As part of the 90th anniversary of the Spanish Civil War
2:00 p.m. - Talk: Plural Jewish identities in the International Brigades The large number of Jews who took part in the International Brigades, created in autumn 1936 by the Communist International to aid the Spanish Republicans, remains a remarkable fact of the Spanish Civil War, but one too often reduced to the formation of a so-called Jewish unit, the Naftali Botwin company. Yet the diversity of Jewish commitments, their origins, motivations, and paths cannot be summed up by this company. By offering a broad overview of these commitments and examining the cultural specificity of the Yiddish communist milieu, from New York to Paris, we will see what the archives teach us, but also 46 46 how the history of these volunteers has been written and rewritten up to the present day. With Annabel Gottfried Cohen, PhD candidate in history at the university of Édimbourg and contributor to From Popular Front to Cold War: The Interracial Left and the International Workers Order, 1930–1954 (Cornell University Press, 2026), and Édouard Sill, historian and author of “L’Illusion lyriqu e”. Le volontariat international combattant dans la guerre d’Espagne (1936‑1938) (éditions de la Sorbonne, 2024). In conversation with Alain Lewkowicz, journalist and producer at France Culture. 4:30 p.m. - Screening: Madrid avant Hanita by Eran Torbiner Israël, documentary, 58 min, 2006. In 1936, socialist Zionists faced a dilemma: devote themselves entirely to establishing a Jewish state in Mandate Palestine, or embrace the international struggle against fascism in Spain. Through filmed testimonies from former brigadists and their relatives, and a cross-examination of family and institutional archives, this film brings together the intimate and the public to retrace the story of the 300 Jewish volunteers who left Palestine to join the International Brigades. With Jean‑Charles Szurek, emeritus research director at CNRS, son of brigadist Alexander Szurek and author of Gabriel Ersler. Des Brigades internationales aux prisons soviétiques, l’autre Orchestre Rouge (éditions Hermann, 2023). In conversation with Annabel Gottfried Cohen. Book
Price: Price: €12
Source: paris.fr — photo: Kheel Center, Cornell University©D.R