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This article provides an overview of the Bund from the establishment of its precursor organization in 1890 until World War I. First it takes into account the historical conditions that led to the rise of a distinct Jewish socialist movement in the Russian Empire to then focus on its three spheres of activity: (a) economic difficulties, as a Jewish workers’ movement engaged in union-organizing and strikes, (b) political challenges, as a Jewish revolutionary movement working to overthrow the Tsarist system and (c) national obstacles, as a movement fighting for Jewish civil rights and Jewish national autonomy, the advancement of Yiddish language and culture, and the organisation of Jewish self-defense against pogroms. Appended to the article is the translation of an early Bundist pamphlet, The Town Preacher (1895), which presents the movement’s ideas in a simple, popular form, based on the story of the single strike of Jewish tobacco-workers in Vilna.

The article discusses sites and symbols of Jewish identity and memory in Vilnius, Lithuania. According to the author, a full reconstruction of Vilnius's national symbols and institutions such as its largest synagogue, would be distasteful after the destruction of the city's Jewish population during the Jewish Holocaust of 1939-1945. It is suggested, however, that Vilnius remains an important part of Jewish memory. Topics discussed include the Yiddish research center the Yidischer Visnshaftlekher Institut (YIVO), Jewish cemeteries in Vilnius, and the city's modern Jewish community.

The article reports on a case study of efforts to revise a monocentric language policy in Israel. In accord with the mainstream of Zionist ideology, which antedates the State by almost half a century, Hebrew is the national and official language of the country. Other languages, especially Yiddish, are widely spoken in the country, particularly by adults, most particularly by adults who have immigrated from Eastern Europe. Indeed, at this time, after a quarter century of statehood, Hebrew is the mother tongue of only roughly 40 % of the Jewish population and the primary spoken language of only three quarters of that same population. The general topic of this paper is the extent to which a purportedly monolingual-monocultural polity such as Israel can be influenced to move toward greater contextualized acceptance of at least some other languages and cultures, at a time when its basic language Policy-making stage has passed. Israel in general and, more specifically, Yiddish in Israel would seem to afford a Particularly advantageous context for exploring the abovementioned general question.