Mathias Heller Anarchie und Moses – Quellen des Anarchismus im Judentum und im alten Russland

About this book

The Jewish religion already contains the seeds of anarchism within the Bible. God himself wants humanity to be free. This is true simply because every human being is created in God’s image—and is therefore, in principle, free and equal to others—and must neither subjugate others nor allow oneself to be subjugated. Man-made laws are initially viewed with suspicion and are subject to scrutiny.

Under the Tsarist regime, a large portion of European Jews, like the majority of Russian peasants, were concentrated in the western part of Russia. Here, peasants had been organizing themselves for hundreds of years into obshchinas—village communities that functioned below the state level according to anarchist principles: communal ownership of land, equal distribution, rotation, elections, and federalism. Although Jews were generally not allowed to own land in Russia, they served as merchants, tax farmers, and innkeepers, and thus were familiar with the communities.

The regime could not administer the vast country; famines and uprisings ensued. Moscow sought an internal enemy and stoked anti-Semitism. The hardship in the shtetls became unbearable. Those who could, fled. In 1910, motivated by the idea of Zionism, Russian Jews founded the first kibbutz in the Holy Land on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. The land was purchased by an international Jewish organization and made available to the settlers as communal property. The kibbutzniks were united by the goal of reclaiming the land. They put into practice the anarchist principles they had inherited from their devout forefathers, learned from socialist theorists, and experienced in the obshchinas.

The kibbutzniks were a vital pillar of the modern democratic Jewish state until conservative governments withdrew their state, political, and ideological support. In most communities, only rudiments of anarchism remained. Nevertheless, over 60 kibbutzim maintained their anarchist structures, serving as current proof that it is possible to function even today without a state or entrenched bureaucracy.