Bloch, Joseph

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BLOCH, JOSEPH

BLOCH, JOSEPH (1871–1936), German socialist and journalist. Born in Lithuania, he immigrated to Germany where he edited the Sozialistische Monatshefte, a monthly publication which attracted a team of outstanding writers. Bloch advocated a union of Continental Europe and when the Bolsheviks came to power in Russia, he proposed a Franco-German Union. After the German revolution of 1918, he advocated a system of German democracy based on workers' councils. The Monatshefte gave considerable attention to Jewish questions and supported the Zionist movement. Bloch favored mass immigration to Palestine and was highly critical of British policy there. One of the first victims of Nazi persecution in Germany, he never wavered in his belief in the triumph of socialism and the future of the Zionist enterprise. He died a lonely refugee in Prague.

bibliography:

K. Blumenfeld, Erlebte Judenfrage (1962), 57, 123. add. bibliography: C. Bloch, "Der Kampf Joseph Blochs und der 'Sozialistische Monatshefte' in der Weimarer Republik," in: Jahrbuch des Instituts für Deutsche Geschichte, 3 (1974), 257–88.