Abba Gordin

Abba Gordin (1887–1964) was an Israeli anarchist and Yiddish writer and poet.

Gordin was born in 1887 in Poland to Rabbi Yehuda Leib Gordin of Łomża. He was among the veteran anarchists during the early Russian revolution, and was one of the last major figures from the Russian anarchist movement to remain. He emigrated to the United States in 1924 where he wrote books, essays, and poems in several languages. He later established the Jewish Ethical Society. Gordin became a co-editor of the New York Yiddish-language anarchist journal Freie Arbeiter Stimme and editor of his own polemic periodical, The Clarion. By the early 1930s, Gordin had identified nationalism as a more prominent driver of modern history than social class conflict. He also critiqued Marxist doctrine as a "hybrid ... of quasi-religion and pseudo-science" that would depose one king for another. He emigrated to Israel around 1957, where he translated his Yiddish writing into Hebrew. Gordin died in Tel Aviv in 1964. Services were held August 23.