Portside

The author of "Reasons for Departure," Ben Kline, was a participant in last summer's Helix Project.The Helix Projects is an intensive immersion in European Jewish culture. Join us to tell the story of Jewish life filled with joy, coexistence, and creative potential. Helix 2015 is open to all full-time students enrolled during the 2014–2015 academic year. Apply Now for Helix 2015. Deadline for applications is March 2, 2015. http://www.yiddishkayt.org/home/

The legacy of nationalism looms large over our program, and over my own studies of Yiddish literature and culture.We learn about the Bundists, the largest and most influential Jewish socialist movement both in Czarist Russia and in interwar Poland which sought to walk the fine line between celebrating and fostering Jewish workers and their culture (meaning especially Yiddish), while remaining a part of the international socialist movement and opposed to nationalism.