Executed Bundists, Soviet Delegates and the Wartime Jewish Popular Front in New York

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Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ I use the term “Russia” here loosely. Most Jewish immigrants were from the western end of the Russian Empire—Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland. Few were from Russia proper. Nevertheless, many thought of themselves as being from “Russia,” now embodied in the Soviet Union. The names of the principals—Henryk Erlich, Victor Alter, Shloyme Mikhoels, Itsik Fefer—may be spelled in various ways. I use the most common spelling, but do not change alternative spellings in quotes. In citations from Yiddish sources, I transliterate according to the YIVO system.

² What I am calling the wartime Jewish popular front had many things in common with the original Popular Front of 1936–1939, most importantly a call for anti-fascist unity among “ideologically diverse groups,” including liberals and other progressives, under the leadership of the Communist Party. To some extent, popular front politics were a matter of rhetorical style: for the sake of the alliance, the Communists downplayed their distinctive political identity, and especially the idea of socialist revolution. The transformation of the Communist Party into the Communist Political Association in 1944 epitomized this stance. In return, non-Communist front supporters recognized the centrality of the Soviet Union in the anti-fascist struggle. But simple support for the Soviet Union in its battle against Germany could not be the primary identifier of membership in the popular front because staunchly anti-Communist Jewish socialists also supported aid to the Russian war effort. Rather, many of the non-Communists in the wartime Jewish popular front went beyond simple acknowledgement of Soviet strategic importance, expressing admiration for the great social gains the Soviets had presumably made. Domestically, general progressive struggles, such as that against Jim Crow, were defined as subsets of the fight against fascism, while expressions of ethnic identity were encouraged as long as they were couched in anti-fascist and anti-chauvinist terms. Like the 1930s Popular Front, the wartime version manifested itself in organizations in which Communists and non-Communists worked together around common positions on specific issues. On the Jewish street, all this meant collaboration between Communists, Zionists, Orthodox Jews and others in support of the Soviet war effort, which was closely identified not only with the American war effort, but also with the specifically Jewish interest in defeating Hitler. Of course, there were differences between the two periods. Most importantly, between 1941 and 1945, winning the war was of paramount importance, becoming the prime expression of anti-fascism and often pushing other concerns to the back burner. Some participants in the prewar Front demurred from joining the second, having learned from their experiences to distrust the Communists. Nevertheless, as it had during the 1930s Popular Front period, the Communist Party was able during the war to break out of its political isolation to play an important role among American progressives. For a definition of the prewar Popular Front generally applicable to the wartime period, see Mark Naison, “Remaking America: Communists and Liberals in the Popular Front,” in Michael Brown, Randy Martin, Frank Rosengarten and George Snediker, eds., New Studies in the Politics and Culture of U.S. Communism (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1993), 69. For applications of the “popular front” label to wartime and postwar political formations, see Martha Biondi, To Stand and Fight: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Postwar New York City (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003), 6 (“ideologically diverse groups” is Biondi's formulation in describing what she calls the “black popular front”); Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes, The American Communist Movement: Storming Heaven Itself (New York: Twayne, 1992), 96–100; Maurice Isserman, Which Side Were You On? The American Communist Party during the Second World War (Middletown, Ct.: Wesleyan University Press, 1982), 105--106 (including a quote of party-leader Robert Minor calling for renewed “People's Front activities”).

³ H.S. Linfield, “Statistics of the Jews,” American Jewish Yearbook, 47 (1945), 644, http://www.bjpa.org/Publications/details.cfm?PublicationID=19927; Paul Ritterband, “Counting the Jews of New York, 1900–1991: An Essay in Substance and Method,” Jewish Population Studies (Papers in Jewish Demography), 29 (1997), 212--216, http://www.bjpa.org/Publications/details.cfm?PublicationID=2762. On ethnic politics before and after the war, see Mason Williams, City of Ambition: FDR, La Guardia, and the Making of Modern New York (New York: WW Norton, 2013), 231--239, 317–320; Ronald Bayor, Neighbors in Conflict: The Irish, Germans, Jews, and Italians of New York City, 1929--1941 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978); Joshua Zeitz, White Ethnic New York: Jews, Catholics, and the Shaping of Postwar Politics (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007).

⁴ Although it is hard to determine what percentage of Communist Party membership was Jewish, Jews certainly made up a disproportionate share in this period. Harvey Klehr found that about one-third of central committee members elected in 1944 were Jewish, a percentage on the low side for the period from the 1920s through the 1950s. Whatever the national share was, it was higher in New York. Harvey Klehr, Communist Cadre: The Social Background of the American Communist Party Elite (Googlebooks; Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1978), 19–34; Arthur Liebman, “The Ties that Bind: Jewish Support for the Left in the United States,” American Jewish Historical Quarterly, 66:2 (December 1976), 302–307. David Shannon gives Frayhayt circulation figures for 1947. See David Shannon, The Decline of American Communism: A History of the Communist Party in the United States since 1945 (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1959), 90.

⁵ According to Nathan Glazer, the Party had 50,000 members in April 1942, and 65,000 in 1945. About half of these were in New York City. Harvey Klehr puts local party membership at 30,000 in 1938. Anti-Communist labor political strategist Alex Rose estimated that 20,000 Communists were enrolled as American Labor Party voters in 1943. Nathan Glazer, The Social Basis of American Communism (New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1961), 92--93, 116--118, 220 n.1, 221 n.1; Harvey Klehr, The Heyday of American Communism: The Depression Decade (New York: Basic, 1984), 268; “ALP Rightists Set to Back 4th Term,” New York Times, July 23, 1943, clipping, b.140, f.1d, Dubinsky Correspondence, ILGWU Records, 5780/002, Kheel Center, Cornell.

⁶ Daniel Prosterman, Defining Democracy: Electoral Reform and the Struggle for Power in New York City (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 5.

⁷ On the ALP, see Kenneth Waltzer, “The American Labor Party: Third Party Politics in New Deal/Cold War New York, 1936–1954,” Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University (1977); Robert Carter, “Pressure from the Left: The American Labor Party, 1936--1954,” Ph.D. dissertation, Syracuse University (1965).

⁸ See M.J. Heale, American Anticommunism: Combating the Enemy Within, 1830–1970 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990); Doug Rossinow, Visions of Progress: The Left Liberal Tradition in America (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008); Jonathan Bell, The Liberal State on Trial: The Cold War and American Politics in the Truman Years (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004); Martha Biondi, To Stand and Fight: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Postwar New York City (Cambridge: Harvard, 2003); Ellen Schrecker, Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America (Boston: Little Brown, 1998); Thomas J. Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996); Daniel J. Link, “’Every Day Was a Battle’: Liberal Anti-Communism in Cold War New York, 1944–1956,” Ph.D. dissertation, NYU (2006); Daniel Prosterman, Defining Democracy: Electoral Reform and the Struggle for Power in New York City (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 129–141. This school includes at least two recent presidents of the Organization of American Historians: Jacqueline Dowd Hall, “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past,” Journal of American History, 91:4 (March 2005), 1233–1263; Elaine Tyler May, “Security against Democracy: The Legacy of the Cold War at Home,” Journal of American History, 97, 4 (March 2011), 939–957. For a brief overview of the literature of anti-Communism see, Marc J. Selverstone, “A Literature So Immense: The Historiography of Anticommunism,” OAH Magazine of History, 24, 4 (October 2010), 7–11. On whether this school of thought constitutes a “consensus,” see Alex Lichtenstein, “Consensus? What Consensus?,” 49–53, and Eric Arnesen, “The Final Conflict? On the Scholarship of Civil Rights, the Left and the Cold War,” both in American Communist History, 63–80, 11, 1 (2012).

⁹ Richard Gid Powers, Not Without Honor: The History of American Anticommunism (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995); Jennifer Delton, “Rethinking Post-World War II Anticommunism,” Journal of the Historical Society, 10:1 (March 2010), 1–41; Eric Arnesen, “Civil Rights and the Cold War At Home: Postwar Activism, Anticommunism, and the Decline of the Left,” American Communist History, 11, 1 (2012), 5–44; Eric Arnesen, “No ‘Grave Danger’: Black Anticommunism, the Communist Party, and the Race Question,” Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas, 3, 4 (2006), 13–52.

¹⁰ See, for example, Stuart Svonkin, Jews against Prejudice: American Jews and the Fight for Civil Liberties (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), especially 113–177; Marc Dollinger, Quest for Inclusion: Jews and Liberalism in Modern America (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000), especially 129–163; Michael Staub, Torn at the Roots: The Crisis of Jewish Liberalism in Postwar America (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004), 26–44.

¹¹ Emanoyl Novogrudski, “Der lebnsveg fun Henrik Erlikh,” Henrik Erlikh un Viktor Alter (New York: Farlag unzer tsayt, 1951), 13–52; Y.S. Herts, Di yidishe sotsialistishe bavegung in Amerike (New York: Farlag der veker, 1954), 274, 275, 277, 296, 349.

¹² Aleksander Erlikh, “Di lebnsgeshikhte fun Viktor Alter,” Henrik Erlikh un Viktor Alter, 53–79; Herts, Di yidishe sotsialistishe bavegung, 295.

¹³ Henryk Erlich un Viktor Alter, 80–87, 102–106; Daniel Blatman, For Our Freedom and Yours: The Jewish Labour Bund in Poland, 1939–1949 (London: Vallentine Mitchell, 2003), 69–76, quote on 70; Shimon Redlich, Propaganda and Nationalism in Wartime Russia: The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee in the USSR, 1941–1945 (East European Monographs, 1982), 16–20, 24–27. According to Redlich, Erlich described the charges against him as having “connections with the international bourgeoisie; cooperation…with the Polish counter-intelligence; and contacts with an illegal Bundist network inside the USSR, all directed towards subversive activities against the Soviet state.” (16–17).

¹⁴ Jeffrey Veidlinger, The Moscow State Yiddish Theater: Jewish Culture on the Soviet Stage (Indiana University Press, 2000), 217–219; Shimon Redlich, War, Holocaust and Stalinism: A Documented History of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee in the USSR (Luxembourg: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1995), 4, 22–23, 173–183; Redlich, Propaganda and Nationalism in Wartime Russia, 11–13, 40.

¹⁵ Henryk Erlikh un Viktor Alter, 106–113; Blatman, For Your Freedom and Ours, 74–81; Redlich, War, Holocaust and Stalinism, 11–14, 165–168; Redlich, Propaganda and Nationalism in Wartime Russia, 19–24, 28–30; Lukasz Hirszowicz, “NKVD Documents Shed New Light on Fate of Erlich and Alter,” East European Jewish Affairs, 22:2 (1992), 65–85; Gertrud Pickhan, “‘That Incredible History of the Polish Bund Written in a Soviet Prison’: The NKVD Files on Henryk Erlich and Wiktor Alter,” Polin, 10 (1997), 247–272. Redlich suggests, based on the Soviet documents, that the reasons for their re-arrest included the improving military situation; the suspicion that they might leave the Soviet Union with the help of the Polish, American, or British government; their active efforts to rally the remnants of the Polish Bund; and perhaps even their participation in Polish efforts to locate the thousands of Polish officers and others who had been murdered by the Soviets.

¹⁶ Joshua Rubenstein, “Introduction: Night of the Murdered Poets,” in Rubenstein and Vladimir Naumov, Stalin's Secret Pogrom: The Postwar Inquisition of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), 7–14; Redlich, War, Holocaust and Stalinism, 24–29, 31n.11, 190–208; Redlich, Propaganda and Nationalism in Wartime Russia, 46–65, 83–85; Veidlinger, The Moscow State Yiddish Theater, 220–221.

¹⁷ Veidlinger, The Moscow State Yiddish Theater, especially 108–111, 139–146, 187–188, 194–197, 212–214, quotes 187–188; Redlich, Propaganda and Nationalism in Wartime Russia, 77–83, quotes 81, 83; Redlich, War, Holocaust and Stalinism, 17 n.10; Leksikon fun der nayer yidisher literatur (New York: Congress for Jewish Culture, 1963), vol. 5, 612–614; Josef Kerler, “Shloyme Mikhoels and his Theater,” in Dov Ber Kerler, ed., The Politics of Yiddish: Studies in Language, Literature and Society (Walnut Creek, Ca.: Altamira Press, 1998), 97–105.

¹⁸ Estraikh, “Itsik Fefer: a Yiddish ‘Wunderkind’ of the Bolshevik Revolution,” Shofar, 20:3 (2002), 14–31, quotes on 14, 19, 28; Redlich, Propaganda and Nationalism in Wartime Russia, 85–86; Rubenstein and Naumov, Stalin's Secret Pogrom, 13.

¹⁹ Maurice Isserman, Which Side Were You On? 103–126; Redlich, Propaganda and Nationalism in Wartime Russia, 16–17.

²⁰ B.Z. Goldberg, The Jewish Problem in the Soviet Union: Analysis and Solution (New York: Crown, 1961), 46; Redlich, War, Holocaust and Stalinism, 200–201; “Signers of Radio Message Pledging Moral Support…,” and Menashe Unger to Marmor, July 13, 1943, f.614, Kalman Marmor Papers, RG 205, YIVO.

²¹ Isserman, Which Side Were You On, 158; “‘Stalingrad Day’ Named,” NY Times, November 7, 1942; Gerhard Weinberg, A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 454.

²² N. Chanin, “A brivele tsu a fraynd,” Der fraynd, January 1942, 4–8, quotes 6.

²³ Henrik Erlikh un Viktor Alter, 45–48, 56; Samuel Portnoy, Henryk Erlich and Victor Alter: Two Heroes and Martyrs for Jewish Socialism (Hoboken/New York: Ktav/Jewish Labor Bund, 1990), 328; Blatman, For Our Freedom and Yours, 81–85; Isabelle Tombs, “‘The Sacco and Vanzetti of the USSR’: An Episode in the Wartime History of International Socialism,” Journal of Contemporary History, 23:4 (October 1988), 531–549; flyer, f.23, Erlich–Alter Case Collection, RG 1459, Bund Archives, YIVO. For another protest, see Frank Kingdon, letter to the editor, “Request to the Soviet Union,” Nation, January 24, 1942, b.10, f.213, Erlich–Alter Case Collection.

²⁴ Flyer, f. 23, Erlich–Alter Case Collection; Redlich, War, Holocaust and Stalinism, 169–171; Hirszowicz, “NKVD Documents Shed New Light on Fate of Erlich and Alter.”

²⁵ Hilel Rogof, “In itstigen moment,” Forward, March 4, 1943. For other references to the blood libel, see “Fun folk tsum folk,” Forward, March 11, 1943; “H. Ehrlikh un V. Alter,” Idisher kemfer, March 5, 1943; Gelberg, “Un vos zogn zey tsum Ehrlikh–Alter nekome-mord?,” Fraye arbeter shtime, March 19, 1943. See also Dovid Einhorn, “Ven umshuldig blut vert fargosen,” Forward, March 6, 1943. Einhorn compared the charges against Erlich and Alter to the accusation “against an old, truly-pious Jew that he knelt before an icon [getsen-bild] and crossed himself.”

²⁶ Dovid Einhorn, “Ven umshuldig blut vert fargosen”; B. Shefner, “Di martirer Ehrlikh un Alter,” Forward, March 7, 1943; Tsivion, “Idishe Interesen,” Forward, March 13, 1943; American Representation of the Geman Jewish Workers’ Union of Poland, advertisement, Times, March 3, 1943.

²⁷ Ab. Cahan, “Notitsen vegen dem Erlikh–Alter miting,” Forward, April 3, 1943; David Dubinsky and A.H. Raskin, David Dubinsky: A Life with Labor (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1977), 249–251; Melech Epstein, Jewish Labor in U.S.A.: An Industrial, Political and Cultural history of the Jewish Labor Movement, v.2, 1914–1952 (1953; reprint, n.p.: Ktav, 1969), 298; Portnoy, Henryk Erlich and Victor Alter, 201–203, 327–337; “Green, Carey, Mead, Voorhis in Ehrlich–Alter Protest Rally,” Justice, April 15, 1943; Address of Protest by James B. Carey, entered into Congressional Record by Jerry Voorhis, Congressional Record, 78th Congress, First Session, offprint; Remarks of David Dubinsky, entered into Congressional Record by Senator James M. Mead, April 8, 1943, A1832; Remarks of William Green, entered into Congressional Record by Jerry Voorhis, April 8, 1943, A1850, all in box 9, folder 206, Erlich–Alter Case Collection; Frederick Woltman, “CIO Official Ignores Warning, Blasts Reds,” World Telegram, March 31, 1943, box 6, folder 111, Erlich–Alter Case Collection. For additional accounts of speeches at the meeting, see “Excerpts from the Address Delivered by Shloma Mendelson…at the Erlich–Alter Memorial Meeting…March 30, 1943”; “Bageyt mer nit azelkhe merderayen,” La Guardia speech, unidentified Yiddish clipping; “Zey zaynen geshtokhn gevorn in pleytse,” Dubinsky speech, unidentified clipping; Abraham Cahan speech; Declaration Adopted by Standing Vote, by 3500 Unionists at Erlich–Alter Memorial and Protest Meeting, Mecca Temple, March 30, 1943, box 2, folder 37, Erlich–Alter Case Collection. For additional references to Sacco and Vanzetti, see A. Gelberg, “Un vos zogn zey tsum Ehrlikh-Alter nekome-mord?,” Fraye arbeter shtime, March 19, 1943, box 9, folder 205, Erlich–Alter Case Collection; Tombs, “‘The Sacco and Vanzetti of the USSR’.”

²⁸ “Erlikh–Alter hobn zikh farnumen mit arbet far soyne in moment fun biterstn ongrif fun natsishe armeyen,” Frayhayt, February 27, 1943; “Der inyen Erlikhun Alter,” Frayhayt, February 27, 1943; “Litvinov zogt Erlikh un Alter hobn gezukht untertsugrobn kamf fun der royter armey gegn di natsis,” Frayhayt, March 4, 1943.

²⁹ “Der inyen Erlikh un Alter”; “Erlikhs un Alters farbindungen,” Frayhayt, February 28, 1943; “Hitlers agentn in Nyu York lebn a tog tsulib Erlikh–Alter miting,” Frayhayt, April 1, 1943; “Zol di regirung oysforshn di faktn vegn der Erlikh–Alter farshverung,” Frayhayt, April 4, 1943.

³⁰ “Erlikhs un Alters farbindungen.” Other articles mentioning Chanin's article include: “Der inyen Erlikh un Alter”; “S'iz a hetse gegn Amerike, gegn Poyln, un gegn idishn folk,” Frayhayt, March 4, 1943; “Zol di regirung oysforshn di faktn vegn der Erlikh–Alter farshverung”; “Der miting fun di farshverer darf opgeentfert vern mitn miting fun folk,” Frayhayt, April 1, 1943.

³¹ “Der inyen Erlikh un Alter”; “S'iz a hetse gegn Amerike, gegn Poyln, un gegn idishn folk”; “98 firer un tuer fun yunyons fardamen Erlikh–Alter hetse,” Frayhayt, March 25, 1943; Ben Gold, “Kedey tsu bavorenen dos folk muz men oysramen di farreter,” Frayhayt, April 5, 1943.

³² Earl Browder, “The Conspiracy against Soviet–American Relations,” printed as ad in Post, April 3, 1943; “Zol di regirung oysforshn di faktn vegn der Erlikh-Alter farshverung”; “Erlikh-Alter un di poylishe armey,” Frayhayt, March 5, 1943.

³³ Redlich, Propaganda and Nationalism in Wartime Russia, 110; “Di Erlikh un Alter tragedie,” Tog, March 16, 1943, box 5, folder 107. See also “Vegn an umfardinter atake,” letter to editor by Morris Weinberg, publisher of Tog, Idisher kemfer, April 2, 1943, box 9, folder 201, both in Erlich–Alter Case Collection. Two pro-Soviet writers and editors for the Tog, B.Z. Goldberg and Menashe Unger, may have been Soviet agents. See John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America (New Haven: Yale, 1999), 260, 357–358, 374.

³⁴ Dovid Pinski, “Nito keyn iden vos bashitsen Hitlerizm,” Morgen zhurnal, March 28, 1943; “‘Eynikayt’ vos meynt shpaltung,” Morgn zhurnal, April 6, 1943; A. Mukdoni, “Di inuim vos iden shtehen oys fun sonim un fun fraynt,” Morgen zhurnal, March 21, 1943; Efraim Oyerbakh, “Oyf der vogshol,” Morgen zhurnal, April 6, 1943; Yankev Glatshteyn, “Prost un poshet,” Morgn zhurnal, February 28, 1943; Efraim Oyerbakh, “Oyf der vogshol,” Morgen zhurnal, February 3, 1943, all in box 5, folder 108, Erlich–Alter Case Collection.

³⁵ “Execution of Ehrlich and Alter,” Congress Weekly, undated clipping, box 9, folder 206; Leon Dennen, “In Memoriam: Ehrlich and Alter,” Jewish Frontier, March 1943, Box 9, folder 208; “H. Ehrlikh un V. Alter,” Idisher kemfer, March 5, 1943, box 9, folder 201, all in Erlich–Alter Case Collection.

³⁶ Fenner Brockway, “Europe through Socialist Eyes: The International Must Be Born Again,” New Leader, April 10, 1943, box 10, folder 212. “World Labor Horrified by Soviet Assassination of Polish Socialist Leaders,” The Call, March 12, 1943, box 10, folder 211; Anthony Massini, “2 Polish Anti-Fascists Murdered by Stalinists,” Militant, March 6, 1943; Albert Goldman, “The Murder of Henryk Erlich and Victor Alter,” Militant, March 20, 1943, box 10, folder 213. Jacoby, “Stalin Murders two Leaders of the Jewish Working Class,” Labor Action, March 8, 1943; R. Fahan, “Stalinism: The Murder Machine Adds Two Victims,” Labor Action, March 22, 1943 Box 10, folder 208. “Tsvey korbones fun sovetishn teror,” editorial, Fraye arbeter shtime, undated clipping, box 9, folder 205. Statement by the American Representation of the General Jewish Workers’ Union of Poland on the Murder of Erlich and Alter, box 2, folder 23. All in Erlich–Alter Case Collection.

³⁷ Untitled editorial, Nation, April 10, 1943, box 10, folder 213; “The Erlich–Alter Executions,” New Republic, undated clipping, box 10, folder 216; Remarks of William Green; Max Lerner, “On Ehrlich and Alter,” PM, March 18, 1943, box 10, folder 210, Erlich–Alter Case Collection.

³⁸ Letter, J.B.S. Hardman to Reinhold Niebuhr (copy), April 9, 1943, box 4, folder 86; Letter, Henry Pratt Fairchild to Emanuel Nowogrodsky, June 25, 1943, folder 35; Letters, Albert Einstein, June 11, 1943, Upton Sinclair, July 6, 1943, Van Wyck Brooks, June 13, 1943, Thomas Mann, June 22 [1943], all to Emmanuel Nowogrodsky, box 4, folder 81, Erlich–Alter Case Collection. See folders 34–37 for additional negative responses to the Bund's Erlich–Alter protest.

³⁹ Alexander Uhl, “How Ehrlich–Alter Case Affects U.S.–Soviet Relations,” PM, March 18, 1943, box 6, folder 111; Address of Protest by James B. Carey, box 9, folder 206, Erlich–Alter Case Collection.

⁴⁰ See “The Press and the Ehrlich Alter Case,” “Second Report on Anti-Soviet Activities around the Alter–Ehrlich Case,” and P. Arnold to Mr. Chapman, March 23, 1943, all box 18, folder “Ehrlich–Alter Case,” Papers of Earl Browder, Syracuse University. Redlich, Propaganda and Nationalism in Wartime Russia, 35–36, 116.

⁴¹ Y. Khaykin, “Nile-tsayt bay der sovetish-idisher delegatsie,” Fraye arbeter shtime, August 27, 1943, box 9, folder 205, Erlich–Alter Case Collection. For other opinions that the Mikhoels–Fefer tour was undertaken in response to Erlich–Alter, and on the timing of planning, see Memo by Horace Marston, July 13, 1943, box 39, folder 12, Records of American Jewish Committee, RG 347.1.29 EXO-29, YIVO; Sh. Lifshits to B.Z. Goldberg, January 4, [1943], box 69, folder “Canadian Jewish Weekly (Feffer),” Goldberg Papers, University of Pennsylvania; Melech Epstein, Jewish Labor in the USA, 297–299; Redlich, Propaganda and Nationalism in Wartime Russia, 116–117; Redlich, War, Holocaust and Stalinism, 74; Rubenstein and Naumov, Stalin's Secret Pogrom 14, 252; Veidlinger, The Moscow State Yiddish Theater, 221–222.

⁴² Rubenstein and Naumov, Stalin's Secret Pogrom, 82–83, 236–237.

⁴³ Redlich, Propaganda and Nationalism in Wartime Russia, 17; Redlich, Holocaust and Stalinism, 75; Rubenstein and Naumov, Stalin's Secret Pogrom, 13, 14, 236, 252–254; Veidlinger, The Moscow State Yiddish Theater, 222; B.Z. Goldberg, “Ten Years Later,” Israel Horizons, October 1962, 18–19; Interview with Paul Novick by Shimon Redlich, May 20, 1976, folder 223, Paul Novick Papers, RG1247, YIVO.

⁴⁴ Redlich, Propaganda and Nationalism in Wartime Russia, 116–117; Rubenstein and Naumov, Stalin's Secret Pogrom, 14–15, 255; B.Z. Goldberg, “Ten Years Later,” 19; Veidlinger, The Moscow State Yiddish Theater, 223.

⁴⁵ B.Z. Goldberg, “In gang fun tog: gezegenen mit der delegatsie,” Tog, September 18, 1943; “Di sovetishe idishe delegatsie leygt a blumen-krants oyf'n keyver fun Sholem Aleykhem,” Tog, June 29, 1943; B.Z. Goldberg, “In gang fun tog: tey mit Aynshtayn,” Tog, July 4, 1943; Redlich 1982, 118–120; Rubenstein and Naumov, Stalin's Secret Pogrom, 15–16; “Radio,” and ad, “Hayntige programen oyf steyshon WEVD,” Forward, June 22, 1943; “In yidishn antifashistishn komitet,” Eynikayt, September 9, 1943, box 69, folder 69, Goldberg Papers, University of Pennsylvania.

⁴⁶ “ Idishe delegatsie fun soveten farband, ofitsiel oyfgenumen in siti hol fun mayor Lagvardia,” Tog, June 30, 1943; S. Sandler, “Mayor Lagvardia git ofitsiele oyfname tsu sovet-delegatsie, Sh. Mikhoels, I. Fefer,” Frayhayt, June 30, 1943; “Prominente iden trefen zikh mit idishe shlukhim fun sovet,” Morgen zhurnal, June 30, 1943; B.Z. Goldberg, “In gang fun tog: in konsulat,” Tog, July 1, 1943; Oakley Johnson, “Delegates Honored at Soviet Consulate,” Daily Worker, June 30, 1943; “Historisher idisher tsuzamenkunft in sovetishn konsulat in Nyu York,” Frayhayt, July 1, 1943.

⁴⁷ “1000 Jewish Leaders Greet Michoels, Feffer,” Worker, July 2, 1943; A. Pomerants, “Dos gantse idishe folk muz geyn in atake gegn soyne, rufn shlukhim fun sovetishe idn,” Frayhayt, July 3, 1943; Dovid Keshir, “Bay der fayerlekher oyfname far Mikhoels un Fefer'n in hotel Astor,” Frayhayt, July 6, 1943.

⁴⁸ Menashe Unger, “Idishe delegatn fun sovetn-farband bagegnen zikh mit shrayber un kinstler,” Tog, July 16, 1943; Sh. Sandler, “Di ayndruksfule bagegenish fun Mikhoels un Fefer mit idishe shrayber un kultur-tuer,” Frayhayt, July 15, 1943; “Vos s'iz forgekumen bay der bagegenish tsvishen idishe shrayber un der idish-sovetisher delegatsie, Forward, July 16, 1943.

⁴⁹ Dr. Khaym Vaytsman vintsht sovetish-idishe delegatn derfolg in zeyer misie,” Frayhayt, July 7, 1943; Redlich, Propaganda and Nationalism in Wartime Russia, 117–118, 126–129, Wise quote on 126; Redlich, War, Holocaust and Stalinism, 74; Rubenstein and Naumov, Stalin's Secret Pogrom, 83.

⁵⁰ Redlich, Propaganda and Nationalism in Wartime Russia, 130–132; Rubenstein and Naumov, Stalin's Secret Pogrom, 18–20, 83–84, 259–260.

⁵¹ “Mass Meeting for Russian Delegation, Polo Grounds, July 8, 1943,” memo to RC Rothschild from Horace Marston, September 13, 1943, Box 39, folder 12, Records of American Jewish Committee, RG 347.1.29 EXO-29, YIVO; “Polo Ground Rally for Soviet Guests to Hear Einstein,” Tog, July 4, 1943; Michael Singer, “45,000 Welcome Michoels and Feffer,” Worker, July 9, 1943; Michael Singer, “The Greatest Demonstration of Jewish Unity for Victory,” Worker, July 10, 1943; “In di toyznter kumen mir yuli 8 oyfnemen di sovetish-idishe delegatsie,” Frayhayt, July 3, 1943; “Dr. Nokhem Goldman, Mrs. de Sola Pul, Edi Kantor bay kaboles ponem far sovetish-idisher delegatsie yuli 8,” Frayhayt, July 4, 1943; “27,000 biletn hobn mir genumen – muzn ale farkoyft vern,” Frayhayt, July 7, 1943; George Starr, “Order Observations,” Frayhat, July 7, 1943; P. Novick, “Der grester triumf fun idishn folk,” Frayhayt, July 10, 1943; R. Yuklson, “Unzer baytrog tsum kaboles ponem fun der sovetish-idisher delegatsie,” Frayhayt, July 17, 1943; A. Reporter, “47 toyznt idn bay der folks demonstratsie far di sovetishe gest in polo graunds,” Tog, July 11, 1943; B.Z. Goldberg, “In gang fun tog: polo graunds,” Tog, July 10, 1943; Y.L. Teller, “Sovet hilf far E'I gefodert bay kaboles ponem far tsvey shlukhim,” Morgn zhurnal, July 9, 1943; P. Novick, “Der oyftu fun der idish-sovetisher delegatsie,” Frayhayt, July 16, 1943.

⁵² B.Z. Goldberg, “In gang fun tog: polo graunds,” Tog, July 10, 1943; P. Novick, “Der grester triumf fun idishn folk”; Shloyme Grodzenski, “Polo Graunds,” Forward, July 24, 1943; A. Reporter, “47 toyznt idn bay der folks demonstratsie far di sovetishe gest in polo graunds”; “Nyu Yorker idn bagegnen morgn sovetish-idishe delegatsie in polo graunds,” Frayhayt, July 7, 1943; “Dr. Nokhem Goldman, Mrs. de Sola Pul, Edi Kantor bay kaboles ponem far sovetish-idisher delegatsie yuli 8”; “Mass Meeting for Russian Delegation, Polo Grounds, July 8, 1943,” memo to RC Rothschild from Horace Marston.

⁵³ Other speakers included Tamar de Sola Pool of Hadassah, Louis Levine of the Jewish Section of Russian War Relief, Edward C. Carter of Russian War Relief, City Council President Newbold Morris, James Rosenberg, H. Hoffman of Independent Order Brith Abraham, Professor Arthur Upham Pope, Soviet Consul Yevgeny Kiselev, Maurice Bisgyer reading a message from B'nai B'rith president Henry Monsky, Judge Anna Kross, Max Klopel of the bakers’ union, William Feinberg of the musicians’ union, Steven Krol of the American Slav Congress, James McLeish of the electrical workers’ union, and Joe Curran of the maritime union. Furriers’ chief Ben Gold had been scheduled to speak, but did not because the program had gone on too long. Greetings were read from Wendell Willkie, Herbert Lehman, Upton Sinclair, Yiddish playwright Peretz Hirschbein and his wife poet Esther Shumiatcher, City Councilman Stanley Isaacs, conductor Serge Koussevitzky, writer Waldo Frank, Judge Jonah L. Goldstein, writer Lion Feuchtwanger, Jewish communal activist Rebecca Kohut, and many others. Ber Grin, “Vos men hot gehert donershtog in Polo Graunds,” Frayhayt, July 12, 1943; A. Reporter, “47 toyznt idn bay der folks demonstratsie far di sovetishe gest in polo graunds”; Menashe Unger, “Iber 4 milion iden hoben di natsis shoyn umgebrakht, derkleren sovetishe delegaten bay zeyer kaboles ponim in polo graunds,” Tog, July 9, 1943; “Dr. Stephen S. Wise's Call for Soviet-U.S. Unity, 2nd Front Now,” Frayhayt, July 11, 1943; “Mass Meeting for Russian Delegation, Polo Grounds, July 8, 1943,” memo to R.C. Rothschild from Horace Marston, September 13, 1943; Tsivion, “Tsayt-notitsen,” Forward, July 14, 1943; “Sovetish-Idishe delegatsie krigt rizign kabole-ponem,” Frayhayt, July 9, 1943; “Polo graunds,” Frayhayt, July 10, 1943; P. Novick, “Der grester triumf fun idishn folk”; “More Greetings to the Soviet Jewish Delegation,” Frayhayt, July 15, 1943; Eugene Kisselev, “Who Are the Representatives of the Soviet Jews?,” Frayhayt, July 16, 1943; Y.L. Teller, “Sovet hilf far E'I gefodert bay kaboles ponem far tsvey shlukhim”; “Rally in New York in Honor of Mikhoels and Fefer,” Pravda, July 16, 1943, in Redlich, War, Holocaust and Stalinism, 307–308.

⁵⁴ “Itsik Fefer, Rede bay folks kaboles ponim in polo grounds, dem 8tn yuli, 1943,” and “Shloyme Mikhoels, Rede bay folks kaboles ponim in polo grounds, dem 8tn yuli, 1943,” transcripts, folder 112, Russia Territorial Collection, RG 116, YIVO.

⁵⁵ Grodzenski, “Polo Graunds.”

⁵⁶ “ In di toyznter kumen mir yuli 8 oyfnemen di sovetish-idishe delegatsie”; Ged, “Dos mol bin ikh mekane,” Frayhayt, July 8, 1943; “Der historisher polo graunds miting-vos lernt er unz?,” Frayhayt, July 10, 1943; Yankev Milkh, “Git a kuk af di sovetishe delegatn!,” Frayhayt, July 15, 1943; P. Sandler, “Der for gezunt vos di idn fun Amerike hobn zuntog ovnt gegebn di forshteyer fun di sovetishe idn, Shloyme Mikhoels un Itsik Fefer,” Frayhayt, September 21, 1943; “Briv vegn dem Polo Graunds miting,” Frayhayt, July 15, July 23, July 31, 1943.

⁵⁷ William Edlin, “Eynigkeyt iber alts,” Tog, July 8, 1943; “Der kaboles-ponim far der idisher delegatsie fun sovet-rusland,” Tog, July 8, 1943; Menashe Unger, “Shloyme Mikhoels un Itsik Fefer – di 2 idishe delegaten fun dem soveten-farband tsu di iden fun Amerike,” Tog, July 4, 1943; B.Z. Goldberg, “In gang fun tog: klore diburim vegen der delegatsie,” Tog, July 14, 1943; B.Z. Goldberg, “In gang fun tog: gezegenen mit der delegatsie,” part two, Tog, September 19, 1943.

⁵⁸ Tsivion, “Idishe interesen,” Forward, July 17, 1943; Hillel Rogoff, “In itstigen moment: di idishe delegatsie fun rusland,” Forward, June 24, 1943; Tsivion, “Idishe interesen,” Forward, June 26, 1943; Khayim Liberman, “Di Milkhome: Gedanken vegen a idisher delegatsie,” Forward, July 2, 1943; M. Osherovitsh, “An interviu mit der sovetish-idisher delegatsie,” Forward, July 8, 1943; Dovid Einhorn, “Veys der oylem dem emes vegen der idish-sovetisher delegatsie,” Forward, July 17, 1943; “Der Idisher sotsialistisher farband vegen der sovetish-idisher delegatsie,” Forward, June 30, 1943.

⁵⁹ Dovid Pinski, “Vos sovet shlukhim hoben nit derzogt,” Morgen zhurnal, July 4, 1943; Y.L. Teller, “Interviu mit der sovetn delegatsie,” Morgn zhurnal, July 6, 1943; Dovid Pinski, “Vos mir vilen visen fun di sovet shlukhim,” Morgen zhurnal, July 18, 1943; A. Mukdoni, “Ven hakhnoses orkhim iz a gebot un seykhl hayosher a khoyv far yeden,” Morgen zhurnal, July 11, 1943; “Shlikhes iz nokh nit farendigt,” Morgen zhurnal, September 21, 1943; “Idishe brudershaft,” Morgen zhurnal, July 11, 1943.

⁶⁰ Redlich, Propaganda and Nationalism in Wartime Russia, 117–118, 123; Redlich, War, Holocaust and Stalinism, 74; Tsivion, “Idisheinteresen,” Forward, June 26, 1943; Tsivion, “Tsayt-notitsen,” Forward, July 14, 1943; “Itsik Fefer, Rede bay folks kaboles ponim in polo grounds, dem 8tn yuli, 1943”; “Fefer makht an erklerung vegen Erlikh–Alter intsident,” Jewish Daily Courier, August 2, 1943, box 5, folder 105, Erlich–Alter Case Collection; Singer, “The Greatest Demonstration of Jewish Unity for Victory.” See also Abraham Chapman, “Jews Greet Soviet Delegates as ‘Forward’ Rants Alone,” Daily Worker, July 6, 1943; James Ford, “The Jewish Unity Meeting – Inspiration to the Negroes,” Daily Worker, July 17, 1943.

⁶¹ P. Novick, “Der oyftu fun der idish-sovetisher delegatsie,” Frayhayt, July 16, 1943; A. Mukdoni, “Ven hakhnoses orkhim iz a gebot un seykhl hayosher a khoyv far yedn,” Morgen zhurnal, July 11, 1943; Tsivion, “Idishe interesn,” Forward, July 3, 1943; Hillel Rogoff, “In itstigen moment,” Forward, July 22, 1943.

⁶² Memo by Horace Marston, July 13, 1943. See also Internal Memo, ZS to MDW [?], June 16, 1943; draft responses to James Rosenberg, both July 19, 1943, box 39, folder 12, Records of American Jewish Committee, RG 347.1.29 EXO-29, YIVO. On the Yiddish PEN Club controversy, see B.Z. Goldberg, “In gang fun tog: PEN klub un delegatsie,” Tog, July 15, 1943; Tsivion, “Idishe interesen,” Forward, July 17, 1943; Nakhmen Mayzl, “Di farvaltung fun pen-klub pravet politik,” Frayhayt, July 22, 1943. Goldberg accused the PEN Club writers of pretending to be apolitical: “But when the Erlich–Alter affair came along, you should have seen how they got busy and politically aware, and morally worked up and started to incite and agitate against the Soviet power!”

⁶³ On the issues in the 1943 and 1944 primaries, see Waltzer, “The American Labor Party,” 283–297; Robert Parmet, The Master of Seventh Avenue: David Dubinsky and the American Labor Movement (New York: NYU Press, 2005), 195–198; Steven Fraser, Labor Will Rule: Sidney Hillman and the Rise of American Labor (1991; Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993), 518–521.

⁶⁴ “Left Wing Seeks Control of A.L.P., NY Times, May 15, 1943, scrapbook 12, Records of the Liberal Party, NYPL.

⁶⁵ “Campaign Notes for ALP Primaries,” box 140, folder 1c; “A Message to the Enrolled Voters of the American Labor Party, An Opportunity and a Duty,” box 140, folder 1c; “300 Trade Union Officers Back ALP Progressive Group,” flyer, b.140, f.1d; Dear ALP Voter, b.140, f.1b; “200 Union Heads Hit Dubinsky-ALP Disruption” and “200 Unionists Blast Dubinsky-ALP Policy,” Daily Worker, July 23, 1943, clipping, b.140, f.1d; United Labor News, b. 145, f.4b, all Dubinsky Correspondence, ILGWU Records, 5780/002, Kheel Center, Cornell. “The Real Issues in the ALP Primary,” Daily Worker, July 15, 1943; “Dubinsky Anti-FDR, ALP Heads Charge,” Worker, July 12, 1943; D. Elkes, “Far vemen zoln di idishe veyler shtimen in di A.L.P. praymeris,” Frayhayt, July 31, 1943.

⁶⁶ Redlich, War, Holocaust and Stalinism, 306, 311–312; Rubenstein and Naumov, Stalin's Secret Pogrom, 257–258; Fefer to Goldberg, August 8, 1944, box 69, folder “Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee,” Goldberg Papers. See also “In yidishn antifashistishn komitet,” Eynikayt, September 9, 1943, box 69, folder “ISPA,” Goldberg Papers.

⁶⁷ Interview with Paul Novick by Shimon Redlich; Fefer poem manuscript, folder 49, Papers of Sholem Asch, RG 602, YIVO; Telegram, Mikhoels and Feffer to Goldberg, October 21, 1945, box 69, folder “American Committee of Jewish Writers, Artists and Scientists”; Goldberg to Mikhoels and Fefer, November 6, 1946, box 69, folder “Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee,” Goldberg Papers.

⁶⁸ Goldberg to Mikhoels and Fefer, September 6, 1945, box 69, folder “Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee” (quote); Goldberg to Mikhoels and Fefer, March 27, 1945, box 69, unlabeled folder; Goldberg to Mikhoels and Fefer, November 27, 1946, box 69, folder “Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee”; Unsigned letter to Mikhoels and Fefer, May 28, 1947, box 69, folder “Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee”; Joe Brainin to Goldberg and “Rubin” [Saltzman?], June 4, 1947, box 69, folder “American Committee of Jewish Writers, Artists, Scientists”; Binem Heler and Hersh Smolar for Central Committee of Jews in Poland to Committee of Jewish Writers, Artists and Scientists, February 19, 1948, box 69, folder “American Committee of Jewish Writers, Artists, Scientists,” all Goldberg Papers. See also Redlich, War, Holocaust and Stalinism, 78–80, 86–88, 95–104; Rubenstein and Naumov, Stalin's Secret Progrom, 17–18, 25–32.

⁶⁹ Sh. Asch to Goldberg, February 8, 1947, box 69, folder “American Committee of Jewish Writers, Artists and Scientists”; Fefer and Grigori Kheyfets to Goldberg, February 11, 1948, box 69, folder “World Jewish Congress/Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee,” Goldberg Papers. On the murder of Mikhoels, see Redlich, War, Holocaust and Stalinism, 129–132, 445–450.

⁷⁰ Goldberg to Joseph Brainin, April 12, 1949, box 82, folder “Joseph Brainin”; Goldberg to Mikhoels and Fefer, October 17, 1946, Goldberg to Mikhoels and Fefer, October 25, 1946, box 69, folder “Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee,” Goldberg Papers.

⁷¹ Draft letter with appended list of recipients, Box 69, folder “Protest Letter,” Goldberg Papers; Goldberg, “Ten Years Later,” 14–15; Gennady Estraikh, Yiddish in the Cold War (London: Legenda, 2008), 14–15, 17–18. On the liquidation of the JAFC, the arrest of its members, and reaction in the west, see Redlich, Propaganda and Nationalism in Wartime Russia, 167–176; Redlich, War, Holocaust and Stalinism, 136, 145–146; Rubenstein and Naumov, Stalin's Secret Pogrom, 40–50. The most famous American figure to refuse to protest publically even though he had an idea what was happening was Paul Robeson. See Rubenstein and Naumov, Stalin's Secret Pogrom, 48–49; Martin Duberman, Paul Robeson: A Biography (1989; New York: Ballantine, 1990), 352–354, 690 n.42, 690 n.43.

⁷² Rubenstein and Naumov, Stalin's Secret Program, 50–61 (quotes 50, 55–56, 57). The bulk of the book consists of the remarkable and harrowing trial proceedings translated into English. See also, Estraikh, Yiddish in the Cold War, 18–23; Shannon, Decline of American Communism, 284–286.

⁷³ Goldberg, “Ten Years Later,”14–15; Rubenstein and Naumov, Stalin's Secret Program,” 64; Gennady Estraikh, “Professing Leninist Yiddishkayt: The Decline of American Yiddish Communism,” American Jewish History, 96:1 (March 2010), 57.