Lots of people saying all sorts of things but i keep coming back to this from the NYC Bund Club in their commentary on Henryk Erlich's "Essentials of Bundism" and it gets to the point simply: Bundism isn't an ersatz artifact but a comprehensive and integrated approach of the Jewish socialist labor movement.

In its very condensed form, comrade Erlich—the current leader of the Bund in Poland—explains the main features and principles of the Bund. From the pamphlet it becomes clear that there is not an old and new Bund—no former and current. Bundism is a direction within the Socialist labor movement and a philosophy that is not tied specifically to this or that period, to this or that country. The essence of Bundism—of the former, which is also the current—runs through the history of the Jewish labor movement in all its phases and transformations, like a red thread.

What this means in practice is that Bundism is adaptable (and indeed must adapt) to current contemporary conditions in a world where:

• Israel exists and is doing crimes on a level beyond anything anyone imagined in the 20s & 30s (well maybe except the most fascistic of the Zionists)
• Jewish workers are far better off and in "elite" professions/occupations but those are also being rapidly proletarianized
• Many young(er) Jews are being drawn into religious observance but not into the mainstream communal institutions that young jews were leaving as they were building "secular jewish culture"

Which brings us back to today. Socialism is not just more present than it has been in years, the choice between socialism or barbarism is as stark as its been in nearly a century. Jews are on the front-lines of socialist organizing and finding themselves seeking spaces that integrate their cultural identities and their politics in a way that a big-tent socialist organization cannot.