Yaad Biran

Research Project

Yidishe Geshikhte. Constructing a Jewish and socialist identity though the History studies program at the Tzisho schools

The paper examines the history studies programs in the Tzisho schools - The Yiddish speaking school organization which existed in Poland between the world wars. History studies are an important educational tool for many school systems, and especially for national ideologies which use history to justify their claims in the present. The main values which guided Tzisho were Yiddishism, socialism and secularism, and the goal of this paper is to examine the way in which they were expressed in the history studies programs, with an emphasis on the shaping of a Jewish East European secular identity through these studies. The research is based on materials from pedagogical magazines of the organization as well as history textbooks which were used in the schools. The case of Tzisho is particularly interesting since the dominant power in this school system was the Bund, which offered a different model of nationality than the one which appeared in most countries. The Bundist model emphasized the Yiddish speaking masses in the present rather than the romantic past of the people. Thus the paper also compares between the Bund's ideology and its use of history, and the use of the same history which was done by the Zionist ideology, directed to the very same population.