Won't We Have "Ukrainians of Mosaic Faith?": Joseph Schechtman, Ukrainian Zionists, and Imagining the Ukrainian-Jewish Alliance

Abstract: This article explores Joseph Schechtman's position on Ukrainian-Jewish relations and mutual understanding. Focusing primarily on the period of the Revolution of 1917–20, the article analyzes Zionist pamphlets written by Schechtman and published in Odesa and Kyiv in 1917 and 1918 as well as his contributions to both Jewish Zionist ( Evreiskaia mysl ', in Odesa) and Ukrainian ( Nova rada , in Kyiv) periodicals. Schechtman's writings are juxtaposed with works by other Ukrainian Zionists (Nahum Syrkin, Mattityahu Hindes, Joseph Fisher), exploring the idea of Ukrainian-Jewish common interests and the rationale for the Ukrainian-Jewish alliance. Contrary to the view that Zionists were largely concerned with Russian thinkers and unsympathetic to Ukrainian sovereignty, this article argues that imagining the Ukrainian-Jewish alliance was an important aspect of the development of the Zionist movement in the former Russian Empire. This calls for a reevaluation of the standard view of Ukrainian-Jewish relations as self-perpetuating antagonism.