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Gezerd
Gezerd
Founder	Sender Burstin
Founded	May 1930
Dissolved	March 1944
Succeeded by	Jewish Progressive Council; (de facto); Jewish Council to Combat Fascism and Anti-Semitism; (de facto)
Headquarters	Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Newspaper	The Gezerd Tribune (1931); Dos Naye Vort / The New Word (1937)
Membership	~100 (c.1931); "Several Hundred" (Mid 1933)
Ideology	Pro-Soviet; Communism; Jewish Territorialism; Settlement of Jews in Birobidzhan;
International affiliation	OZET (parent)
	Politics of Australia; Political parties; Elections;

The Gezerd^[a] was a Communist organisation of Australian Jews that promoted the settlement of Jews in Eastern Siberia, along with pro-Soviet positions. It was active in Melbourne and Sydney.^[2] The organisation was co-founded by the recent Polish Jewish immigrant & Bundist Sender Burstin.^[3] In its early years it cooperated strongly with the Jewish Labour Bund in Australia; including the formation of a Joint Culture Committee,^[2] however the two organisations split over the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact along with the expelling of Sender Burstin as a "Social-Fascist".^[2]^[4]^[5] The organisation supported the activities of the Soviet Komzet in trying to build an alternative Jewish Homeland in Birobidzhan, working as a local wing of the public relations organisation OZET for this purpose.^[4] Towards these ends, it raised some £50 (Australian) within its first year to help with the settlement there, along with a microscope and an x-ray in 1934.^[2] The group also maintained strong ties with the Communist Party of Australia, although never formally joined or affiliated with the organisation.^[2] Beyond its support of Soviet policies, the group also engaged in yiddish culture events; including founding a "Culture House" in Carlton in 1938 and running a Yiddish theatre troupe between 1932 and 1937,^[5]^[6] efforts to support the integration of migrants (such Australian history and English language lessons), and events around international policy; especially the rise of fascism.^[2] It also supported the international boycott of German goods, and organised meetings against the political violence of the Nazi Regime against "Jews, Catholics, workers, and intellectuals".^[4]^[7] The group put itself at odds with the traditional Anglo-Jewery of Australia, positioning itself against Religious and ideologically Conservative elements of Australian Jewery: being described as an 'undesirable foreign element' by Newman Rosenthal, right-leaning editor of the Australian Jewish Herald newspaper.^[2]^[5] The organisation continued despite the liquidation of the Soviet OZET in 1938, apparently not aware of this event.^[2]

The aforementioned issues regarding the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact would cause a decline in membership and public support from which the organisation would never recover.^[2] With the banning of the CPA by Prime Minister Menzies in 1940, the organisation voluntarily went underground for roughly 15 months.^[2] It re-emerged following the German Invasion of the Soviet Union, however this could not abate its decline.^[2] The organisation would dissolve in May 1944.^[5]

Notes

^ Short for: Gezelshaft far aynordnen oyf Erd arbetnidke Yidin in F.S.S.R, Yiddish: געזעלשאפט פאר איינארדענען ארבעטנדיקע יידן אויף ערד אין פ.ס.ס.ר
English: Society for Settling Toiling Jews on the Land in the USSR

References

^ ^a ^b "Yiddish Newspapers and Journals". Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation. Retrieved 2023-08-11.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Rechter, David (1991). "The Gezerd Down Under". In Frankel, Jonathan (ed.). Studies in Contemporary Jewry: Volume VII: Jews and Messianism in the Modern Era: Metaphor and Meaning. Contemporary Jewry. Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. pp. 275–280. ISBN 978-0-19-536198-8.
^ "Sender Burstin (1903-1986)". Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
^ ^a ^b ^c Mendes, Philip (2009-02-19). "From Warsaw to Melbourne: Conflict between the Jewish Labour Bund and The Communists". Melbourne Jewish Museum – via Bund Archive.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Turnbull, Malcolm J (1999). Safe haven: Records of the Jewish experience in Australia (PDF) (2nd ed.). National Archives of Australia. pp. 122–123. ISBN 0-642-34413-2.
^ ROZENSTEIN, CHAIM. YIDDISH THEATRE IN AUSTRALIA (PDF). Monash.
^ "Jews Protest Against Pogroms". Workers' Weekly. 1933-04-14. Retrieved 2023-08-11.