Majer Bogdanski

Back to the future

Renewing the historic relationship between Jews and Poles would be a fitting tribute to the memory of Majer Bogdanski, according to several contributors attending a packed memorial event in London on 27th November 2005 for the Yiddish activist and Jewish Workers Bund veteran who died recently.

In a message from Warsaw, former ambassador Ryszard Stemplowski wrote: “Majer Bogdanski’s message to the Poles was a plea for mutual understanding, tolerance, recognition and for breathing new life into the historic Polish-Jewish togetherness – that people should live together, not just walk beside each other, as members of one community.

These sentiments were echoed by Polish Embassy representative Alexander Kropiwnicki, and Malgorzata Zglinska a close friend of Majer Bogdanski.

Further messages received from America, Australia, France and Israel were read out. From New York University, Dr Gail Malmgreen wrote: “Majer was a delightful person and an inspiration to many. He kept the dream of a better and more beautiful world alive in the worst of times.”

The memorial event was organised by the Jewish Socialists’ Group (JSG), which Bogdanski joined in the mid-1980s. He remained a member until he died, and spoke at many JSG public meetings.

Other contributors performed music and poetry ranging from Yiddish workers’ songs through to Schubert. Bogdanski had himself composed music to hundreds of Yiddish poems.

Several members of the audience, which included survivors of the Warsaw and Lodz ghettoes, contributed warm personal memories of a lifelong fighter for social justice and for the development of Yiddish culture.

The meeting closed with the singing, in Yiddish, of the Bund’s anthem, Di Shvueh and the socialist anthem, the Internationale.

David Rosenberg

Read obituaries to Majer that appeared in The Guardian and The Times.

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