The Jewish Labour Bund
Secular Jewish socialist party (founded 1897); historical secular anti-Zionism
Founded the same year as the World Zionist Organization, the Bund rejected Zionism in favor of doikayt (“hereness”) — that Jews should secure their future in the diaspora via national-cultural autonomy and Yiddish culture, affirming Jewish cultural nationhood while rejecting statehood.
What happened
As Zionism gained appeal after the Balfour Declaration, the Bund sharpened doikayt into its ideological trademark, portraying Zionism as bourgeois, escapist, and predicated on conceding the antisemitic premise that Jews were permanent strangers in Europe.
Supporters of doikayt insisted that the future of the Jewish people would best unfold in the same places in the Diaspora in which it had experienced its past. (YIVO Encyclopedia)
Under each definition
Explicitly and foundationally anti-Zionist since its inception.
It rejected a Jewish state, affirming Jewish cultural (not statehood) self-determination in the diaspora.
It opposed emigration to Palestine and the settlement project.
A secular, anti-clerical socialist movement with no return theology.
The case that they're a Zionist
It affirmed Jewish national-cultural existence (autonomism) — so it is not a rejection of Jewish peoplehood, only of statehood.
The case against / their own view
It was explicitly and foundationally anti-Zionist, opposing emigration to Palestine and the settlement/state project as “escapism.”
In their words
The Bund’s position was strongly anti-Zionist since its inception; its modus operandi was based upon the notion of doikayt, or hereness.
The verdicts above are how each definition would most likely classify this person — illustrative guidance, not official rulings. The lenses diverge most on the difference between a self-label and a substantive commitment, and between “Zionism” meaning a Jewish homeland versus a Jewish state. See the Definition tab for each definition’s full text. Inclusion is documentation, not a finding.