A ward-winning i
llustrator and journalist Molly Crabapple has spent her career documenting revolutions and political upheavals around the world—or, as she puts it, "extremes from nightclubs to war zones."
Her latest book explores a different kind of history: the story of the Jewish Labor Bund, the mass socialist movement that organized millions of Eastern European Jews around labor rights and cultural autonomy, alongside fierce opposition to both Zionism and antisemitism.
Here Where We Live Is Our Country
is now a national bestseller, resonating with readers in search of a forgotten tradition of Jewish politics. Current Affairs spoke with Crabapple about why the Bund's history feels newly relevant today, and why excavating this neglected past has become, for many readers, a source of hope.
The sentences, ranging from 30-100 years, are part of an increasingly disturbing pattern of the Trump administration criminalizing speech and assembly.