The Jewish History Zionism Does Not Want You To Know.

Was the creation of the state of Israel really the only answer to antisemitism?

For generations, Zionism has been presented as the inevitable answer to centuries of antisemitism. But what if that story leaves something important out?

Nearly three years into Israel's genocide in Gaza, support for Israel has fallen sharply across much of the Western world. More people, including many Jews, are asking questions that once seemed almost impossible to ask. Was Zionism inevitable? Were there other visions of Jewish freedom? And what can these forgotten traditions tell us about the future?

This week on The Tea, we’re joined by award-winning artist and journalist Molly Crabapple. In her New York Times bestselling book Here Where We Live Is Our Country, she resurrects the extraordinary history of the Jewish Labour Bund — a movement that imagined Jewish liberation not through a nation-state, but through solidarity, equality and the fight for justice wherever Jews lived.

Also in the show:
⚡ Nationalism vs internationalism: two competing visions of Jewish liberation
⚡ The Bund: the forgotten Jewish movement that challenged Zionism
⚡ From antisemitism to Islamophobia: the politics of scapegoating minorities
⚡ Hebrew vs Yiddish: the battle over Jewish identity and memory
⚡ After Gaza: changing views of Israel, including among many Jews
⚡ Zohran Mamdani and the legacy of Yiddish socialism
As our guest explains, the Bund story challenges the narrative we’ve inherited — and forces us to rethink identity, belonging and the fight for freedom today.

00:00 Introduction – Was Zionism the Only Jewish Future?
03:01 Why This Forgotten Jewish History Matters Today
09:05 The Bund vs Zionism: Two Competing Visions
12:14 How Political Zionism Chose Colonisation
15:06 Why the Bund Rejected the Zionist Project
19:06 Can People Belong Without an Ethno-State?
22:09 Immigration, Colonisation and the Meaning of Home
25:09 Parallels Between Antisemitism and Islamophobia
28:01 Why More Young Jews Are Rejecting Zionism
33:34 Yiddish, Identity and the Erasure of Jewish History
38:41 The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and Jewish Resistance
43:03 What History Teaches Us About Gaza Today
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AUDIO CREDITS
Presenter–Producer: Dr. Myriam François
Guest: Molly Crabapple
Senior Producer: Sara Farolfi
Producer: Nadège Bizimungu
Assistant Producer: Poppy Jacobs
Research: Constance Creswell, Martha Missingham
Video Editor: Max Bubnov
An MPWR Productions show.

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