Before Red Emma’s: Anarchism in 1890s Baltimore City

From A Fist Full of History

Before Red Emma’s, the strongest expression of anarchism in Baltimore City were the Jewish anarchists associated with Michael Cohn in the 1890s.

Michael Cohn was a Johns Hopkins medical student from 1890-1893, the peak years of Jewish Anarchism in Baltimore City. Between attending to his studies and supporting himself as a scribe (he wrote letters to be sent home for the illiterate women of the city), Cohn was a frequent feature in the Jewish intellectual life. He produced numerous pieces for the press and was a frequent, effective debater on behalf of his cause.

It was in this last role that Cohn received the most notoriety. On September 28th 1890, Cohn sparked a mini riot when he asked for evidence of God’s existence during a debate with local Orthodox Jewish members. As the Baltimore Sun’s coverage shows, a fisticuffs broke out and the end result was ten people arrested and Cohn simultaneously placed in solitary confinement by the police and herem by the rabbis. Cohn was possibly the first and last individual to achieve this dubious distinction. The attack on him also required to seek police protection. (1) In 1891, Cohn again gained press notoriety when he was arrested by Baltimore police for allegedly inciting his followers to attack the local police. According to a witness, Cohn, after discussing the nature of poor relief in Baltimore, said that the poor should "take the clubs from the policemen, beat their brains out, and take their pistols from them." (2)
The Jewish anarchists remained prominent in Jewish life for a few years after that debate. Cohn, for example would garner additional Baltimore Sun coverage for allegedly plotting the They organized Yom Kippur balls (parties and dances) that protested Judaism by breaking the solemn nature of the Highest Holy Day. However, the Jewish Anarchists eventually faded from the scene. Isaac M. Fein gives two explanations that I believe, in tandem, are responsible. As shown by Cohn’s 1890 debate and the Yom Kippur Balls, Jewish Anarchist held and openly expressed deep antipathy for religion which Fein also notes was only expressed towards Judaism. So, despite the truth that Jewish Anarchists “expressed, and expressed well, the wishes of the masses,” they never accrued power or support because “the masses could not join any party which showed little regard—and even expressed outright contempt—for religion.” The weakness of the anarchists was their gaze was fixed toward future, allowing more immediately minded groups, such as the socialist Bund to become dominant.
Unless otherwise cited, most material for this post came from Isaac M. Fein, The American of an American Jewish Community: The History of Baltimore Jewry from 1773 to 1920 169-1970. The bit about the Yom Kippur balls came from this post Third Solitude Series of the Interactive Museum of Jewish Montreal.
(1) "Cohn May Speak," Washington Post, 10/5/1890, pg. 1
(2) "Cohn Goes to Jail," Baltimore Sun, 2/7/1891, pg.6  
Finally, here is a collection of press coverage of Michael Cohn

Comments

uhh...

uhh...

Lol.....

Lol.....

This guy Cohn should have a

This guy Cohn should have a bronze statue erected in the centre of Baltimore, awesome dude, to say that shit in 1890, way ahead of his time, probably read Nietzsche.
Yom Kippur balls of steel I say!

Gunter

Just joking :) Gunter

Just joking :)

Gunter

What exactly is Jewish

What exactly is Jewish anarchism and why do Jews have their own form of anarchism? Why didn't they join local American anarchists?

Anti-nationalism only applies

Anti-nationalism only applies to gentiles.

"Anti-nationalism only

"Anti-nationalism only applies to gentiles."

nothing in this article refers to jewish nationalism. but i have read comments like this before on stormfront.

immigrant communities were

immigrant communities were largely segregated at the turn of the 20th century. jewish anarchists tended to publish papers and talk in yiddish, just as italian anarchists did in italian. the scenes were distinct but there was definitely overlap when possible.

all immigrant groups had

all immigrant groups had their own organizations and presses, in their native languages. in the US there were separate groups for the spanish, germans, italians, etc. jews had a separate section because they spoke and wrote in yiddish. until the 1950s, very few US anarchists were native-born americans (or otherwise native english speakers). these groups were also based around language and not ethnicity: so all Italian speakers could be part of the Italian group; it did not matter if the person was of Italian ancestry.

Was Professor Cohn, ala "The

Was Professor Cohn, ala "The pursuit of the Millenium" his circumcisical uncle, oh o ;) i may have been the incorrect alien, of an anti-taboo mentality, in a purely moralistic sense, oooOO.

Gunter

On a serious note, it's just

On a serious note, it's just that I'm tired of the whole semantic inference occasioned by the word 'jew', how it lingers over the millenia as a psuedo-derogatory term, and also that the ancient Hebrew language and texts have been subsumed by modern Yiddish and its Germanic inflexions,,,its inherent aggression...What happened to the great Semetic legacy, of their strengths, without being nationalistic?

Gunter

if you're worried about

if you're worried about nationalism, try some other thread to hijack, "jewish anarchists" were/are not nationalists.

...did you not notice that

...did you not notice that dude used "without"?

Well, SOME of em were. There

Well, SOME of em were. There were anarchist zionists, believe it or not. (Presumably they would be pretty unhappy with the current zionist state). But mostly not, true.

Who, Noam Chomsky?

Who, Noam Chomsky?

No. Chomsky isn't an

No. Chomsky isn't an anarchist or a zionist.

Martin Buber is a fairly interesting example. There are tons of others, why don't you try doing some research.

Yeah, it was an attempt at a

Yeah, it was an attempt at a bad joke. I'm acquainted with Buber and the Kibbutz in Israel, but I can't say that I'm really interested in a 'Zionist anarchism.' Thanks for the suggestion though.

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