''Germinal'' (זשערמינאל, also transliterated as ''Zsherminal'') was a
Yiddish
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
-language
anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...
journal in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
edited by the German-born
Rudolf Rocker
Johann Rudolf Rocker (March 25, 1873 – September 19, 1958) was a German anarchist writer and activist. He was born in Mainz to a Roman Catholic artisan family.
His father died when he was a child, and his mother when he was in his teens, so he ...
. It appeared from 1900 to 1903, and then again from 1905 to 1908.
In 1898, the Yiddish anarchist newspaper ''
Arbeter Fraynd
The Worker's Friend Group was a Jewish anarchist group active in London's East End in the early 1900s. Associated with the Yiddish-language anarchist newspaper ''Arbeter Fraint'' ("Worker's Friend") and centered around the German emigre anarchi ...
'' hired Rudolf Rocker, a non-Jew, who had just started learning the language, as its editor. However, despite an intervention by
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman (June 27, 1869 – May 14, 1940) was a Russian-born anarchist political activist and writer. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the ...
and the devotion of many activists trying to save the paper, it had to be shut down for financial reasons in January 1900. Yet, the Jewish anarchists who published ''Arbeter Fraynd'' were unwilling to be left without any means of spreading their message. Therefore, Rocker, with the assistance of a young printer known as Narodiczky, founded the sixteen-page journal, which was published every
fortnight
A fortnight is a unit of time equal to 14 days (two weeks). The word derives from the Old English term , meaning "" (or "fourteen days," since the Anglo-Saxons counted by nights).
Astronomy and tides
In astronomy, a ''lunar fortnight'' is h ...
and named after
Émile Zola
Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, also , ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of ...
's
novel of the same name. Compared to ''Arbeter Fraynd'', it was directed at a more intellectual audience and dealt with philosophy and literature using libertarian concepts to analyse them. In 1903, it also had to stop publication for lack of money.
In January 1905, ''Germinal'' was revived by Rocker and his comrades. The
Jewish anarchist
This is a list of Jewish anarchists.
Individuals
See also
* Jewish anarchism
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Further reading
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Jewish Anarchists
Jewish
*
Anarchists
Anarchism is a political ...
labour movement in London was on the rise, so the journal was able to reach a demand of 2,500 by the following year, when it was expanded to 48 pages. Publication of ''Arbeter Fraynd'' had resumed in 1903, so ''Germinal'' now had the role of the more intellectual equivalent of that newspaper, which was the more widespread of the two.
The journal's influence reached far beyond London. Most cities in the world with a considerable recent Russian or Polish Jewish settlement had ''Germinal'' readers: most of the larger cities in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
,
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
,
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
,
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
,
Sofia
Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...
,
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
,
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
,
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
,
Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
, and
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
.
Alexander Granach
Alexander Granach (April 18, 1890 – March 14, 1945) was a German-Austrian actor in the 1920s and 1930s who emigrated to the United States in 1938.
Life and career
Granach was born Schaje Granoch in Werbowitz (Wierzbowce/Werbiwci) (Austri ...
, one of the leading actors of
Weimar Germany
The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a Constitutional republic, constitutional federal republic for the first time in ...
, was introduced to the world of literature by ''Germinal''.
Nevertheless, publication of ''Germinal'' ceased in 1908.
[Fishman 1974, pg. 327.]
References
{{Rudolf Rocker
Anarchist periodicals published in the United Kingdom
Defunct political magazines published in the United Kingdom
Jewish anarchism
Jewish English history
Jewish magazines
Magazines published in London
Magazines established in 1900
Magazines disestablished in 1908
Yiddish anarchist periodicals
Yiddish culture in England
Secular Jewish culture in the United Kingdom