frequently referred to the Hasidic tradition.

==History==