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Der Spekter
@derspekter.bsky.social
1K followers 800 following 390 posts
Bundist perspectives, original artwork, journalism, and more.

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www.derspekter.org
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Come hang out with Der Spekter at our first-ever subscriber meetup in NYC!
🔯November 17, 7pm in Chelsea
🍾BOYB
🎵LIVE MUSIC from Yiddish songwriter Josh Waletzky and Jordan of American Poetry Club and Here for You
Spots are filling up, register now!👇
tinyurl.com/derspekter
November 10, 2025 at 10:53 PM
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Few California legislators have been as solid defenders of Israel's right to murder, steal land, and censor its critics under the guise of antisemitism defense as @scottwiener.bsky.social
October 22, 2025 at 8:10 PM
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Khaver Mamdani campaigns in Yiddish
October 22, 2025 at 8:04 PM
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Sholem aleykhem khaverim!

As we emerge from the days of awe and approach second anniversary of Oct. 7, 2023, we share with you two new pieces that we hope will help pave the path forward to a world free from fascism, free from genocide, and free for everyone.
March to Free Mahmoud Khalil, to oppose deportations, and to Free Palestine on March 15, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Photo by Diane Krauthmer on Flickr.
October 7, 2025 at 2:56 AM
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Secondly, a visual art submission by Brooklyn, NY-based artist Ryan Fliegelman's reimagining of Philip Guston's "The Studio" that urges us to reflect on the responsibility we bear as Israel, an American client state and self-proclaimed "Jewish state," genocides and displaces the Palestinian people.
excerpt of "The Studio" by Ryan Fliegelman, a close up of a figure dressed like an IDF soldier with an American flag behind him.
September 22, 2025 at 10:00 PM
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Zohare Jacobi of @jewitches.bsky.social fame has authored a zesty Op-Ed for Der Spekter!

www.derspekter.org/why-the-left...
A sickle and yad crossed to look like the communist hammer and sickle
August 24, 2025 at 8:15 PM
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Did you know Der Spekter has a shop? If you want to support us AND get some cool stuff, get yourself DS merch! Magazines are running low so get one while you can! 👻

Also, stickers have free shipping 👀

derspekter.bigcartel.com
July 16, 2025 at 4:22 PM
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The Jewish Anarchist Movement in America, by Joseph Cohen
July 14, 2025 at 10:06 PM
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We also want to thank everyone for their incredible support of the anniversary edition of our magazine. We have about a dozen copies left for anyone who missed the preorder round and still wants a magazine. We also now have stickers! Check out the shop at derspekter.bigcartel.com
July 12, 2025 at 3:24 PM
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Earlier today @scottwiener.bsky.social & his accomplices in genocide censorship pulled AB715 off the Senate's Education Committee agenda for lack of support.

This bill is no different from right wing attacks on truthful education about the history of our communities. We will continue to fight it.
The rise in antisemitism in schools and communities across California and the antion has led to horrific and devastating impacts. Antisemitism must never become normalized, and we must put a stop to it in our schools. We are committed to doing so and will be working overtime with a broad coalition over the summer to send an antisemitism bill to the Governor by the end of tis year's legislative session in September. Statement from Senate Leader Mike McGuire Senator Scott Wiener, Jewish Caucus Co-Chair Assembly Jesse Gabriel, Jewish Caucus Co-Chair Senator Sasha Renee Perez, Chair, Senate Education Committee
July 8, 2025 at 10:32 PM
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we've learned that the State of Israel and some Lithuanian Zionists got mad at our khaverim for pointing out its a genocidal project a la the Nazis.
Noga Tarnopolsky @NTarnopolsky *"The aim is, after screening, to bring Palestinians in- and not let them out. Later, all Gazans would be concentrated in the camp. The IDF will secure the area from a distance. Israel is trying to enlist international parties to assist in its management," per @ItayBlumental. גה טרנופולסקיNoga Tarnopolsky ... l *#BREAKING Israeli DefMin Israel Katz announces a plan to establish a "humanitarian city on the ruins of Rafah," where Israel will initially transfer 800,000 Gazans before eventually concentrating all 2.2 million residents. Katz implied work could start during 60 day ceasefire
July 7, 2025 at 9:36 PM
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get it!

www.jewishbund.org
International Jewish Labor Bund Classic Yelling Bundist GET INVOLVED Our Principles of Unity: Hereness: From the Yiddish Doikayt, hereness indicates our commitment to struggling where we are for a future in which Jews and all other peoples have a right to cultural autonomy and non-nationalist self-determination. We, like all peoples, have basic rights to safety, culture, equality, and dignity wherever we find ourselves. Jewishness: Representing an infinite and diverse constellation of individual interpretations, Jewishness signifies a commitment to engage with and develop Jewish traditions in the direction of universal emancipation. Solidarity: We stand in the struggle for collective liberation alongside all those marginalized and exploited by systems of oppression including, but not limited to, capitalism, colonialism, and ethnonationalism, which pose existential threats to our communities and planet. Our Code of Conduct: We, as members of the International Jewish Labor Bund (IJLB), serve in roles as contributors, collaborators and organizers; and pledge to make participation in the IJLB transparent and harassment free for each other, and the communities in which we operate, regardless of age, family status, body size, visible or invisible disability, ethnicity, sex characteristics, gender identity and/or expression, level of experience, education, physical appearance, socio-economic status, nationality, racialization, relationship to religious observance, sexual identity and/or orientation, or other markers of diversity. We pledge to act and interact in ways that contribute to open, collaborative, welcoming, diverse, inclusive and healthy communication and organizing. This is done through radical acts of empathy and kindness towards other people, while maintaining a respectful space for differing opinions, viewpoints and experiences, and both giving and taking constructive feedback with grace and interpreting each others' words as charitably as possible. We pledge to accept responsibility for our actions and mistakes, and apologize honestly and sincerely to those affected by our actions or mistakes. We pledge to acknowledge, respect and honor everyone's consent and boundaries. We actively support, center and value Jewishness of all varieties, regardless of Jewish parentage (or lack thereof), denomination, level or nature of observance, or cultural identity. We do not exclude or value one particular interpretation of Jewishness above any others.
July 3, 2025 at 4:29 PM
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The Vilna Jewish Labor Bund held its first action earlier this week. The statement is by Saulius Vinokurasis, the son of a Soviet era dissident and politician who was the main intellectual voice of Zionism in Lithuania.
Palestinian flag placed at the Vilna Holocaust memorial with signs in Yiddish and Hebrew saying "never again for anyone" and another small sign stating "one day everyone will have been against this." Never Again Means Never Again for Anyone. July 3, 2025 by Saulius Vinokuras and the Vilna Bund On July 1st, I took part in an action together with a number of fellow Jews and concerned community members in Paneriai. Together we commemorated both the cruel and tragic historical massacre that the site stands testament to, alongside another massacre. A massacre unfolding before us today—in Gaza. Together, as Jews and as friends of humanity, we came to this site and said “never again, means never again for anyone”. And yes, it was no coincidence that Gideon Sa’ar, local politicians, and representatives of Zionist-identifying-Jewish-institutions had come to this same site only a moment before us. Unfortunately, their commemoration, performed under the auspices of “the state of Israel”, served Sa’ar and the political establishment he represents in Israel: the occupation, the war criminal Netanyahu; of everyone set on massacring, desecrating, and further displacing those that resist, who persist, who call themselves Palestinians today. And yes, we, honoring the victims, removed what we saw as an insult toward and desecration of this sacred historical site—a few ribbons with “the state of Israel” printed on them. In the place of them, we left a message written in Yiddish, Arabic, and English: Never Again for Anyone. And together we sat before the memorial, read a text written by Palestinian and Jewish friends about how commemorating and honoring all the victims of supremacist violence of yesterday and today is the first step toward ending future tragedies and holocausts. In response to our commemoration in Paneriai the Lithuanian ambassador of Israel, a proponent of ethnic supremacy and cleansing in occupied Palestine, has published a statement falsely accusing our actions of "being cynical and lacking of moral values". That diplomats in Lithuania are empowered to make statements like this demonstrates the Lithuanian nation's complicity in aiding and abetting an internationally recognized genocide. If anything was cynical, if anything was politically instrumentalizing and desecrating, it was the presence of the minister of foreign affairs of Israel. Sa’ar, it should be known, is a proponent of "accelerating the aggression towards Hamas", which we now know for Israel means the unrestrained extermination of civilian men, women and children. Sa’ar’s use of Paneriai memorial, a site that preserves the memory of the unthinkable suffering of Jewish people, in order to further legitimize his genocidal interests, is not simply cynical but ruthless. Must we note the Israeli government is enacting atrocities of similar, even grander scale in Gaza? The current estimated death toll is between 60,000–80,000. And this says nothing about those buried below a territory which has been absolutely destroyed, 90% of which is simply gone. And so we ask, alongside countless other Jews and friends of humanity: are these victims of lesser significance than the victims of Paneriai? If there’s anything cynical and morally disgraceful here, it’s Gideon Sa’ar and his visit to Paneriai, as well as the cowardice of all people who bear witness to Israel’s imperialistic, supremacist, expansionist, genocidal project without explicitly condemning it. Never Again, Means Never Again for Anyone. by Saulius Vinokuras and the Vilna Bund July 3, 2025
July 3, 2025 at 4:17 PM
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Sholem aleykhem khaverim!

So much news since our last newsletter: the US
joined Israel's war on Iran, @haaretzcom.bsky.social reported on the IDF's orders to wantonly kill civilians looking for food, & the Trump administration escalated its ethnic campaign.

But good things have happened too...
X.COM POST BY Zohran Kwame Mamdani, @ZohranKMamdani CYCO Books is an institution that we must save. Founded in 1938, the Central Yiddish Cultural Organization is singular in the the knowledge it imparts, the history it belongs to, and NYC would be all the poorer without it. Let's keep it alive:
June 30, 2025 at 7:02 PM
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Readers are starting to receive their magazines! When you get yours, please tag us so we can share! We appreciate all the love and support through our first year. Here’s to making Year 2 even better for Der Spekter! 👻 ❤️
June 24, 2025 at 8:42 PM
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Look at who's campaigning in Yiddish
Mamdani poster in Yiddish & one saying don't rank Cuomo
June 23, 2025 at 9:48 AM
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Chaia in Oakland!
June 21, 2025 at 3:11 AM
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And some stickers!
June 20, 2025 at 2:54 AM
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“Your Kuffiya Scares Me”: Weaponizing Safety as Zionist Smear Tactic

When: Friday, June 20 at 11am EST/2pm PST
Register: bit.ly/SafetySmear
“Your Kuffiya Scares Me”: Weaponizing Safety as Zionist Smear Tactic When: Friday, June 20 at 11am EST/2pm PST Register: bit.ly/SafetySmear
June 17, 2025 at 9:00 PM
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For our SF Bay Area fans! Chaia comes to Oakland for a night of Yiddish archival magic! Through her electronic pieces she channels radical Yiddish history, ancestral rootedness, and dreams of a better world. C
Archival Yiddish Techno w/ Chaia @Bathers Library 2310 Telegraph Oakland, CA Friday June 20 6:30PM $10-30 sliding scale
June 16, 2025 at 10:23 PM
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Sholem aleykhem khaverim

Der Spekter is back this week with more great Bundist work.

We kick off with an editorial cartoon by @andy-singer.bsky.social. Andy sent this to us a few months back and it was only a matter of time before its accuracy reflected current events
Panel 1: Israel guy with Uncle Sam standing behind him kicks Iran guy. Panel 2: Israel guy stands behind Uncle Sam and says "defend me."
June 16, 2025 at 7:23 PM
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Today is the last day for pre-orders of Der Spekter's 1-Year Anniversary Edition.

Get the fantastic works we've published over the past year on paper and in your hands. Check out the digital mag here.

Check out the digital issue at this link and t.ly/xJFBR and order yours today!
Contributors: Nuri - Anna Jo Julie Weitz - Isabel Frey Anita Gallers - Yasha Levine Shanti Singh - Chaia Joe Grim Feinberg - Vilna Goles Rosalyn Leban - Sam Hirschberg
June 15, 2025 at 5:37 PM
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Our khaverim at the DMV Jewish Labor Bund asked us to share his statement of acknowledgement and support for the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition. Solidarity and accountability. Support the Coalition at bethesdaafricancemeterycoalition.networkforgood.com/projects/189...
Statement of Acknowledgement and Support for Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition DMV Jewish Labor Bund 6/4/2025 We, the DMV Jewish Labor Bund, demand the end of the desecration of Moses Macedonia Cemetery, material reparations, and the public apologies of the Maryland Housing Opportunities Commission (HOC), the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (MNCPPC), and 1784 Holdings for their displacement of communities and destruction of Black bodies. We stand in solidarity with Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition (BACC) as we acknowledge the complicity of the Jewish community, and call on the local Jewish community to join the fight to stop the desecration and destruction of Moses Cemetery. Moses Macedonia African Cemetery is a historic Black burial ground at 5204 River Road in Bethesda, Maryland. It lies directly across from its current accompanying church, Macedonia Baptist Church, which was established in the 1930’s. During chattel slavery, Moses cemetery held the bodies and funerary objects of the enslaved Black community. After the Civil War, the community expanded to include newly freed enslaved people from surrounding Bethesda plantations, many of whom were given their own land. Since the 1880’s, maps and documents label the area a cemetery, and later as Moses Cemetery. However, beginning as early as the 1920’s, the county government and white developers began their displacement and terror campaign against Black residents in order to house white families in suburbia. Over the course of decades, the MNCPPC and HOC pressured Black families who had been on the land for generations to sell in order to build roads and white suburbs where a Black community already existed, complete with schools, churches, and graveyards. In 1957, the Washington Sanitary Commission (WSSC) obtained legal rights to desecrate Moses cemetery to channelize a local creek. In addition to official government agencies, the county found an unofficial ally in the local KKK chapter, who terrorized any residents who tried to hold out against rising rents, gentrification, and redlining. Of the white developers that were recruited to do the dirty work of pricing out Black residents and building segregated suburbs on their graves, there were major Jewish actors. In the 1920’s, Morris Cafritz and Sam Eig advertised their subdivisions in Silver Spring as white only, despite the fact that Jews were also discriminated against in housing at that time. Specifically in Bethesda, Lazslo Tauber bought land in 1956 that was formerly a plantation so he could build Westbard Shopping Center and the Westbard Building. He continued purchasing land around Moses until in 1963, the last remnants of the community were forced to sell. Eyewitnesses and workers that were hired in the “development” of Moses Cemetery are quoted as having had to remove bones in burlap bags, but that most of the cemetery was left in the ground. It is not clear where the removed bodies were reburied, if at all. Despite being the victim of antisemitic discrimination as a Jew, and surviving the Holocaust himself, Tauber built his career on stealing land from Black communities and relocating buried communities to unmarked graves. Tauber’s family in Bethesda still benefits from a foundation in his name Today, the Black community demands justice for racist laws and seeks to hold the Montgomery County Government accountable for its role in stealing Black land. The land in question now is Parcel 175. This land had been kept by the HOC since it was stolen and sold to 1784 Capital Holdings in 2017. Despite laws that prevent sale of land with cemeteries on it, and despite an initial injunction from the Montgomery County Circuit Courts to pause the sale, development has continued. We have witnessed the graveyard be dug up and moved, despite an expert archaeologist saying there were bones present. We have witnessed officials like Marc Elrich claim that Black elders are lying when they recall memories of playing amongst the graves and reading the names as children in the 1950’s. We have witnessed smear campaigns, racial slurs, harassment, and intimidation from developers against community members and elders. All of this further confirms the county’s guilt. The Jewish Labor Bund stands for 3 main principles: Jewishness, Solidarity, and Doikayt. Doikayt means “hereness”, affirming that wherever a community is, people deserve mutual respect and legal rights to cultural autonomy. To us, doikayt means that the Black community of Bethesda deserved better than to have their land stolen and coerced from them, their communities destroyed, and their ancestors paved over. As members of a Jewish community that has experienced displacement and cultural genocide, and has also been complicit in these harms done to the local Black community, we stand in solidarity with our Black neighbors. We apologize for the displacement, segregation, and trauma caused by the Jewish community’s dehumanization of Black people, and pledge our support for BACC’s movement to finally end the desecration of Moses Cemetery Follow BACC on instagram at @bethafrcemetery Donate to BACC here: https://bethesdaafricancemeterycoalition.networkforgood.com/projects/189920-fund-the-movement-for-the-ancestors Read the full history of the land: Washington History article “Tracing a Bethesda, Maryland, African American Community and Its Contested Cemetery” (Kathan et al 2017) https://www.jstor.org/stable/90015022
June 9, 2025 at 10:58 PM
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Der Spekter has an online shop and our first item is a 50-page high quality print of our 1st anniversary compilation.

We'll eventually have various tchotchke and maybe even some shmatte!

In the meantime, check it out and order 1 or 10!

Preorder through 6/15 for $18+shipping

t.ly/wMzlD
DS anniversary edition cover, TOC, & article preview
June 7, 2025 at 5:19 PM
derspekter.bsky.social
Der Spekter has an online shop and our first item is a 50-page high quality print of our 1st anniversary compilation.

We'll eventually have various tchotchke and maybe even some shmatte!

In the meantime, check it out and order 1 or 10!

Preorder through 6/15 for $18+shipping

t.ly/wMzlD
Der Spekter Anniversary Edition cover of Red Golem protectively holding the DS logo + sample pages
June 5, 2025 at 3:25 AM