Ber Borochov
Ber Dov Berochov (1881-1917) was a
Marxist Zionist and one of the founders of the
Labour Zionist movement. He was born in the town of
Zolotonosha,
Ukraine, under the
Russian Empire. As an adult he joined the
Russian Social Democratic Labor Party but was expelled for his Zionist beliefs. Subsequently, he helped form the
Poale Zion party and devoted his life to promoting the party in Russia, Europe, and America. When the Russian social democrats came to power, Borochov returned to Russia in 1917 to lead the Poale Zion, but died there of pneumonia in December 1917.
Borochov became highly influential in the Zionist movement because he explained nationalism in general, and Jewish Nationalism in particular in terms of Marxist class struggle and dialectical materialism. Borochov predicted, correctly, that nationalist forces would be more important in determining events than economic and class considerations, especially as concerned the Jews. Borochov argued that the class structure of European Jews resembled an inverted class pyramid where few Jews occupied the productive layers of society as workers. The Jews would migrate from country to country as they were forced out of their chosen professions by a "stychic process" which would ultimately force migration to
Palestine, where they would form a
proletarian basis in order to carry out Marxist
class struggle.
A key part of Borochovian ideology was that the Arab and Jewish working classes had a common proletarian interest and would participate in the class struggle together once Jews had returned to
Palestine. In his last recorded speech, he said:
"Many point out the obstacles which we encounter in our colonization work. Some say that the Turkish law hinders our work, others contend that Palestine is insignificantly small, and still others charge us with the odious crime of wishing to oppress and expel the Arabs from Palestine...
When the waste lands are prepared for colonization, when modern technique is introduced, and when the other obstacles are removed, there will be sufficient land to accommodate both the Jews and the Arabs. Normal relations between the Jews and Arabs will and must prevail."
Eretz Yisrael in our Program and Tactics by Ber Borochov, 1917 Borochov, along with Nachman Syrkin ([Nahum Syrkin]) is considered a father of socialist Zionism. Borochov's ideas were influential in the convincing Jewish youth from Europe to move to Palestine. However, Borochov's theories remained most influential in
Eastern Europe, where they formed the basis of the Left Poale Zion movement which was active in Poland during the interwar years. Indeed, Borochov's vision of class struggle in Palestine was widely viewed as untenable by the 1910s, with Jewish migrants to Palestine struggling to establish an economic foothold and with interclass cooperation seemingly necessary, and his theories dimmed in popularity there. Borochov, for years an advocate for a doctrinaire Marxist Zionism, himself seemed to repudiate his former vision of class struggle in Palestine in speeches towards the end of his life. Borochov insisted that he was a Social Democrat, but Borochov's Left Poale Zion followers continued to vigorously advocate class struggle both in Palestine and eastern Europe, supporting the
Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.
The Poale Zion movement split into left and right factions, which have evolved into the modern Israeli political parties of
Meretz and
Yachad, and
Labor, respectively. The European branch of the Left Poale Zion movement was effectively destroyed by the early 1950s; many of its members were killed by the Nazis during
World War II, and the surviving activists were persecuted and ultimately outlawed under the various post-war Communist regimes.
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Ber Borochov Internet Archive*
A brief history of Labor and Socialist Zionism *
Poalei Tziyon*
The National Question and Class Struggle - Ber Borochov 1905 *
Poalei Tziyon - Our Platform -1906 Sets out the essential of Borochovian Marxist Zionism.
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The Economic Development of the Jewish People - Ber Borochov 1916 *
Poalei Tziyon Peace Manifesto - 1917 *
Eretz Yisrael in our program and tactics, Ber Borochov, 1917
