Israel has long justified its occupation of Palestine and

its repression of Palestinians, as it justifies its current

war on Gaza, by arguing that Jews have always been

victims of oppression and discrimination. This book,

produced by a British and Australian collaboration,

reveals a very different history.

Before the Second World War the majority of Jews

were working class, and many participated in a wider

struggle alongside their non-Jewish comrades on the

left. The book celebrates Jewish radicalism from the

Tsarist Empire to Poland and Germany, from London to

New York.

Fighting oppression and exploitation took numerous

political forms, including left Zionism, Bundism and

revolutionary Marxism. Far from the Zionist stereo-

type of the ultimate victims, Jews were revolutionaries,

resistance fighters and firebrands.

To illuminate this history the issue of Jewish identity is

analysed along political, cultural, and sociological lines.