Goles Berlin, goles Pariz: The Kultur-lige’s Unsuccessful Effort to Cultivate a Transnational Yiddishist Organization (1921–1924)

Abstract

ABSTRACT A Yiddishist cultural organization, the Kultur-lige was founded in Kiev in 1918 on the principle of umparteyishkeyt (non-partisanship). After successfully working in several cultural fields, even in the midst of revolution and civil war in Ukraine, it was coopted by Soviet loyalists, so its leadership relocated to Warsaw. In a manifesto published there in Spring 1921, the organization announced its intention to operate both within Poland and transnationally, calling for unified efforts across political boundaries. It attempted to establish centers of activity in Berlin and Paris during the early 1920s. In both cities, opponents of the idea of non-partisan cultural work competed to take over the Kultur-lige. precluding its success. The article assesses the extent to which the Warsaw leadership succeeded in giving guidance to the founders of the Berlin and Paris centers, and the limitations imposed by political strife and class conflict on the work of the Kultur-lige.