Przyslala Rimma Kaul

Bundaim explores the personal journey and opinion of the Israeli director Eran Torbiner, who examines the Bund alternative, why it was forgotten following the Holocaust, and how necessary it is today.

Torbiner follows the last surviving comrades in Israel of the socialist and anti-Zionist Bund movement, the strongest Jewish movement in Poland and the main opponent of the Zionists before WWII. The Bund was established 110 years ago, at the same time as Zionism. The two have contrasting ideologies: the Bund’s central principles are socialism and the right of Jews to preserve and nurture their Jewish identity, the Yiddish language in particular, anywhere in the world and with equal rights. Zionism, on the other hand, struggled to establish a home for Jews in Israel, to create a new Jewish image and revive the Hebrew language.

The Bund and its leaders and activists were almost totally wiped out during WWII and their remnants were scattered to all corners of the world. Today, the last of Israel’s Bund members gather every two weeks, on Wednesdays, around tables set with white bread, herring and cheesecake.

Director: Eran Torbiner; Israel, 2012; 50 minutes; Hebrew, with English subtitles