October 24, 2022 • 55 mins
In this special reverse episode, Miriam talks with Margaret about Sholem Schwarzbard, the radical Jewish assassin.
Special thanks goes to Anna Elena Torres. Her forthcoming book, With Freedom in Our Ears can be found here.
Thanks to Eliui Damm, whose work can be found in There's Nothing So Whole as a Broken Heart, available from AK Press, With Freedom in Our Ears and Tohubavohu, a zine available here.
Thank you to Ciarán Finlayson.
And thank you to Kelly Johnson, whose 2012 dissertation Sholem Schwarzbard: Biography of a Jewish Assassin was indispensable to the research for this episode.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome to Cool People who did cool stuff.
Your podcast about the stuff that I already said. And
I love making that joke every week, but it is
what it is. I'm your host, Margaret Kiljoy, and every
week I bring to you a story about rebels and
radicals and pirates and things like that. Uh. This week,
(00:20):
I am excited about a returning guest, Miriam Rocheck. Miriam, Miriam,
how are you doing today? I'm doing okay. Happy to
be back. Miriam. Is it fun that every time I
introduce you on this podcast I claim that the only
thing that you've done of note is that you used
to be a tall ship sailor and at one point
you all hijacked your own boat because you weren't getting paid,
(00:43):
and then started running the tours yourself. Um, you know,
I think it's it's good to lead with my strengths,
and my history of piracy is definitely that. Yeah, not
the fact that you save people for a living, any
of that stuff. And also with us is the voice
(01:05):
of Sophie Hello, that's not that is not your usual voice,
my voice. Hello. I feel like I like my caffeine
intake today is either too much or too little, and
I don't know what it is, so this will be
fun for everybody. Well, there's only one way to attempt
to fix that problem, and that's more caffeine, because you
(01:26):
can't take less caffeine. Yeah. Yeah, we'll see how this goes,
friends away. So today I want to tell you a
story about black Beard. Black Beard the Pirate. Who a
vast stop right there, I am hijacking this podcast. Oh no,
(01:50):
I'm seizing the means of podcast production. I'm taking over.
I'm going to tell you a story this time. Yay,
that's good. I didn't know that much about black Beard. Um,
you've you've probably seen the Gay Pirate Show. You could
have faked it. Yeah, no, totally. That was pretty much
my plan until you interrupted. I mean this was completely unscripted. Wow,
I'm so surprised my podcast has been hijacked. Yes, we
(02:12):
haven't been planning this for months. All right, we're very
good at fiction. You're you are actually good at fiction. Um,
this is about all the fiction I can handle producing.
So now that I've taken control, Margaret, have you ever
heard of a guy named Suleim schwartz Bard, a name
that coincidenceally means Blackbeard in Yiddish. I have only heard
(02:38):
the shortest cliff notes version of of this man. I
think when you say cliff notes version, you mean that
you've been around me when I've consumed alcohol. Yes, you've
heard me talking about Slim schwartz Bard. Because if I'm drunk,
I'm talking about Slim swarts Bard. Today I am stone cold, sober,
(03:01):
and I'm going to tell you a lot about Sholim
schwartz Bart because he deserves more than my drunken ramblings
at people who are being very polite at me. So.
He was an early twentieth century clockmaker. He was a
Yiddish poet, and he was also an anarchist, a veteran
of two wars, a community self defense organizer, and a
(03:22):
remarkably successful one hit wonder assassin and avatar of Jewish vengeance.
I yeah, I think you're gonna like him. Actually, I
think he was a cool person and I think he
did some cool stuff. Um. Before I start, I want
to say I am hugely indebted to the work of
Kelly Johnson, who did a dissertation called Sholem Schwartzbart Biography
(03:43):
of a Jewish Assassin, which was available online. UM, and
that has been my main source for info on Sholem's life.
I also want to thank Anna Elena Tarres, a poet,
scholar of you To studies and anarchists history, who was
incredibly helpful and kind. Eliua d Am and Karen Finlayson
were also very kind and helpful, UM in terms of
(04:04):
helping me get translated versions of Sholem's work. I also
want to say I'm not at any kind of basic
level pro assassination. UM. I think assassination is often not
a good strategy broadly speaking. UM. There are exceptions, and
I think this story is one of them, which I
will make a case for when we get to that part.
But for both legal and actual reasons, UM, this podcast
(04:28):
should not be taken as an endorsement of assassins, although
it should be taken as an endorsement of Stephen Sondheim's Assassins.
Is that the play, Yeah, it's musical, it's really good.
That's how anyone it knows who show gosh is. That's
why people know how to pronounce choal gosh. That's why
everyone else knew how to pronounce shal gosh. It's because
(04:51):
you need more musical theater in your life. Margaret, Actually
that's not true. But you know we will, Okay, but
but claw this man as a clockmaker. He is, But
we're going to actually start when this man is a baby.
He was born to it's a Kayah schwartz Bard in
the town of Ismail and what is now Ukraine in
(05:13):
eight six, Just two years later, there's a Czarus decree
banning all Jews from the area. So his family left
and headed to the city of Balta, which was where
they were originally from. But they've left. Guess why? Program?
It was a program. Um, So if you're counting everything,
not the answer it the sad answer. The reason. Yeah,
(05:36):
it's it's going to come up a lot. So they
had left in two due to a program. So um,
you know, if you're counting, that's six years and two
moves due to anti Semitic violence for Slim's family. But
this moment here, at age two, as far as I
can tell, it marks the absolutely last time Sholem runs
(05:57):
from anti semitism. Um. From here on out, it's all fighting.
He did not have fond memories of growing up in Balta.
He was actually very frustrated by the local Jewish community.
He thought they were too urban and insufficiently focused on
Jewish thought and religion. Um. He was like, and I'm
paraphrasing from his own writing here, this place sucks. We
(06:18):
don't even have any notable rabbinical scholars here, which was
how I felt about. I enjoyed that voice over thank you.
That's my that's my surly teen voice. And I can
relate because that's how I felt about as my hometown
is about my hometown as a kid, except instead of
notable rabbinical scholars, it was all ages punk shows, but
(06:40):
like you know, potato potato, yeah, exactly. The big advantage
of being back in Balta was that that was where
It's San Kaia's extended families were, so there was a
big community for them there. The family dynamics are actually
very messy, um, irrelevant. I'm not going to get into it.
There's like eighteen people named Schmool and I'm just not
We're not going to get into it. Slim's mother Kaya
(07:02):
supported her family with a seltzer business, which, apart from
a story that gets confusing because of how many people
named Schmueller in it, is the most Jewish fucking thing
I've ever heard. Yeah, Kai actually died when Slim was
still young. Um and his father remarried, and at ten
years old he got pulled out of religious school, which
he had loved. And Chilian's relationship with Judaism and Jewishness
(07:25):
are pretty unique for his time and place, and that
kind of starts here because Jewish texts were hugely important
to him, but they were also something that he had
been deprived of. UM, So his rebellion later in life
managed to be against tradition but not against religion. Huh yeah, yeah,
it's kind of fascinating to me. We can talk about
it more later when we get to like what his
(07:46):
beliefs ended up being. But he never got the full
religious experience, so it wasn't something he felt the need
to rebel against. And it's it's actually something I think
a lot of radical Jews today might find resonent. But uh,
like I said, we can get into that later. Once
he's pulled out of school, he gets apprentice to a clockmaker,
old fashioned apprenticeship. He works for this clockmaker, including doing
(08:08):
chores around the house in exchange for training room, and
is the room like behind a secret puzzle wall where
the once the clock like chimes a certain thing. Then
the door swings open and you only have like a
few moments to get in and out. It's more of
a cuckoo clock situation. You know. His bed is on
like a giant spring, and at a certain hour it
(08:30):
just shoots out and he's at work. Yeah, I'm glad
you asked about that. Actually, I forgot to mention it.
What he does not have? Um, he does not get paid,
and he is a grumpy teen about it. He uses
the voice I was using before, which I that's like understandable.
I don't think anyone asked him how he felt about,
you know, an apprentice. Wi, am I doing this labor
(08:51):
and not getting paid? Yes, that's yeah, and um, funny
you should mention that you might have some feelings about
that later. M He did learn how to make clots though,
which is going to end up being his main job
for the next few decades. Speaking of feelings about the
compensation for your labor. Pretty at sixteen, So you know,
(09:13):
a few years later, someone invites to him to a
socialist meeting and he learns about a little thing called Marxism,
and he's on board. He's fully in. He dives it
right in. But what he doesn't do is let go
of his religious beliefs, which is a little unusual. You know,
most leftist radicals then as now our secular or atheist.
(09:33):
And he just decides God's on the side of the socialists.
M pisss off the other socialists. He actually says that
one spat in his face and refused to talk to
him after learning he believed in God. It look a
bit much right, exactly, They never change, but don't worry.
(09:53):
He also went into Jewish religious spaces and offered radical
socialist interpretations of sacred texts, which fists everyone off there too,
So it's it's the same everywhere. He's making friends exactly
nowhere with this. Over the years, he's taking on more
of a leading role in the local socialist scene. When
at nineteen, he makes a trip to Odessa, you know,
(10:14):
which is the big city, and he brings back some
extremely illegal radical socialist leaflets which he quietly distributes among
trusted comrades. Sorry, just getting he nails one to the
fucking door of the local noble estate. Okay, because apart
from Judaism and socialism, one of his most cherished beliefs
(10:36):
is that subtlety is for cowards. So pretty soon after this,
he's out on the street and here's a mob of
drunk Russian soldiers forming up to attack the town's Jews.
So he retreats and gathers a group of sympathetic comrades,
(10:57):
including experienced fighters, and forms a strategy. Too. Sorry, I'm
kidding again. He ran at the group all on his
own and just started wailing on them with a club
that he called his socialist stick, and he got the
absolute ship beating out of him. But it actually works
because they were like looking for Jews who were not
(11:18):
going to fight back, and so after you know, meeting
at least this much resistance from like one extremely fearless
teenager with a stick, they're like, maybe not, they fucked
off and they left the other Jews alone. So the
way to interrupt bigoted violence in this case is to
go hit people with a big stick. While it worked
for him. Yeah, no, I'm no, notes that sounds sarcastic,
(11:41):
but I'm actually just excited about this, all right. Yeah,
so fighting anti Semitism physically is part of his politics
and even part of his religion. Um years later, he
compares himself to Moses, describing how in another occasion he
used a stick to beat soldiers because he did that
a lot who were attacking an old Jewish man. And
and he said, I showed that a rod was not
(12:02):
only created to split the sea, but also to split
the heads of hooligan's cool. I like black beards so far.
Yeah right, he fucking rules. I like this guy very much,
greater black Beard. We'll call him, oh, far and away,
far and away, the better black Beard. Now around this time,
(12:25):
he gets his hands on a gun through my absolute
favorite means of all time. He buys it from a
Russian soldier. M hm. Now, Margaret, you and I have
talked about the whole issue of soldiers selling their guns
back in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising episode. But what makes
this instant a little different is he buys it from
(12:47):
one of the soldiers who had been sent to arrest,
specifically him and his comrades. I have literally no idea
how this went down. I assume the guy showed up
and was like, you're under arrest and show him was like, nah, man,
that's not going to work for me. Cool gun, though,
(13:07):
you know, guys just like, oh, this whole thing for you,
twenty rubles at whatever they had um. So he's got
a gun. Now the Russian soldier was there to arrest him,
doesn't arrest I don't. I do not know how this happened.
But yeah, I mean, you're not going to successfully arrest
(13:28):
the guy after you sell him your gun. Right, shifted
in a fundamental way, absolutely, and now you have drinking money.
So what are you doing arresting this guy? Anyway? You're
gonna go to have some fun. Yeah, okay, works for everybody, right,
And I have to say, you know, as with a
lot of stuff show him does in this story, I
(13:49):
don't necessarily recommend this approach like it worked for him.
You can't imagine it working for any of people. I know,
can't imagine it working for me. But works out for him.
He goes back to Balta where his family is, and
he can just tell that a pot girl mis coming,
you know, because like Jews in early twentieth century Russia,
(14:10):
Russian occupied land, like had a pretty specific spiky sense
about that. I think, I mean, it might have just
been always on. I was gonna say, you're what you're
describing sounds like a supernatural spiky sense situation. Yeah, I mean,
I can't say like my own anti Semitism senses are
(14:30):
that finely honed, but like there is a definite vibe
alarm that goes off in my head sometimes. Um. I
think it's called generational trauma, which is unfortunately not supernatural
and not fun like spidy senses, and does not mean
you can fly from building to building. Well I can,
but that's because the new active spider bite, because con
(14:52):
generational trauma. To know good to know, it's not inherented Judaism,
no fashtag, not all Jews. Correct some people that have
told some things. Okay, anyway, we're always correcting misconceptions around here.
So he organizes a few dozen people for community defense,
(15:16):
and when the program comes, they build barricades and they
tried to fight off the attackers. He's got a cool
new gun. He uses it. Now. Unfortunately, Russian soldiers come
to join the attack. It had been civilians primarily attacking initially.
Russian soldiers come and join, and the resistance fighters end
up being pushed back. Some of them are killed, and
(15:36):
they do fail to stop the program, which obviously sounds
like a defeat to us. Um, but it's much less
devastating than the one that had hit the same place
back in eighty two, and so Solom considers it a
success that like he was able to mitigate the harm
that was done to the Jewish community. What year is
this that was in? Okay, so like around the same
(15:58):
time as there was that revolution thing that almost worked. Yes,
we're going to talk some more about revolutions in this uh,
in this story, but not actually about that one. Sholim
is busy fighting off. Yeah, so he considers it a
success because the harm is like not as much as
(16:19):
as it had been in the past. He also he
fought alongside his dad, who joined him on the barricades,
and he was actually the only one of the observant
Jews in town to join the fight. Everybody else who
joined was like more secular and the observant Jews were
just praying for help during the fighting. And for a
guy with a gun, Sholim was pretty respectful of this choice. Um.
(16:43):
He was actually like kind of impressed by it, I think, Okay,
but he had to be impressed while on the run
because now he's wanted for being a radical and for
being a Jew who shoots at Christians. Um, and he
apparently doesn't have enough money to buy all the guns off,
all the soldiers who were coming after and yeah, all right,
So Insteady skips town he heads to the border of
(17:05):
Austria Hungary. He starts going by Nabat, which means alarm,
because what's a leftist about a youthful phase of going
by a one word random down name. Am I right,
magpie talking about boat face? That was what I went by,
and I went by boat face. Yeah. So he gets
(17:33):
to work as Nabat, smuggling guns, band radical literature and
other people on the run over the border. Yeah. He
also has to get a job, so he finds work
making clocks and like also immediately starts organizing a garment
workers strike because the guy simply cannot help himself. He
gets ratted out to the authorities, though he goes to
(17:54):
jail for a few months. Okay, So now the most
relatable part of the story I think so far is coming.
Pay attention if you if you don't see yourself in
Sholom yet um. I think this is where it's going
to change for a lot of listeners. So, a woman
known to history only as Comrades Sophia had taken an
(18:15):
interest in sholom Um. She had actually been offering to
pay his way to America so he could get away
from the law because she knew he was on the front.
He hadn't taken her up on it because he was like,
no way, better to be arrested Diane Siberia than abandoned
the you know, blah blah blah martyr. This this isn't
the relatable stuff. Don't worry. And she works to get
him released from prison, and he somehow makes parole. You know,
(18:38):
maybe through her efforts. We're not really sure, but you
know he's out and being very good at getting across
the border. By now he gets across the border and
he is in Austria, Hungary when he stops and goes, ah,
she was like into me, you know, like when you're
(19:00):
talking with a girl and then the next thing you know,
you've gotten arrested and done a few months time, gotten paroled,
fled across the border, and then you're like, oh, she
was hitting on me. Yeah, Sholem schwartzword was a lesbian.
That's that's basically my thesis. No counter argument to offer.
So anyway, they do not hook up because he's over
(19:21):
the border. Comrade Sophia, Comrade Sophia. Is there like any
like is this like person like weave their way through
other stuff? Is this like a rich anarchist heiress, like
like who's who's comrade Sophia. I think she's whatever our
imaginations want her to be at this point, because we
know like literally two things about her. One she was
(19:43):
in this time and place, and two she dug sholom.
All right, all right, rich anarchist heiress? Maybe maybe not
maybe rich? Okay, well let's not. We'll make anarchist bank
robber we don't know, yeah, or like, um, maybe like
a gold digger who got the money the through honest
work of gold digging and then turned around and used it.
(20:04):
There's so many possibilities Okay, yeah, options are limitless. Um.
So he did they do? Like I said, they do
not hook up, But he does refer to her as
his first love, which I think is very sweet, also
very like Russian of that era, to be like my
first love who I never really interacted with in any sense,
like yeah, exactly like some letters or whatever, who I
(20:25):
loved from across the border. He actually, he won't come
back to Russia for over a decade. The next time
he comes back to Russia will be for the revolution. Okay,
yeah exactly, But speaking of anarchists. He spunds the next
few years drifting around Austria, Hungary working leading strikes, and
then finally the moment we or you know, I was
(20:48):
gonna say at least I, but I'm sure you too, Margaret,
we're waiting for He becomes an anarchist who he meets
a man named David Haskin who introduced him to the philosophy,
and like, as soon as he is where the anarchism
is an option, he is fully on board, which I
think is what happens to a lot of people. They're like,
oh you can like, yeah, you can do that. Yeah,
(21:10):
that's a choice. I've been trying to make all these
other different cludgy things fit together. Yeah exactly. I've been
trying to reconcile all this stuff, and I can just
be an anarchist. No one can tell me that I
can't believe. Well, some anarchists would probably tell you can't
believe in God, but they don't have the the way
to do that. But do you know who else doesn't
(21:31):
believe in God? Miriam? Um me, uh huh. Some of
the products and services that support this podcast. Do you
really never know what you're going to get? No, I
really don't. It could just be like all Christian ministry ads.
They could all be all Christian ministry ads. It's true. Well,
(21:52):
they need to revise their ad buying algorithm. If that's
the case, they slip they like we we like, We're
able to like kind of like block out categories and
you'd be surprised to see where they what they come
in as labeled as in order to reach audiences that
are totally not interested in them, but they Yeah, it's
(22:13):
that kind of the m O of missionaries. What do
you think that schwartz Bard would pick for a sponsor
for this episode? Clocks Clock was mostly sponsored by clocks,
you know, for a lot of his life, much like
Blackbeard himself. This show is sponsored by clocks, and we
(22:37):
are back, and no one has thought to themselves, I
wonder what else clocks could be used for in a
direct action sense, like timing devices onward. All right, so
when when last we left, Slim had just become an
anarchist UM. So if he gets involved with a group
that is printing and distributing anarchist literature, UM and they
(22:57):
actually pay people for their labor just sick. Yeah, there's
but Shulm actually turns the money down and he helps
them with the money making operation that was supporting this,
you know, zene manufacturing, which is smuggling saccharin like the
chemical sugar substitute. Whoa it is and like it's that Um,
(23:22):
I guess it was that restricted in UM. I don't
know smuggling ring. I have so many questions about the
saccharin smuggling ring. I would have had to have done
a lot of research that I I already did a
lot of research, so I wasn't going to look into
like the economics of illegal saccharin operations. Comrades Sophia got
(23:44):
her money. She does sound pretty sweet, but but with
kind of a weird aftertaste, you know, the weird aftertaste
being like cross border longing. Yeah, exactly. Anyway, I mean,
I'm just picturing it as like a cocaine smuggling operation,
only like they're smuggling bricks of just bake sweetener, which
(24:07):
is just very funny to me. But anyway, while doing this,
he at some point is on the road with somebody's
and they get arrested and detained as a thing I
have also never heard of, um like Sacharin smuggling underage travelers.
Someone with more knowledge of Austro Hungarian imperial lack and
maybe explain this to me. But he's like twenty two
(24:28):
at the time. So apparently it is illegal to be
a twenty something wandering the roads of Austria Hungary. And
I know that a lot of different places in time
there have been I mean, if frankly, like like internal
passport type things where you're not allowed to go from
place to place without certain permissions. I I don't know
this about Austria Hungary and eight. But okay, so there
(24:50):
was just like rules about who could be on the road.
Maybe I don't know. Well, either way, he is not
allowed to be on the road. Um, so he and
his friends spend six weeks in something called an unofficial
jail in the source I looked at. They just didn't
have bribe money on them. Well that that will come back. Um,
(25:14):
So they're they're stuck there for six weeks. They're all
they've all got lice, they're getting sick, and by this
point they're like in serious danger of somebody dying of
their illness before some older prisoner is like, oh, you
actually have to pay for your own release. Nobody told
them that. They just kind of threw them in a cage,
and we're like, figure it out. Unofficial jail is such
(25:35):
a clear example of what actual jail is, just a
light like distilled to the raw bits. It's like how
somebody grabs you when you're walking down the street and
throws you in a vehicle and drives you away. That's kidnapping.
But if a cop does it, it's like arrest. Um. Yeah,
so it's a it's a more obvious example locking people
(26:00):
up in a cage. But so they find out they
need to pay a bribe or a fine because of
fine is just an official bribe for their release. But
obviously they don't have money, so they write to their
you know, zene making smuggling sacrament smuggling anarchist friends, and
they get the money to be let go. Now show
him there's actually cool zone media got it start? Oh nice,
(26:24):
Yeah it was. It was actually this specific publishing ring.
I like it. They took care of their they took
care of their friends. So he feels super bad about
the movement having to waste money getting his ass out
of jail. So he decides he's going to pay them back.
He's having trouble finding work though, probably because of all
(26:44):
the strikes that he keeps organizing everywhere he goes. So
he decides he's going to do an expropriation a crime. Yeah, Margaret,
tell the people what an expropriation is. Expropriation is the
fans a word for crime when you take things that
belong to the rich people and you say, now they
belong to everyone else. But you don't want to use
(27:06):
the word theft because you want to sound fancy. Get
it right, exactly? Yeah, you want to throw some extra
syllables in there. Okay. So Slim and his friend are
going to rob a bar for the revolution. Okay, so
the straight edge, Yes, probably all right? Um. And they
hatch a completely lousy plan, just a terrible dogship plan. Um. Okay,
(27:35):
here it is. You know, you can see if you
spot the flaw as I describe it. The two of
them go into a bar together. The friend stands at
the bar, has a couple of drinks, and then leaves,
while Slim hides himself away in a dark corner, waits
for the bar to clothes and the staff to lock up.
And go home. Then he comes out and he robs
the till and he passes the money out to his
(27:56):
friend through a crack in the metal window coverings of
this too. Do you see the flaw? Okay, there's two problems.
One is this is how you rob money in the
game Morrow Wind, an old role playing game. If you
want to steal money in that game, you go into
the store and you hit T for weight and then
you just wait for the store to be closed and
then there's no one there and then you can rob it.
(28:18):
And so they doesn't. The other problem is that if
you pass the money through, you're still inside. Yeah, that's correct. Um,
there is no actual plan for showan to get out.
Is in there in the morning with the money gone. Hey,
I must have passed out drunk because I'm not straight edge,
(28:41):
he said, it's yeah, it's it's literally I don't know
what happened to the money. I was passed out the
whole time. It's literally the worst plan. Um, you know
what it feels like to me, It's like, okay, you
know I love heist movies. You know the low point
of a heist movie where it looks like the gang
has been caught you know, and the plans failed, and
then like, oh, what's this. It's the secret part of
(29:02):
the plan they didn't tell the audience about, and everything
is actually fine, and it's so much clever and more
complicated than you realized that. Like, actually the crew was
the swat team, you know, they forgot to do that part.
Oh no, they didn't secretly own the bar. No, they
forgot to do the twist. No understanding of the narrative
conventions of heists. It's embarrassing. Actually, now the bar also
(29:28):
claims that they stole about three times as much as
stole M says he stole, and he has no way
to dispute that. So he's charged with you know, because
it's gone. So he's charged with stealing more money than
he did. But importantly, he does not give up the
name of the friend, you know, the one who took
zero risk and left him locked inside the bar all
(29:49):
night to be arrested in the morning. It was probably
his idea, so you know what, schwartz bart idea. So
the friend. Yeah, this has young idealist idea written it
for it. But this is actually pretty huge because there's
very good reason to think that the friend is a
guy known to history as Peter the Painter. Margaret, have
(30:09):
you heard of Peter the Painter. I've heard the name,
but I I don't know. Tell me who Peter the
Painter is. He's hanging out with Comrade Sophia. Okay, so
this is this is going to be kind of a
lengthy sidebar because this story really has nothing to do
with the rest of the story. But I think it's
very cool, so I'd like to real quick talk about it.
Peter the Painter's real name is maybe Janice Shocklish, maybe not.
(30:34):
We don't actually know who he was or where exactly
he came from. We know he was a Latvian anarchist
who moved to London sometime after this whole bar heist thing,
which is where history really catches his scent. Is he
a painter? See? I didn't do a deep dive on him,
because you know, this is sulm story, not Peter's. But
I could not figure out why he was called Peter
(30:55):
the Painter. Somebody with like more time on their hands
than they can figure out why he was called Peter
the paint What a punk name, right, Like, I'm Peter
the Painter, but your name is not Peter, Yeah, I'm
not a painter either, and then like that's like funny
the first time you have to say it, but then
you have to say it six times a night for
the rest of your life. But you keep up the bit, okay. Yeah.
(31:17):
So he joins the London based Latin and anarchist group
that pulled off expropriations and when they were caught busting
into a jewelers in nineteen eleven, they killed not one,
not two, but three cops. Um A lot of people
think Peter specifically is the one who killed them. I
have no idea, neither does anyone else. He was definitely
(31:38):
there at the time. Now, as you can imagine, this
started a major man hunt, which was a problem for
the London police because they were looking for a Latvian
gang based in a Russian Jewish neighborhood and they did
not have anyone on the forest who spoke Latvian, Yiddish
or Russian. After Tommy very so, two members of the
(31:59):
gang ended up hold up in a house and seven
hundred and fifty cops as well as the then Interior Minister,
Winston fucking Churchill showed up, so lay siege to the
place and they exchanged some gunshots, and after about seven hours,
the house burned down under unclear circumstances and both anarchists
(32:22):
inside were killed. Um Winston Churchill personally gave the order
to the fire department to let the building burn down,
just in case you needed another reason to hate that
fucking guy. Damn Peter the Painter. Well, Peter the Painter
was not one of the guys who died in the fire.
What and he was not arrested after this, He just vanished. Yes,
(32:46):
it happened to him after that. Yeah, Peter the Painters
still with us. He could be here right now. It
could be me. Who knows, I mean comrades Sophie has
clearly Sophie. I wasn't going to say it, but sorry,
security culture. Okay, none of you heard that talks in me.
That's cool. Um m m mmm mm hmmm. Also, no
(33:17):
Sophie's Sophie's never claimed to be Sophia's, so their rivalry there.
Uh I guess, So does that mean you're Peter the Painter?
Oh ship you figured it out? Well, this is awkward,
can edit this out? Yeah? Maybe the London police are
definitely still looking for you. Yeah, so anyway, well so actually,
(33:43):
so he becomes a legend, right does this like elusive criminal,
slash rebel. There's a yeah, slash possibly a painter. Um,
there's actually a gun that like is supposed to be
the gun that the type of gun that he used
becomes known as the Peter the Painter in I think
the ira Um you would know better than me. Irish
(34:04):
conflict in the nineteen twenties, the Civil War, the Revolution,
the Civil War. Okay, yes, but there's a gun named
after him as this like random cool guy who killed
three English police officers painting the walls with blood. I'm
are right, that's um, that's how Peter the Painter got
his name. Okay, so this was maybe the guy. Sorry wait,
(34:27):
wait wait, I'm not done the Painter's legacy. I'm sorry
all right, Because in two thousand and eight there were
two tower blocks built in London and they were named
Peter House and Painter House, and the London police were
fucking furious because of a mean fair enough, but like
because because they were like a hundred years ago, this
guy killed three of us, and everyone else was like, well,
(34:50):
we don't know for sure that he killed any cops.
He's a folk here, leave us alone a cab. You know,
I could have been his two friends who he was
in codes he died in a fire. So they don't
they don't listen to the London cops and they just
make Peter House and Painter House, which I think is
really nice. Um, so yeah, that is the guy allegedly
(35:11):
show him did this absolutely bird brained robbery with Yeah,
I mean, Peter the Painter does not have a good
success rate. Let's be real, getting away, it is not
a very good idea to do crime with Peter the Painter. No,
it is a very good idea to be Peter the
Painter if you are doing crime, because he will get
out of there, he will be absolutely fine. His comrades
(35:32):
will end up in jail or burned alive. But you know,
all right, so shol him doesn't give up his name
and served four months hard labor, okay, which I think
he's sort of fine with because he's like, well, it's
not money, and I'm trying to pay back the money, yeah,
to the to the movement. So like it's basically free
to do four months hard labor. So once he's out,
(35:55):
it's hard to find work, um, you know, which is
a familiar story for people getting of incarceration. So you know,
he goes wandering again. He does odd jobs, eventually winds
up in the Carpathian Mountains, where two things happen, first,
as he starts writing poetry, and the second, probably not coincidentally,
as he falls in love his second love. Yeah, his
(36:18):
second love. It also doesn't work out. The woman he's
fallen in love with has a family that finds his
level of piety inadequate. Um, you know, which I think
is harsh. He's very pious. You know he can do better. Yeah,
she's missing it. Yeah, they don't know what they're missing
in a sun outlaw. So you know, he leaves feeling
(36:40):
all bitter and romantic, and he keeps writing poetry because
feeling bitter and romantic has to be good for something.
I'm not going to share any of his poetry at
this moment, but I will later. I think it's nice.
I think it's good. People say meaning about his way
to dangle that carrot in front of her face. Some
people an mean about his poetry. I'm not going to
(37:01):
be mean about his poetry. People about people, Yeah, people
are really mean about Louise Michelle's poetry Absolute dicks, just
UM and actually Um one of the people that I
mentioned who helped me out with the research for this.
Um and Lena Tauris has a forthcoming book that will
be linked in the show notes that will include translations
(37:23):
of more of his poetry. That is, so if you're
like I want to hear more of that, that's how
you can follow up. It's called oh Noetry by Peter
the Painter's Front, Peter the Painter's Friend. So during this
round of travels he meets for the first time Zionists.
(37:46):
Don't don't bo he is not a Zionist, you know,
he's an anarchist. He's very much a Jewish nationalist, but
he's against the formation of a nation state. And there's
kind this weird thing going on where Zionists like him
because he's a Jewish nationalist, but when they publish his
work sometimes they just cut out anti Zionist parts of
(38:09):
it that would suck so much, right, and his biographer
Kelly Johnson describes his relationship with them as indicative of
his quote openness to political persuasions different from his own,
which he super needed because he occupies a political position
that is at the overlapping of so many different ven
(38:29):
diagram circles that it's it's basically just him in there. Um.
You know, other anarchists are put off by his Jewish nationalism,
Other Jewish naturalists are put off by his anarchism. Religious
Jews are put off by his anarchism, and anarchists are
put off by his religiousness. You know. So it's like
and then everyone's put off by his poetry. No, I
haven't read it, um. And so basically the only person
(38:54):
whose beliefs sold them will mostly identify with um is
a man who will later become his mentor, Rabbi yak
of Salkin. He's not actually in the story at this
point in the store, but I just want to bring
him up because we're talking about his beliefs. Everyone should
read more about him, um. Again. Torres has an essay
about him available online. Zalkin actually started out as a Zionist,
(39:16):
but then he became an anarchist. And while he retained
a desire to create a stateless community of Jews, Arabs
and everyone else in Palestine, Um, he writes that because
Zion He later writes that because Zion is a displaced people,
to make a home for Jewish refugees. Quote. Our first
step into the realm of colonialistic ethics is a mark
of shame for the Jews, which can never be washed off.
It is the blackest blood to have been written into
(39:38):
the black history of colonial politics, a crime of which
the conquistadors of America would barely have been able. Damn.
Subtleties for cowards, Subtleties for cowards. Zalkind also once broke
his cane over some Nazis. Um. Yeah. He takes a
mystical and revolutionary approach to Judy, a some which sees
(40:00):
anarchism is a fundamental aspect of Jewish tradition and teaching,
which I dig, even though I'm not particularly into mysticism.
I think it's very cool. And I bring up zalkindin
Sholem's you know, fairly unpopular at the time beliefs, because
I think there's a lot for contemporary people, especially contemporary
Jewish radicals, in their thinking if I can sort of
(40:22):
do inside baseball on anarchist Jews for a second here. Yeah,
I recently saw a scholar of Jewish anarchism comment that
contemporary Jewish anarchists seemed to be turning back towards religion,
engaging with Jewish religious thought and ritual a lot more
than say, Emma Goldman's generation did Friend of the Pod
if you want, if anyone wants to know Emma Goldman,
(40:44):
as the birth Control episode talks about her absolute friend
of the Pod, she will return later in this story.
You know. But but that that shift was kind of
framed as a betrial, like the anarchists, you know, who
famously held balls and picnics on Young Kippur would be
disappoint did in their philosophical descendence for re engaging with religion.
And I disagree. You know, firstly, I think it would
(41:05):
be way more disappointing if we just imitated our predecessors.
Like that's just being prisoners to a different tradition. Um,
I think it's our obligation to our anarchists forbears, not
to turn them into the authorities that they hated, and like,
it makes a ton of sense to me that we
have a different relationship to Jewish religious practice because people
like Emma Goldman grew up oppressed. Damn it, Margaret, sorry,
(41:30):
let's continue. You know, they grew up oppressed by their
communities religion in a very real way, Like I think
you talked about this in the birth control episode that
you know, her father told her. You know, all a
Jewish girl needs to know how to do is make
a filter fish and pop out babies, right, And like,
when that's the version of a religion that you grew
up with, it makes sense to rebel against it. And
(41:52):
many contemporary Jewish anarchists, like including me, we grew up
in liberal, secular Jewish homes and so a lot of
us weren't a pressed by Jewish tradition. And you know,
especially in a post Holocaust environments, a lot of the
turning away from Jewish culture that was popular in the
early twentieth century feels less like liberation and more like assimilation. So,
(42:12):
you know, as an atheist anarchist Jew, I think they're
basically infinite ways to be an anarchist Jew, which rules
and Zalkin and Schwartzward offer a really interesting example of
some ways to do that, you know, not my way
exactly because they believe in God, but still an interesting
thing I think people will relate to. And you know
who else offers a really interesting way to be an
(42:32):
anarchist Jew clocks exactly, and other goods and services. We're
so good at this, We're like, we're fucking pros. Yeah,
we're really good at add transitions were co signing professionals
love to see it. You know who else likes to
be paid for their labor? Everybody? Uh, here's some advertisements.
(43:07):
We are back and we are talking about the devices
that slowly tick forward, reminding us of our doom clocks.
You mean, devices that progress ever forward, bringing about the
inevitability of revolution Marxist clocks. Yeah, I guess so what
you're saying about this like ritual stuff is it actually
(43:28):
is really interesting to me because I think that that
is one of the things I've noticed that I'm not Jewish.
People probably are aware of that, but I've noticed that
with a lot of the more religious radicals, like not
like radically religious, but the people who are radical, who
who um are religious or care about their like um
religious cultural backgrounds and things like that. It's just really
(43:50):
interesting to me because, yeah, people are coming from just
completely different contexts, and I really appreciate that people are
applying their current context to a situation and stead of
just kind of yeah, blindly saying, well, someone from the
nineteenth century, I said I have to do this, so
I have to do that. I just reiterated what you said,
but it sounded really clever when I said it. No,
(44:12):
but I mean, I'm glad that it has like some
residents for people coming from other religious and cultural traditions.
That's you know. I think there's a lot here for
people who are coming from wherever. I think everyone should
read more about these traditions. I think they're great. Or
when in doubt, just break your cane over Nazis. I
mean always, if you can't figure out the rest of
(44:34):
the ship, just break your cane over Nazis. We should,
I should add. I super don't have time to get
into it. But there is good reason to think that
Sholem didn't spend his whole life believing in God. Based
on private correspondence is that I don't really have access
to because the dual lingo owl has not yet gotten
me to like that point of Yiddish fluency that the
(44:54):
talking about h v uh ussan politics level. Yeah, you know, okay,
this isevik debate is not adequately cover Hi, my my
parts of my family speak check. But I didn't really
(45:14):
grow up speaking it. So when I got to college,
I took a class and like tried to learn check.
And I was giving a report in class in check
on Jon Huss, which was who was a famous check heretic.
And then the professor Lake started asking me questions and
I realized I was supposed to be explaining transubstantiation in
(45:35):
check when I don't even understand it in English. No
one does. It's like it was like so bred people
cannibalism in check. It was very uh, very embarrassing. Any
other embarrassing stories that you would like to tell right now?
(45:58):
It's just us. That's all I've got. Anyway. Yeah, I'd
love to do more research on like shol Him's personal beliefs,
but uh, I didn't, so I'm kind of going with
like publicly, he really always expressed belief in God. So
so around this time, Slan goes to Paris. He spends
(46:20):
four years there and he spends the entire time outside
of jail. Who yeah, pretty good run. He also meets
a woman named Anna. She is a Jewish immigrant from Odessa.
They hit it off, fall in love, and shol Him
of course writes home to his father to tell him
(46:41):
about this wonderful girl that he's met, But then like
halfway through the letter, he changes the subject to how
he's thinking of starting a group to take vengeance on
behalf of Jews murdered in pogroms. H for what to quote?
For one drop of innocent blood, for one violated Jewish girl,
we will destroy all their cities are motto tremble for
(47:02):
a day is coming, an ominous day of reckoning for
all bloodthirsty beasts. I I hope as long as Anna
is cool with this, this just rules. If Anna feels
a little bit like sidelined, it's not so great. But
if Anna's down such bad news about that, No, don't
sideline Anna Schwartz part you must be perfect in every way.
(47:23):
This is uncomplicated. Cool people with Margaret and Miriam. Are
you reading my script? Because like literally the next paragraph
is about how he sidelines Ata. Okay, fine, tell me
about how he sidelines Anna. You can't have nice things
because of patriarchy. I know, it's it's the worst. So
at this point, he's twenty eight, he's got no sense
(47:45):
of self preservation, and the First World War breaks out?
Does he join? Is he? Is he Team krip Popkin?
That is all? Are you reading my script? Okay? So, um,
he marries Anna and then he immediately volunteers to fight. Yeah,
Anna is not happy about this, which is going to
(48:06):
become a pattern because he makes major decisions without consulting
her and then asked fucking baffled when she responds with
anything but unbridled support and hero worship. Motherfucker. All right.
It's it's absolutely a theme of historical anarchists that while
they sound like brad people, they also sound like absolutely
terrible partners. I wish you were an exception. He is not.
(48:28):
But Margaret, since you bring it up, can you tell
us how anarchists felt about World War One? I only
kind of get got into this because it's it's like
a part of the history that like, isn't really cool
people died cool stuff. It's messy stuff that messy people
felt messy about. But there was this whole big split where, um,
half the people, half the anarchists, were like, we need
(48:50):
to stay that goddamn over loving funk out of this
war because this is a war between nation states and
past not passivism, but antimilitarism is the only useful response.
And there was another half, most notably led by Prince
Peter Kropotkin, who I believe first came up in our
Nihilist episode Friend of the pot Yeah, and he's like
one of the He had a lot of cool stuff
(49:10):
like evolution and and all this, but he was like, well,
Germany is being bad, and stopping Germany is good, and
and I mostly know about it because people try to
draw parallels to Russia invasion of Ukraine and all this stuff.
I am not trying to opine about this. I have
(49:30):
no opinion about this. I haven't looked into it enough. Miriam.
Take on World War One, I know I'm about I
could have bad hot takes about other stuff. Um uh,
potato is the better way to pronounce it? Controversial? Yeah,
that's how you pronounced World War One, all right, Miriam. Yeah,
(49:58):
so I I My understanding of KRP. P. Hopkins position
here is that in addition to like Germany is being bad,
he was basically like, France is right now the best
bastion of liberty we have got because they're like a
republic or whatever. Yeah whatever, yeah, something like that. Um
so it's it's very important to prevent it from being
occupied by an imperial power. And that's basically the page
(50:19):
that shalim is on um and but it was like
a little more complicated. He also wanted to join because
he wanted to prove that Jews were willing to fight,
which you know we've we've seen has been important to him. Sure,
I mean fight what, just fight anything. I guess that guy,
that guy, yeah, funk that guy. I mean, I guess
(50:43):
Germany was invading a country anyway. Yeah, yeah, I mean
I think like most people, um could look at this
situation and be like, well, we know which side is
wrong here, Um, it's just a little harder to find
decide that's right. Yeah, m hm, you know. So, basically
he thinks defending France from German militarism is more important
than remaining antimilitarist himself. But that does not stop him
(51:07):
from being, you know, deeply critical of the side he's on.
He's in the foreign legion because he's not a citizen um.
And he says of the average professional legionary who he's
fighting alongside in their work civilizing, civilizing is in quotes
the quiet inhabitants of Africa, killing the men, raping the women,
and through various military reports, they reach a certain rank
(51:28):
become a corporal and receive a Copper Soldiers medal. This
is the sum of their morality, I mean, And it's
so interesting, right because this is like France is a
colonial power, right, it's just not he didn't colonize another
country in Europe just now, right, And he recognizes, right,
He's like, these guys are colonial pieces of ship and
I'd hate them, and he even I mean, I think
(51:52):
it's kind of notable that, like his disgusted description of
French colonialism in Africa uses fairly similar language to how
he discribes pogroms yeah elsewhere. So I mean it's pretty
clear he feels more solidarity with the victims of colonization
than the guys that he's fighting alongside. Right, but he
still fights a lot. He didn't go volunteer to go
(52:13):
fight the French in Africa volunteer. I'm not trying to
I'm a little bit trying to drag him, but like
it's just like this interesting blood valid Yeah, like he
recognizes that what that you know, the whole idea of Potkinstle,
idea that like France's this bastion of liberty is like
is it um you know maybe in France, but um, yeah,
(52:37):
he he recognizes that, but like also really wants to
go fight or really thinks he should go fight. Yeah, nefect, Yeah,
But um, I think we're going to have to leave
it there for now because, um, the next chapter on
(53:00):
my outline here is more experience and we're going to
get into some World War one ship and poetry. Cool.
So when we return World War one ship. No, Margaret,
I know what you're thinking. We haven't talked about assassination
at all. You're right, it's going to be a minute,
but it's coming. I swear I didn't just say assassination
(53:22):
to like get you interested. It is definitely going to happen. Now.
You said clocks to get me interested, and there's been flocks.
The clocks are always in the background. There're always taken
away in the background, paying for paying for Sholem's like
continued existence. And and speaking of clocks, it's about that
(53:42):
time pluga goals I hate myself are Margaret? Do you
do you happen to have a book that's out that
people can purchase? Why? Yes, I have a book called
we Won't Be Here Tomorrow that is available from a
K Press. It's short fiction. If you've listened to any
other episode this podcast. You've heard me talk about it,
and you can follow me on the internet by looking
(54:04):
in my name. Up cool Miriam, really good Miriam. Is
anything you'd like to plug? Um? I encourage people to
go to land back dot org and um, there's some
really cool education resources there and also, um, you can
give them some money and they can work on land
back projects. Awesome. Alright, then until Wednesday. Until Wednesday, I'm
(54:31):
going to go away for several days and then talk
to you more. That's right. We aren't just going to
record the second half after a five minute break half
five minute break for us two long break for you
by Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff is a production
(54:52):
of cool Zone Media. For more podcasts on cool Zone Media,
visit our website cool zone media dot com, or check
us out on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts. M
Hello, and welcome to Cool People who did cool stuff.
Your podcast about the stuff that I already said. And
I love making that joke every week, but it is
what it is. I'm your host, Margaret Kiljoy, and every
week I bring to you a story about rebels and
radicals and pirates and things like that. Uh. This week,
(00:20):
I am excited about a returning guest, Miriam Rocheck. Miriam, Miriam,
how are you doing today? I'm doing okay. Happy to
be back. Miriam. Is it fun that every time I
introduce you on this podcast I claim that the only
thing that you've done of note is that you used
to be a tall ship sailor and at one point
you all hijacked your own boat because you weren't getting paid,
(00:43):
and then started running the tours yourself. Um, you know,
I think it's it's good to lead with my strengths,
and my history of piracy is definitely that. Yeah, not
the fact that you save people for a living, any
of that stuff. And also with us is the voice
(01:05):
of Sophie Hello, that's not that is not your usual voice,
my voice. Hello. I feel like I like my caffeine
intake today is either too much or too little, and
I don't know what it is, so this will be
fun for everybody. Well, there's only one way to attempt
to fix that problem, and that's more caffeine, because you
(01:26):
can't take less caffeine. Yeah. Yeah, we'll see how this goes,
friends away. So today I want to tell you a
story about black Beard. Black Beard the Pirate. Who a
vast stop right there, I am hijacking this podcast. Oh no,
(01:50):
I'm seizing the means of podcast production. I'm taking over.
I'm going to tell you a story this time. Yay,
that's good. I didn't know that much about black Beard. Um,
you've you've probably seen the Gay Pirate Show. You could
have faked it. Yeah, no, totally. That was pretty much
my plan until you interrupted. I mean this was completely unscripted. Wow,
I'm so surprised my podcast has been hijacked. Yes, we
(02:12):
haven't been planning this for months. All right, we're very
good at fiction. You're you are actually good at fiction. Um,
this is about all the fiction I can handle producing.
So now that I've taken control, Margaret, have you ever
heard of a guy named Suleim schwartz Bard, a name
that coincidenceally means Blackbeard in Yiddish. I have only heard
(02:38):
the shortest cliff notes version of of this man. I
think when you say cliff notes version, you mean that
you've been around me when I've consumed alcohol. Yes, you've
heard me talking about Slim schwartz Bard. Because if I'm drunk,
I'm talking about Slim swarts Bard. Today I am stone cold, sober,
(03:01):
and I'm going to tell you a lot about Sholim
schwartz Bart because he deserves more than my drunken ramblings
at people who are being very polite at me. So.
He was an early twentieth century clockmaker. He was a
Yiddish poet, and he was also an anarchist, a veteran
of two wars, a community self defense organizer, and a
(03:22):
remarkably successful one hit wonder assassin and avatar of Jewish vengeance.
I yeah, I think you're gonna like him. Actually, I
think he was a cool person and I think he
did some cool stuff. Um. Before I start, I want
to say I am hugely indebted to the work of
Kelly Johnson, who did a dissertation called Sholem Schwartzbart Biography
(03:43):
of a Jewish Assassin, which was available online. UM, and
that has been my main source for info on Sholem's life.
I also want to thank Anna Elena Tarres, a poet,
scholar of you To studies and anarchists history, who was
incredibly helpful and kind. Eliua d Am and Karen Finlayson
were also very kind and helpful, UM in terms of
(04:04):
helping me get translated versions of Sholem's work. I also
want to say I'm not at any kind of basic
level pro assassination. UM. I think assassination is often not
a good strategy broadly speaking. UM. There are exceptions, and
I think this story is one of them, which I
will make a case for when we get to that part.
But for both legal and actual reasons, UM, this podcast
(04:28):
should not be taken as an endorsement of assassins, although
it should be taken as an endorsement of Stephen Sondheim's Assassins.
Is that the play, Yeah, it's musical, it's really good.
That's how anyone it knows who show gosh is. That's
why people know how to pronounce choal gosh. That's why
everyone else knew how to pronounce shal gosh. It's because
(04:51):
you need more musical theater in your life. Margaret, Actually
that's not true. But you know we will, Okay, but
but claw this man as a clockmaker. He is, But
we're going to actually start when this man is a baby.
He was born to it's a Kayah schwartz Bard in
the town of Ismail and what is now Ukraine in
(05:13):
eight six, Just two years later, there's a Czarus decree
banning all Jews from the area. So his family left
and headed to the city of Balta, which was where
they were originally from. But they've left. Guess why? Program?
It was a program. Um, So if you're counting everything,
not the answer it the sad answer. The reason. Yeah,
(05:36):
it's it's going to come up a lot. So they
had left in two due to a program. So um,
you know, if you're counting, that's six years and two
moves due to anti Semitic violence for Slim's family. But
this moment here, at age two, as far as I
can tell, it marks the absolutely last time Sholem runs
(05:57):
from anti semitism. Um. From here on out, it's all fighting.
He did not have fond memories of growing up in Balta.
He was actually very frustrated by the local Jewish community.
He thought they were too urban and insufficiently focused on
Jewish thought and religion. Um. He was like, and I'm
paraphrasing from his own writing here, this place sucks. We
(06:18):
don't even have any notable rabbinical scholars here, which was
how I felt about. I enjoyed that voice over thank you.
That's my that's my surly teen voice. And I can
relate because that's how I felt about as my hometown
is about my hometown as a kid, except instead of
notable rabbinical scholars, it was all ages punk shows, but
(06:40):
like you know, potato potato, yeah, exactly. The big advantage
of being back in Balta was that that was where
It's San Kaia's extended families were, so there was a
big community for them there. The family dynamics are actually
very messy, um, irrelevant. I'm not going to get into it.
There's like eighteen people named Schmool and I'm just not
We're not going to get into it. Slim's mother Kaya
(07:02):
supported her family with a seltzer business, which, apart from
a story that gets confusing because of how many people
named Schmueller in it, is the most Jewish fucking thing
I've ever heard. Yeah, Kai actually died when Slim was
still young. Um and his father remarried, and at ten
years old he got pulled out of religious school, which
he had loved. And Chilian's relationship with Judaism and Jewishness
(07:25):
are pretty unique for his time and place, and that
kind of starts here because Jewish texts were hugely important
to him, but they were also something that he had
been deprived of. UM, So his rebellion later in life
managed to be against tradition but not against religion. Huh yeah, yeah,
it's kind of fascinating to me. We can talk about
it more later when we get to like what his
(07:46):
beliefs ended up being. But he never got the full
religious experience, so it wasn't something he felt the need
to rebel against. And it's it's actually something I think
a lot of radical Jews today might find resonent. But uh,
like I said, we can get into that later. Once
he's pulled out of school, he gets apprentice to a clockmaker,
old fashioned apprenticeship. He works for this clockmaker, including doing
(08:08):
chores around the house in exchange for training room, and
is the room like behind a secret puzzle wall where
the once the clock like chimes a certain thing. Then
the door swings open and you only have like a
few moments to get in and out. It's more of
a cuckoo clock situation. You know. His bed is on
like a giant spring, and at a certain hour it
(08:30):
just shoots out and he's at work. Yeah, I'm glad
you asked about that. Actually, I forgot to mention it.
What he does not have? Um, he does not get paid,
and he is a grumpy teen about it. He uses
the voice I was using before, which I that's like understandable.
I don't think anyone asked him how he felt about,
you know, an apprentice. Wi, am I doing this labor
(08:51):
and not getting paid? Yes, that's yeah, and um, funny
you should mention that you might have some feelings about
that later. M He did learn how to make clots though,
which is going to end up being his main job
for the next few decades. Speaking of feelings about the
compensation for your labor. Pretty at sixteen, So you know,
(09:13):
a few years later, someone invites to him to a
socialist meeting and he learns about a little thing called Marxism,
and he's on board. He's fully in. He dives it
right in. But what he doesn't do is let go
of his religious beliefs, which is a little unusual. You know,
most leftist radicals then as now our secular or atheist.
(09:33):
And he just decides God's on the side of the socialists.
M pisss off the other socialists. He actually says that
one spat in his face and refused to talk to
him after learning he believed in God. It look a
bit much right, exactly, They never change, but don't worry.
(09:53):
He also went into Jewish religious spaces and offered radical
socialist interpretations of sacred texts, which fists everyone off there too,
So it's it's the same everywhere. He's making friends exactly
nowhere with this. Over the years, he's taking on more
of a leading role in the local socialist scene. When
at nineteen, he makes a trip to Odessa, you know,
(10:14):
which is the big city, and he brings back some
extremely illegal radical socialist leaflets which he quietly distributes among
trusted comrades. Sorry, just getting he nails one to the
fucking door of the local noble estate. Okay, because apart
from Judaism and socialism, one of his most cherished beliefs
(10:36):
is that subtlety is for cowards. So pretty soon after this,
he's out on the street and here's a mob of
drunk Russian soldiers forming up to attack the town's Jews.
So he retreats and gathers a group of sympathetic comrades,
(10:57):
including experienced fighters, and forms a strategy. Too. Sorry, I'm
kidding again. He ran at the group all on his
own and just started wailing on them with a club
that he called his socialist stick, and he got the
absolute ship beating out of him. But it actually works
because they were like looking for Jews who were not
(11:18):
going to fight back, and so after you know, meeting
at least this much resistance from like one extremely fearless
teenager with a stick, they're like, maybe not, they fucked
off and they left the other Jews alone. So the
way to interrupt bigoted violence in this case is to
go hit people with a big stick. While it worked
for him. Yeah, no, I'm no, notes that sounds sarcastic,
(11:41):
but I'm actually just excited about this, all right. Yeah,
so fighting anti Semitism physically is part of his politics
and even part of his religion. Um years later, he
compares himself to Moses, describing how in another occasion he
used a stick to beat soldiers because he did that
a lot who were attacking an old Jewish man. And
and he said, I showed that a rod was not
(12:02):
only created to split the sea, but also to split
the heads of hooligan's cool. I like black beards so far.
Yeah right, he fucking rules. I like this guy very much,
greater black Beard. We'll call him, oh, far and away,
far and away, the better black Beard. Now around this time,
(12:25):
he gets his hands on a gun through my absolute
favorite means of all time. He buys it from a
Russian soldier. M hm. Now, Margaret, you and I have
talked about the whole issue of soldiers selling their guns
back in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising episode. But what makes
this instant a little different is he buys it from
(12:47):
one of the soldiers who had been sent to arrest,
specifically him and his comrades. I have literally no idea
how this went down. I assume the guy showed up
and was like, you're under arrest and show him was like, nah, man,
that's not going to work for me. Cool gun, though,
(13:07):
you know, guys just like, oh, this whole thing for you,
twenty rubles at whatever they had um. So he's got
a gun. Now the Russian soldier was there to arrest him,
doesn't arrest I don't. I do not know how this happened.
But yeah, I mean, you're not going to successfully arrest
(13:28):
the guy after you sell him your gun. Right, shifted
in a fundamental way, absolutely, and now you have drinking money.
So what are you doing arresting this guy? Anyway? You're
gonna go to have some fun. Yeah, okay, works for everybody, right,
And I have to say, you know, as with a
lot of stuff show him does in this story, I
(13:49):
don't necessarily recommend this approach like it worked for him.
You can't imagine it working for any of people. I know,
can't imagine it working for me. But works out for him.
He goes back to Balta where his family is, and
he can just tell that a pot girl mis coming,
you know, because like Jews in early twentieth century Russia,
(14:10):
Russian occupied land, like had a pretty specific spiky sense
about that. I think, I mean, it might have just
been always on. I was gonna say, you're what you're
describing sounds like a supernatural spiky sense situation. Yeah, I mean,
I can't say like my own anti Semitism senses are
(14:30):
that finely honed, but like there is a definite vibe
alarm that goes off in my head sometimes. Um. I
think it's called generational trauma, which is unfortunately not supernatural
and not fun like spidy senses, and does not mean
you can fly from building to building. Well I can,
but that's because the new active spider bite, because con
(14:52):
generational trauma. To know good to know, it's not inherented Judaism,
no fashtag, not all Jews. Correct some people that have
told some things. Okay, anyway, we're always correcting misconceptions around here.
So he organizes a few dozen people for community defense,
(15:16):
and when the program comes, they build barricades and they
tried to fight off the attackers. He's got a cool
new gun. He uses it. Now. Unfortunately, Russian soldiers come
to join the attack. It had been civilians primarily attacking initially.
Russian soldiers come and join, and the resistance fighters end
up being pushed back. Some of them are killed, and
(15:36):
they do fail to stop the program, which obviously sounds
like a defeat to us. Um, but it's much less
devastating than the one that had hit the same place
back in eighty two, and so Solom considers it a
success that like he was able to mitigate the harm
that was done to the Jewish community. What year is
this that was in? Okay, so like around the same
(15:58):
time as there was that revolution thing that almost worked. Yes,
we're going to talk some more about revolutions in this uh,
in this story, but not actually about that one. Sholim
is busy fighting off. Yeah, so he considers it a
success because the harm is like not as much as
(16:19):
as it had been in the past. He also he
fought alongside his dad, who joined him on the barricades,
and he was actually the only one of the observant
Jews in town to join the fight. Everybody else who
joined was like more secular and the observant Jews were
just praying for help during the fighting. And for a
guy with a gun, Sholim was pretty respectful of this choice. Um.
(16:43):
He was actually like kind of impressed by it, I think, Okay,
but he had to be impressed while on the run
because now he's wanted for being a radical and for
being a Jew who shoots at Christians. Um, and he
apparently doesn't have enough money to buy all the guns off,
all the soldiers who were coming after and yeah, all right,
So Insteady skips town he heads to the border of
(17:05):
Austria Hungary. He starts going by Nabat, which means alarm,
because what's a leftist about a youthful phase of going
by a one word random down name. Am I right,
magpie talking about boat face? That was what I went by,
and I went by boat face. Yeah. So he gets
(17:33):
to work as Nabat, smuggling guns, band radical literature and
other people on the run over the border. Yeah. He
also has to get a job, so he finds work
making clocks and like also immediately starts organizing a garment
workers strike because the guy simply cannot help himself. He
gets ratted out to the authorities, though he goes to
(17:54):
jail for a few months. Okay, So now the most
relatable part of the story I think so far is coming.
Pay attention if you if you don't see yourself in
Sholom yet um. I think this is where it's going
to change for a lot of listeners. So, a woman
known to history only as Comrades Sophia had taken an
(18:15):
interest in sholom Um. She had actually been offering to
pay his way to America so he could get away
from the law because she knew he was on the front.
He hadn't taken her up on it because he was like,
no way, better to be arrested Diane Siberia than abandoned
the you know, blah blah blah martyr. This this isn't
the relatable stuff. Don't worry. And she works to get
him released from prison, and he somehow makes parole. You know,
(18:38):
maybe through her efforts. We're not really sure, but you
know he's out and being very good at getting across
the border. By now he gets across the border and
he is in Austria, Hungary when he stops and goes, ah,
she was like into me, you know, like when you're
(19:00):
talking with a girl and then the next thing you know,
you've gotten arrested and done a few months time, gotten paroled,
fled across the border, and then you're like, oh, she
was hitting on me. Yeah, Sholem schwartzword was a lesbian.
That's that's basically my thesis. No counter argument to offer.
So anyway, they do not hook up because he's over
(19:21):
the border. Comrade Sophia, Comrade Sophia. Is there like any
like is this like person like weave their way through
other stuff? Is this like a rich anarchist heiress, like
like who's who's comrade Sophia. I think she's whatever our
imaginations want her to be at this point, because we
know like literally two things about her. One she was
(19:43):
in this time and place, and two she dug sholom.
All right, all right, rich anarchist heiress? Maybe maybe not
maybe rich? Okay, well let's not. We'll make anarchist bank
robber we don't know, yeah, or like, um, maybe like
a gold digger who got the money the through honest
work of gold digging and then turned around and used it.
(20:04):
There's so many possibilities Okay, yeah, options are limitless. Um.
So he did they do? Like I said, they do
not hook up, But he does refer to her as
his first love, which I think is very sweet, also
very like Russian of that era, to be like my
first love who I never really interacted with in any sense,
like yeah, exactly like some letters or whatever, who I
(20:25):
loved from across the border. He actually, he won't come
back to Russia for over a decade. The next time
he comes back to Russia will be for the revolution. Okay,
yeah exactly, But speaking of anarchists. He spunds the next
few years drifting around Austria, Hungary working leading strikes, and
then finally the moment we or you know, I was
(20:48):
gonna say at least I, but I'm sure you too, Margaret,
we're waiting for He becomes an anarchist who he meets
a man named David Haskin who introduced him to the philosophy,
and like, as soon as he is where the anarchism
is an option, he is fully on board, which I
think is what happens to a lot of people. They're like,
oh you can like, yeah, you can do that. Yeah,
(21:10):
that's a choice. I've been trying to make all these
other different cludgy things fit together. Yeah exactly. I've been
trying to reconcile all this stuff, and I can just
be an anarchist. No one can tell me that I
can't believe. Well, some anarchists would probably tell you can't
believe in God, but they don't have the the way
to do that. But do you know who else doesn't
(21:31):
believe in God? Miriam? Um me, uh huh. Some of
the products and services that support this podcast. Do you
really never know what you're going to get? No, I
really don't. It could just be like all Christian ministry ads.
They could all be all Christian ministry ads. It's true. Well,
(21:52):
they need to revise their ad buying algorithm. If that's
the case, they slip they like we we like, We're
able to like kind of like block out categories and
you'd be surprised to see where they what they come
in as labeled as in order to reach audiences that
are totally not interested in them, but they Yeah, it's
(22:13):
that kind of the m O of missionaries. What do
you think that schwartz Bard would pick for a sponsor
for this episode? Clocks Clock was mostly sponsored by clocks,
you know, for a lot of his life, much like
Blackbeard himself. This show is sponsored by clocks, and we
(22:37):
are back, and no one has thought to themselves, I
wonder what else clocks could be used for in a
direct action sense, like timing devices onward. All right, so
when when last we left, Slim had just become an
anarchist UM. So if he gets involved with a group
that is printing and distributing anarchist literature, UM and they
(22:57):
actually pay people for their labor just sick. Yeah, there's
but Shulm actually turns the money down and he helps
them with the money making operation that was supporting this,
you know, zene manufacturing, which is smuggling saccharin like the
chemical sugar substitute. Whoa it is and like it's that Um,
(23:22):
I guess it was that restricted in UM. I don't
know smuggling ring. I have so many questions about the
saccharin smuggling ring. I would have had to have done
a lot of research that I I already did a
lot of research, so I wasn't going to look into
like the economics of illegal saccharin operations. Comrades Sophia got
(23:44):
her money. She does sound pretty sweet, but but with
kind of a weird aftertaste, you know, the weird aftertaste
being like cross border longing. Yeah, exactly. Anyway, I mean,
I'm just picturing it as like a cocaine smuggling operation,
only like they're smuggling bricks of just bake sweetener, which
(24:07):
is just very funny to me. But anyway, while doing this,
he at some point is on the road with somebody's
and they get arrested and detained as a thing I
have also never heard of, um like Sacharin smuggling underage travelers.
Someone with more knowledge of Austro Hungarian imperial lack and
maybe explain this to me. But he's like twenty two
(24:28):
at the time. So apparently it is illegal to be
a twenty something wandering the roads of Austria Hungary. And
I know that a lot of different places in time
there have been I mean, if frankly, like like internal
passport type things where you're not allowed to go from
place to place without certain permissions. I I don't know
this about Austria Hungary and eight. But okay, so there
(24:50):
was just like rules about who could be on the road.
Maybe I don't know. Well, either way, he is not
allowed to be on the road. Um, so he and
his friends spend six weeks in something called an unofficial
jail in the source I looked at. They just didn't
have bribe money on them. Well that that will come back. Um,
(25:14):
So they're they're stuck there for six weeks. They're all
they've all got lice, they're getting sick, and by this
point they're like in serious danger of somebody dying of
their illness before some older prisoner is like, oh, you
actually have to pay for your own release. Nobody told
them that. They just kind of threw them in a cage,
and we're like, figure it out. Unofficial jail is such
(25:35):
a clear example of what actual jail is, just a
light like distilled to the raw bits. It's like how
somebody grabs you when you're walking down the street and
throws you in a vehicle and drives you away. That's kidnapping.
But if a cop does it, it's like arrest. Um. Yeah,
so it's a it's a more obvious example locking people
(26:00):
up in a cage. But so they find out they
need to pay a bribe or a fine because of
fine is just an official bribe for their release. But
obviously they don't have money, so they write to their
you know, zene making smuggling sacrament smuggling anarchist friends, and
they get the money to be let go. Now show
him there's actually cool zone media got it start? Oh nice,
(26:24):
Yeah it was. It was actually this specific publishing ring.
I like it. They took care of their they took
care of their friends. So he feels super bad about
the movement having to waste money getting his ass out
of jail. So he decides he's going to pay them back.
He's having trouble finding work though, probably because of all
(26:44):
the strikes that he keeps organizing everywhere he goes. So
he decides he's going to do an expropriation a crime. Yeah, Margaret,
tell the people what an expropriation is. Expropriation is the
fans a word for crime when you take things that
belong to the rich people and you say, now they
belong to everyone else. But you don't want to use
(27:06):
the word theft because you want to sound fancy. Get
it right, exactly? Yeah, you want to throw some extra
syllables in there. Okay. So Slim and his friend are
going to rob a bar for the revolution. Okay, so
the straight edge, Yes, probably all right? Um. And they
hatch a completely lousy plan, just a terrible dogship plan. Um. Okay,
(27:35):
here it is. You know, you can see if you
spot the flaw as I describe it. The two of
them go into a bar together. The friend stands at
the bar, has a couple of drinks, and then leaves,
while Slim hides himself away in a dark corner, waits
for the bar to clothes and the staff to lock up.
And go home. Then he comes out and he robs
the till and he passes the money out to his
(27:56):
friend through a crack in the metal window coverings of
this too. Do you see the flaw? Okay, there's two problems.
One is this is how you rob money in the
game Morrow Wind, an old role playing game. If you
want to steal money in that game, you go into
the store and you hit T for weight and then
you just wait for the store to be closed and
then there's no one there and then you can rob it.
(28:18):
And so they doesn't. The other problem is that if
you pass the money through, you're still inside. Yeah, that's correct. Um,
there is no actual plan for showan to get out.
Is in there in the morning with the money gone. Hey,
I must have passed out drunk because I'm not straight edge,
(28:41):
he said, it's yeah, it's it's literally I don't know
what happened to the money. I was passed out the
whole time. It's literally the worst plan. Um, you know
what it feels like to me, It's like, okay, you
know I love heist movies. You know the low point
of a heist movie where it looks like the gang
has been caught you know, and the plans failed, and
then like, oh, what's this. It's the secret part of
(29:02):
the plan they didn't tell the audience about, and everything
is actually fine, and it's so much clever and more
complicated than you realized that. Like, actually the crew was
the swat team, you know, they forgot to do that part.
Oh no, they didn't secretly own the bar. No, they
forgot to do the twist. No understanding of the narrative
conventions of heists. It's embarrassing. Actually, now the bar also
(29:28):
claims that they stole about three times as much as
stole M says he stole, and he has no way
to dispute that. So he's charged with you know, because
it's gone. So he's charged with stealing more money than
he did. But importantly, he does not give up the
name of the friend, you know, the one who took
zero risk and left him locked inside the bar all
(29:49):
night to be arrested in the morning. It was probably
his idea, so you know what, schwartz bart idea. So
the friend. Yeah, this has young idealist idea written it
for it. But this is actually pretty huge because there's
very good reason to think that the friend is a
guy known to history as Peter the Painter. Margaret, have
(30:09):
you heard of Peter the Painter. I've heard the name,
but I I don't know. Tell me who Peter the
Painter is. He's hanging out with Comrade Sophia. Okay, so
this is this is going to be kind of a
lengthy sidebar because this story really has nothing to do
with the rest of the story. But I think it's
very cool, so I'd like to real quick talk about it.
Peter the Painter's real name is maybe Janice Shocklish, maybe not.
(30:34):
We don't actually know who he was or where exactly
he came from. We know he was a Latvian anarchist
who moved to London sometime after this whole bar heist thing,
which is where history really catches his scent. Is he
a painter? See? I didn't do a deep dive on him,
because you know, this is sulm story, not Peter's. But
I could not figure out why he was called Peter
(30:55):
the Painter. Somebody with like more time on their hands
than they can figure out why he was called Peter
the paint What a punk name, right, Like, I'm Peter
the Painter, but your name is not Peter, Yeah, I'm
not a painter either, and then like that's like funny
the first time you have to say it, but then
you have to say it six times a night for
the rest of your life. But you keep up the bit, okay. Yeah.
(31:17):
So he joins the London based Latin and anarchist group
that pulled off expropriations and when they were caught busting
into a jewelers in nineteen eleven, they killed not one,
not two, but three cops. Um A lot of people
think Peter specifically is the one who killed them. I
have no idea, neither does anyone else. He was definitely
(31:38):
there at the time. Now, as you can imagine, this
started a major man hunt, which was a problem for
the London police because they were looking for a Latvian
gang based in a Russian Jewish neighborhood and they did
not have anyone on the forest who spoke Latvian, Yiddish
or Russian. After Tommy very so, two members of the
(31:59):
gang ended up hold up in a house and seven
hundred and fifty cops as well as the then Interior Minister,
Winston fucking Churchill showed up, so lay siege to the
place and they exchanged some gunshots, and after about seven hours,
the house burned down under unclear circumstances and both anarchists
(32:22):
inside were killed. Um Winston Churchill personally gave the order
to the fire department to let the building burn down,
just in case you needed another reason to hate that
fucking guy. Damn Peter the Painter. Well, Peter the Painter
was not one of the guys who died in the fire.
What and he was not arrested after this, He just vanished. Yes,
(32:46):
it happened to him after that. Yeah, Peter the Painters
still with us. He could be here right now. It
could be me. Who knows, I mean comrades Sophie has
clearly Sophie. I wasn't going to say it, but sorry,
security culture. Okay, none of you heard that talks in me.
That's cool. Um m m mmm mm hmmm. Also, no
(33:17):
Sophie's Sophie's never claimed to be Sophia's, so their rivalry there.
Uh I guess, So does that mean you're Peter the Painter?
Oh ship you figured it out? Well, this is awkward,
can edit this out? Yeah? Maybe the London police are
definitely still looking for you. Yeah, so anyway, well so actually,
(33:43):
so he becomes a legend, right does this like elusive criminal,
slash rebel. There's a yeah, slash possibly a painter. Um,
there's actually a gun that like is supposed to be
the gun that the type of gun that he used
becomes known as the Peter the Painter in I think
the ira Um you would know better than me. Irish
(34:04):
conflict in the nineteen twenties, the Civil War, the Revolution,
the Civil War. Okay, yes, but there's a gun named
after him as this like random cool guy who killed
three English police officers painting the walls with blood. I'm
are right, that's um, that's how Peter the Painter got
his name. Okay, so this was maybe the guy. Sorry wait,
(34:27):
wait wait, I'm not done the Painter's legacy. I'm sorry
all right, Because in two thousand and eight there were
two tower blocks built in London and they were named
Peter House and Painter House, and the London police were
fucking furious because of a mean fair enough, but like
because because they were like a hundred years ago, this
guy killed three of us, and everyone else was like, well,
(34:50):
we don't know for sure that he killed any cops.
He's a folk here, leave us alone a cab. You know,
I could have been his two friends who he was
in codes he died in a fire. So they don't
they don't listen to the London cops and they just
make Peter House and Painter House, which I think is
really nice. Um, so yeah, that is the guy allegedly
(35:11):
show him did this absolutely bird brained robbery with Yeah,
I mean, Peter the Painter does not have a good
success rate. Let's be real, getting away, it is not
a very good idea to do crime with Peter the Painter. No,
it is a very good idea to be Peter the
Painter if you are doing crime, because he will get
out of there, he will be absolutely fine. His comrades
(35:32):
will end up in jail or burned alive. But you know,
all right, so shol him doesn't give up his name
and served four months hard labor, okay, which I think
he's sort of fine with because he's like, well, it's
not money, and I'm trying to pay back the money, yeah,
to the to the movement. So like it's basically free
to do four months hard labor. So once he's out,
(35:55):
it's hard to find work, um, you know, which is
a familiar story for people getting of incarceration. So you know,
he goes wandering again. He does odd jobs, eventually winds
up in the Carpathian Mountains, where two things happen, first,
as he starts writing poetry, and the second, probably not coincidentally,
as he falls in love his second love. Yeah, his
(36:18):
second love. It also doesn't work out. The woman he's
fallen in love with has a family that finds his
level of piety inadequate. Um, you know, which I think
is harsh. He's very pious. You know he can do better. Yeah,
she's missing it. Yeah, they don't know what they're missing
in a sun outlaw. So you know, he leaves feeling
(36:40):
all bitter and romantic, and he keeps writing poetry because
feeling bitter and romantic has to be good for something.
I'm not going to share any of his poetry at
this moment, but I will later. I think it's nice.
I think it's good. People say meaning about his way
to dangle that carrot in front of her face. Some
people an mean about his poetry. I'm not going to
(37:01):
be mean about his poetry. People about people, Yeah, people
are really mean about Louise Michelle's poetry Absolute dicks, just
UM and actually Um one of the people that I
mentioned who helped me out with the research for this.
Um and Lena Tauris has a forthcoming book that will
be linked in the show notes that will include translations
(37:23):
of more of his poetry. That is, so if you're
like I want to hear more of that, that's how
you can follow up. It's called oh Noetry by Peter
the Painter's Front, Peter the Painter's Friend. So during this
round of travels he meets for the first time Zionists.
(37:46):
Don't don't bo he is not a Zionist, you know,
he's an anarchist. He's very much a Jewish nationalist, but
he's against the formation of a nation state. And there's
kind this weird thing going on where Zionists like him
because he's a Jewish nationalist, but when they publish his
work sometimes they just cut out anti Zionist parts of
(38:09):
it that would suck so much, right, and his biographer
Kelly Johnson describes his relationship with them as indicative of
his quote openness to political persuasions different from his own,
which he super needed because he occupies a political position
that is at the overlapping of so many different ven
(38:29):
diagram circles that it's it's basically just him in there. Um.
You know, other anarchists are put off by his Jewish nationalism,
Other Jewish naturalists are put off by his anarchism. Religious
Jews are put off by his anarchism, and anarchists are
put off by his religiousness. You know. So it's like
and then everyone's put off by his poetry. No, I
haven't read it, um. And so basically the only person
(38:54):
whose beliefs sold them will mostly identify with um is
a man who will later become his mentor, Rabbi yak
of Salkin. He's not actually in the story at this
point in the store, but I just want to bring
him up because we're talking about his beliefs. Everyone should
read more about him, um. Again. Torres has an essay
about him available online. Zalkin actually started out as a Zionist,
(39:16):
but then he became an anarchist. And while he retained
a desire to create a stateless community of Jews, Arabs
and everyone else in Palestine, Um, he writes that because
Zion He later writes that because Zion is a displaced people,
to make a home for Jewish refugees. Quote. Our first
step into the realm of colonialistic ethics is a mark
of shame for the Jews, which can never be washed off.
It is the blackest blood to have been written into
(39:38):
the black history of colonial politics, a crime of which
the conquistadors of America would barely have been able. Damn.
Subtleties for cowards, Subtleties for cowards. Zalkind also once broke
his cane over some Nazis. Um. Yeah. He takes a
mystical and revolutionary approach to Judy, a some which sees
(40:00):
anarchism is a fundamental aspect of Jewish tradition and teaching,
which I dig, even though I'm not particularly into mysticism.
I think it's very cool. And I bring up zalkindin
Sholem's you know, fairly unpopular at the time beliefs, because
I think there's a lot for contemporary people, especially contemporary
Jewish radicals, in their thinking if I can sort of
(40:22):
do inside baseball on anarchist Jews for a second here. Yeah,
I recently saw a scholar of Jewish anarchism comment that
contemporary Jewish anarchists seemed to be turning back towards religion,
engaging with Jewish religious thought and ritual a lot more
than say, Emma Goldman's generation did Friend of the Pod
if you want, if anyone wants to know Emma Goldman,
(40:44):
as the birth Control episode talks about her absolute friend
of the Pod, she will return later in this story.
You know. But but that that shift was kind of
framed as a betrial, like the anarchists, you know, who
famously held balls and picnics on Young Kippur would be
disappoint did in their philosophical descendence for re engaging with religion.
And I disagree. You know, firstly, I think it would
(41:05):
be way more disappointing if we just imitated our predecessors.
Like that's just being prisoners to a different tradition. Um,
I think it's our obligation to our anarchists forbears, not
to turn them into the authorities that they hated, and like,
it makes a ton of sense to me that we
have a different relationship to Jewish religious practice because people
like Emma Goldman grew up oppressed. Damn it, Margaret, sorry,
(41:30):
let's continue. You know, they grew up oppressed by their
communities religion in a very real way, Like I think
you talked about this in the birth control episode that
you know, her father told her. You know, all a
Jewish girl needs to know how to do is make
a filter fish and pop out babies, right, And like,
when that's the version of a religion that you grew
up with, it makes sense to rebel against it. And
(41:52):
many contemporary Jewish anarchists, like including me, we grew up
in liberal, secular Jewish homes and so a lot of
us weren't a pressed by Jewish tradition. And you know,
especially in a post Holocaust environments, a lot of the
turning away from Jewish culture that was popular in the
early twentieth century feels less like liberation and more like assimilation. So,
(42:12):
you know, as an atheist anarchist Jew, I think they're
basically infinite ways to be an anarchist Jew, which rules
and Zalkin and Schwartzward offer a really interesting example of
some ways to do that, you know, not my way
exactly because they believe in God, but still an interesting
thing I think people will relate to. And you know
who else offers a really interesting way to be an
(42:32):
anarchist Jew clocks exactly, and other goods and services. We're
so good at this, We're like, we're fucking pros. Yeah,
we're really good at add transitions were co signing professionals
love to see it. You know who else likes to
be paid for their labor? Everybody? Uh, here's some advertisements.
(43:07):
We are back and we are talking about the devices
that slowly tick forward, reminding us of our doom clocks.
You mean, devices that progress ever forward, bringing about the
inevitability of revolution Marxist clocks. Yeah, I guess so what
you're saying about this like ritual stuff is it actually
(43:28):
is really interesting to me because I think that that
is one of the things I've noticed that I'm not Jewish.
People probably are aware of that, but I've noticed that
with a lot of the more religious radicals, like not
like radically religious, but the people who are radical, who
who um are religious or care about their like um
religious cultural backgrounds and things like that. It's just really
(43:50):
interesting to me because, yeah, people are coming from just
completely different contexts, and I really appreciate that people are
applying their current context to a situation and stead of
just kind of yeah, blindly saying, well, someone from the
nineteenth century, I said I have to do this, so
I have to do that. I just reiterated what you said,
but it sounded really clever when I said it. No,
(44:12):
but I mean, I'm glad that it has like some
residents for people coming from other religious and cultural traditions.
That's you know. I think there's a lot here for
people who are coming from wherever. I think everyone should
read more about these traditions. I think they're great. Or
when in doubt, just break your cane over Nazis. I
mean always, if you can't figure out the rest of
(44:34):
the ship, just break your cane over Nazis. We should,
I should add. I super don't have time to get
into it. But there is good reason to think that
Sholem didn't spend his whole life believing in God. Based
on private correspondence is that I don't really have access
to because the dual lingo owl has not yet gotten
me to like that point of Yiddish fluency that the
(44:54):
talking about h v uh ussan politics level. Yeah, you know, okay,
this isevik debate is not adequately cover Hi, my my
parts of my family speak check. But I didn't really
(45:14):
grow up speaking it. So when I got to college,
I took a class and like tried to learn check.
And I was giving a report in class in check
on Jon Huss, which was who was a famous check heretic.
And then the professor Lake started asking me questions and
I realized I was supposed to be explaining transubstantiation in
(45:35):
check when I don't even understand it in English. No
one does. It's like it was like so bred people
cannibalism in check. It was very uh, very embarrassing. Any
other embarrassing stories that you would like to tell right now?
(45:58):
It's just us. That's all I've got. Anyway. Yeah, I'd
love to do more research on like shol Him's personal beliefs,
but uh, I didn't, so I'm kind of going with
like publicly, he really always expressed belief in God. So
so around this time, Slan goes to Paris. He spends
(46:20):
four years there and he spends the entire time outside
of jail. Who yeah, pretty good run. He also meets
a woman named Anna. She is a Jewish immigrant from Odessa.
They hit it off, fall in love, and shol Him
of course writes home to his father to tell him
(46:41):
about this wonderful girl that he's met, But then like
halfway through the letter, he changes the subject to how
he's thinking of starting a group to take vengeance on
behalf of Jews murdered in pogroms. H for what to quote?
For one drop of innocent blood, for one violated Jewish girl,
we will destroy all their cities are motto tremble for
(47:02):
a day is coming, an ominous day of reckoning for
all bloodthirsty beasts. I I hope as long as Anna
is cool with this, this just rules. If Anna feels
a little bit like sidelined, it's not so great. But
if Anna's down such bad news about that, No, don't
sideline Anna Schwartz part you must be perfect in every way.
(47:23):
This is uncomplicated. Cool people with Margaret and Miriam. Are
you reading my script? Because like literally the next paragraph
is about how he sidelines Ata. Okay, fine, tell me
about how he sidelines Anna. You can't have nice things
because of patriarchy. I know, it's it's the worst. So
at this point, he's twenty eight, he's got no sense
(47:45):
of self preservation, and the First World War breaks out?
Does he join? Is he? Is he Team krip Popkin?
That is all? Are you reading my script? Okay? So, um,
he marries Anna and then he immediately volunteers to fight. Yeah,
Anna is not happy about this, which is going to
(48:06):
become a pattern because he makes major decisions without consulting
her and then asked fucking baffled when she responds with
anything but unbridled support and hero worship. Motherfucker. All right.
It's it's absolutely a theme of historical anarchists that while
they sound like brad people, they also sound like absolutely
terrible partners. I wish you were an exception. He is not.
(48:28):
But Margaret, since you bring it up, can you tell
us how anarchists felt about World War One? I only
kind of get got into this because it's it's like
a part of the history that like, isn't really cool
people died cool stuff. It's messy stuff that messy people
felt messy about. But there was this whole big split where, um,
half the people, half the anarchists, were like, we need
(48:50):
to stay that goddamn over loving funk out of this
war because this is a war between nation states and
past not passivism, but antimilitarism is the only useful response.
And there was another half, most notably led by Prince
Peter Kropotkin, who I believe first came up in our
Nihilist episode Friend of the pot Yeah, and he's like
one of the He had a lot of cool stuff
(49:10):
like evolution and and all this, but he was like, well,
Germany is being bad, and stopping Germany is good, and
and I mostly know about it because people try to
draw parallels to Russia invasion of Ukraine and all this stuff.
I am not trying to opine about this. I have
(49:30):
no opinion about this. I haven't looked into it enough. Miriam.
Take on World War One, I know I'm about I
could have bad hot takes about other stuff. Um uh,
potato is the better way to pronounce it? Controversial? Yeah,
that's how you pronounced World War One, all right, Miriam. Yeah,
(49:58):
so I I My understanding of KRP. P. Hopkins position
here is that in addition to like Germany is being bad,
he was basically like, France is right now the best
bastion of liberty we have got because they're like a
republic or whatever. Yeah whatever, yeah, something like that. Um
so it's it's very important to prevent it from being
occupied by an imperial power. And that's basically the page
(50:19):
that shalim is on um and but it was like
a little more complicated. He also wanted to join because
he wanted to prove that Jews were willing to fight,
which you know we've we've seen has been important to him. Sure,
I mean fight what, just fight anything. I guess that guy,
that guy, yeah, funk that guy. I mean, I guess
(50:43):
Germany was invading a country anyway. Yeah, yeah, I mean
I think like most people, um could look at this
situation and be like, well, we know which side is
wrong here, Um, it's just a little harder to find
decide that's right. Yeah, m hm, you know. So, basically
he thinks defending France from German militarism is more important
than remaining antimilitarist himself. But that does not stop him
(51:07):
from being, you know, deeply critical of the side he's on.
He's in the foreign legion because he's not a citizen um.
And he says of the average professional legionary who he's
fighting alongside in their work civilizing, civilizing is in quotes
the quiet inhabitants of Africa, killing the men, raping the women,
and through various military reports, they reach a certain rank
(51:28):
become a corporal and receive a Copper Soldiers medal. This
is the sum of their morality, I mean, And it's
so interesting, right because this is like France is a
colonial power, right, it's just not he didn't colonize another
country in Europe just now, right, And he recognizes, right,
He's like, these guys are colonial pieces of ship and
I'd hate them, and he even I mean, I think
(51:52):
it's kind of notable that, like his disgusted description of
French colonialism in Africa uses fairly similar language to how
he discribes pogroms yeah elsewhere. So I mean it's pretty
clear he feels more solidarity with the victims of colonization
than the guys that he's fighting alongside. Right, but he
still fights a lot. He didn't go volunteer to go
(52:13):
fight the French in Africa volunteer. I'm not trying to
I'm a little bit trying to drag him, but like
it's just like this interesting blood valid Yeah, like he
recognizes that what that you know, the whole idea of Potkinstle,
idea that like France's this bastion of liberty is like
is it um you know maybe in France, but um, yeah,
(52:37):
he he recognizes that, but like also really wants to
go fight or really thinks he should go fight. Yeah, nefect, Yeah,
But um, I think we're going to have to leave
it there for now because, um, the next chapter on
(53:00):
my outline here is more experience and we're going to
get into some World War one ship and poetry. Cool.
So when we return World War one ship. No, Margaret,
I know what you're thinking. We haven't talked about assassination
at all. You're right, it's going to be a minute,
but it's coming. I swear I didn't just say assassination
(53:22):
to like get you interested. It is definitely going to happen. Now.
You said clocks to get me interested, and there's been flocks.
The clocks are always in the background. There're always taken
away in the background, paying for paying for Sholem's like
continued existence. And and speaking of clocks, it's about that
(53:42):
time pluga goals I hate myself are Margaret? Do you
do you happen to have a book that's out that
people can purchase? Why? Yes, I have a book called
we Won't Be Here Tomorrow that is available from a
K Press. It's short fiction. If you've listened to any
other episode this podcast. You've heard me talk about it,
and you can follow me on the internet by looking
(54:04):
in my name. Up cool Miriam, really good Miriam. Is
anything you'd like to plug? Um? I encourage people to
go to land back dot org and um, there's some
really cool education resources there and also, um, you can
give them some money and they can work on land
back projects. Awesome. Alright, then until Wednesday. Until Wednesday, I'm
(54:31):
going to go away for several days and then talk
to you more. That's right. We aren't just going to
record the second half after a five minute break half
five minute break for us two long break for you
by Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff is a production
(54:52):
of cool Zone Media. For more podcasts on cool Zone Media,
visit our website cool zone media dot com, or check
us out on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts. M
Host
Margaret Killjoy
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