The SoCal Bund

Where Are Jews From There are several independent genetic studies on the origins of the Jews. The consensus is that we're from the Levant, which is where all of the shared DNA between Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews originates. Both groups also have much more in common with the Levant populations than with the local populations. But we also have interbred with the populations we lived with. What about the Missing Canaanite DNA? What about it? One study didn't find Canaanite DNA in some Jews from two sites of thousands. Most studies do indeed find significant overlaps between Jews, Arabs, and Canaanites. In fact, Jews and Arabs are more closely related than Jews and Europeans. We do in fact originate from the Middle East. Which should surprise nobody because we speak basically ancient Canaanite with another 3,000 years of history, we have traditions associated with Canaanites still, again with 3,000 years of new history, and these appear in all the subpopulations of Jews, even the o...

 SoCal Bundism Explained דויקייט - Hereness At the core of the original Bundism was Doikayt (דויקייט), Yiddish for "Here-ness". It was a neologism in Yiddish, just as in English, and structurally the words have the same form. The focus is on fighting for liberation where we are and with the people around us, and not in some special territory where we're not. It was in contrast to Zionism, which is focused exclusively on colonizing Palestine and turning it into the ultimate ghetto for the Jews after purging it of all others. יידישקייט - Jewishness Another aspect of Bundism is "Jewishness", the essence of Judaism. This is difficult to formulate, because Judaism is old and diverse, and has been in diaspora since before it's recorded history. Even our mythological history starts with us in diaspora. Initially it was very Ashkenazi-centered, because it originated in the heart of Ashkenazi territory. Now, though, to expand on "Hereness", we include all f...

This material comes largely from Against Japanism and The Minyan podcast crossover episodes. I'm mostly repeating it from memory, and from digging around myself. Please let me know about errors or misrepresentations. Rigid Social Hierarchy Fascism requires "Haves" and "Have-nots". These strata can even be layered and interleaved (see Intersectionality for more on this), but the principle that there's "a natural order" to society. It also requires the use of pseudoscience to justify this (see Eugenics, how language families were expanded to be races, "filthy immigrants", "model minorities", etc). And of course since it's Fascism, it's incumbent on the people to use violence to enforce perceived inversions of this hierarchy. They shot MLK Jr. in the face, and dismantled the Black Panthers, for example. Palestine and the Jews Yes, I'm using the term "Jews". I'm Jewish. Israel is overwhelmingly Jewish becau...

 Hello everyone, this year Erev Hanukah is also the same day as Christmas, the 25th. So, I'm just taking a moment to reflect on Palestine, Christianity, Zionism, and the current genocide. I think it's important to remember that despite the cliche, we were strangers in a strange land too. In fact, we still are. Even ignoring the first kingdom, which is hardly attested in archaeology, there was obviously some collective organization of tribes that came together before the second kingdom. And if you study torah, you notice that there are many traditions that have been spun together, without regard for contradictions. From this it becomes clear that Jews have always lived "in diaspora". In fact by the second kingdom Judea wasn't even the center of Jewish life. It was just one of many. Babylon could probably be seen as it's actual place. But we were already scattered by then anyway, and it was through a network of writings and trade routes that Judaism continued. W...

According to Jewish Currents , large donors are quietly dropping funding for organizations unrelated to Palestine or Jews in general. In October 2023, the Access Reproductive Care fund published a letter about the genocide in Palestine. Their overhead is covered primarily by small donors, but 1/3 of actual services have been provided by a large grant from Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies. After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, this foundation allocated $1 million over 3 years, through 2024. After the ARC published their letter against the genocide, though, this foundation notified ARC the final payment would be made through a third party, and that it was the end of the grant. No more would be forthcoming. So, Zionism is channeling resources not only away from Jewish communities, but from the communities we live in as well, out of pure spite. If people working for an organization funded by money controlled by Zionists step out of line, just the association with...

In the original bund the governing committee was the Coordinating Committee. Here I envision the same sort of organization. We're not going to overshadow other Jewish groups here, and honestly that would defeat the purpose of the bund anyway. It would go against the Doikayt grain, because these groups are already "here", and we can support them. Rather, we're more of an outreach and education group. We want to help Jews here in the Diaspora, specifically Southern California, to find the Jewish organizations that work for them, and to provide a broader sense of Jewishness shared between all Jews. The focus can be taken off of a mythical land we possibly once resided in, and put back on where we are now. And besides, if you look at Jewish history, we've been in diaspora since the beginning, even when the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah existed, even when Palestine was called Judea. And in our writings you see all the different traditions that were knitted together over...