Progressive Jews who had immigrated to France spontaneously joined the Popular Front in 1936, alongside French workers, to fight against fascism and for social justice.
The May 1936 elections allowed Jews who had recently become naturalized citizens to participate directly in the life of the country. In Paris’s 4th arrondissement, for example, Jews cast their ballots for the Communist candidate. Ten Popular Front deputies were elected in the capital thanks to the support of the Jewish vote.
The Popular Front’s victory galvanized progressive Jews, who marched in large numbers to Père Lachaise Cemetery to commemorate the murdered Communards, carrying a banner with the unprecedented slogan: “Against all forms of nationalism, for the unity of immigrant and French workers.”
The phrase appears in all the newspapers.
La Naïe Presse, a progressive Jewish newspaper published in Yiddish and affiliated with the Jewish section of the M.O.I., continues to attract new readers.
Strikes are breaking out all over France.
The 22 Jewish chapters, which have 13,000 union members, are actively involved in the social movement.
Jews were among the two million strikers; they occupied the factories alongside their comrades. In every sector, significant progress was made: wages, working hours, collective bargaining agreements, and, of course, paid time off.
For Jews, the rapprochement with French workers is a moral, social, and political victory.
But immigrants who had not yet become naturalized felt insecure, and in November 1936, the *Naïe Presse* called for immigrant Jews to unite with French Jews in the fight against fanaticism and sectarianism.
A commission of Jewish legal experts is proposing a “legal status for immigrants” to protect workers, as the country’s overall situation is cause for concern. A pause in social reforms has been officially announced.
The “Jewish People’s Movement ” (which encompasses several factions), founded in 1935 at the initiative of the Jewish section of the M.O.I. and the International League Against Anti-Semitism (LICA), remains a vigorous force in the anti-fascist struggle.
The economic slump would lead to the resignation of Prime Minister Léon Blum (who failed to secure full authority for his reforms) and to the end of the Popular Front in April 1938. Democratic hopes were dashed with the triumph of Franco’s nationalists in Spain.
The victory of fascism spells disaster for Europe, for France…
Reference:
– Cukier, Simon; Decèze, Dominique; Diamant, David; Grojnowski, Michel, 1987, *Revolutionary Jews*, Messidor/Éditions sociales.
– Diamant, David, 1979, Jews in the Spanish Republican Army, 1936–1939, Éditions du Renouveau.
