Here Where We Live is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Labor Bund

The Jewish Labor Bund was once among the most influential Jewish political movements in Eastern Europe. Secular, socialist, and uncompromisingly anti-zionist, Bundists fought for freedom and dignity in the countries where they lived.  As part of their philosophy of Do'kayt, or Hereness, they championed Yiddish culture, creating vibrant networks of schools, newspapers, theater troupes, and publishing houses that elevated working class Jewish life.  Author of the upcoming book Here Where We Live is Our Country, Molly Crabapple will explore Bundism's radical history and modern relevance.

Sunday, December 7th, 2025

5pm-7pm PST (Zoom)

Registration is required (by donation, no minimum)

This event is the first in the 2025 Zhargon Speaker Series, four public, online talks that bring leading figures in Yiddish Studies and contemporary Yiddish arts and culture to share their work. The series extends classroom learning for students in the Peretz Centre's program, Zhargon: A Journey through the Histories of Yiddishkayt, and opens discussion with the broader community. Current Zhargon students do not need to register (you are automatically added).

We acknowledge the support of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation with funding provided by the Government of Canada.

About Our Speaker

Molly Crabapple is an artist and writer based in New York. She is the author of Drawing Blood (Harper Collins, 2015) and co-author with Marwan Hisham of Brothers of the Gun: A Memoir of the Syrian Civil War (Penguin, 2018), which was long-listed for a National Book Award in 2018.

Her reportage is the 2022 winner of the Bernhard Labor Journalism Award, and has been published in The New York Times, New York Review of Books, The Paris Review, Vanity Fair, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker and elsewhere. Her art is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art. Her animations have won two Emmys and an Edward R. Murrow Award. She was a 2024 fellow at the Cullman Center at the New York Public Library researching the history of the Jewish Labor Bund for her upcoming book, Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund (Penguin, 2026).

Image credit: Art by Molly Crabapple (2025)