Louis Miller

Efim Samuilovich Bandes was born to a Jewish family in April 1866 in Vilna (today's Vilnius, Lithuania), then part of the Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire. While barely a teenager, Efim (who later took the name Louis Miller) and his older brother joined a revolutionary circle headed by Aaron Zundelevich, seeking the overthrow of the antisemiticTsarist regime in Russia.^[1]

This revolutionary career in imperial Russia was quickly short-circuited by the Tsarist secret police, however, with study circle leader Kundelevich arrested for his political offenses in 1879.^[2] To avoid a similar fate, the Bandes brothers were forced to flee the country, briefly living in a series of European metropolises that included Zurich, Berlin, and Paris.^[3]

Efim Bandes arrived in New York City in 1884 and soon took on a new Americanized name, Louis Miller. Miller worked for a time in one of the city's sweatshops, an experience which would later move him towards trade union activity.^[3]

Miller immediately joined the fledgling Russian Workers Union (Russian:Russkii Rabochii Soiuz;Yiddish:Rusisher Arbayter Fareyn) that had emerged in the city around this time, thereby making contact with a number of leading Jewish left wing political activists of the day, including Nicholas Aleinikoff (founder of the group), writer and journalist Abraham Cahan, Gregory Weinstein, trade union activist Leon Malkiel, and future journalist Victor Jarros.^[4] The Workers Union maintained a significant library of political reading material and conducted meetings which delved into Russian current events and various social questions of the day.^[5]

Despite its name, the Russian Workers Union was a cloistered group of intellectuals with few contents to the actual working class — a fact which led to dissatisfaction among some members of the group.^[5] Late in 1884 the organization split, with Cahan an Miller taking the lead in organizing a new organization called the Russian Labor Lyceum, an entity which presented public speakers with the aim of improving the educational level and political understanding of Russian-speaking workers in New York.^[3] Cahan and Miller both used their access to the rostrum of these political lectures to hone their oratorical skills, additionally making contact with prominent Socialist leaders of the day, including the German-speaking journalist Alexander Jonas and exiled nobleman Sergei Schevitsch.^[5] As was the case with the Russian Workers Union, membership of the Russian Labor Lyceum remained by and large limited to intellectuals and the group's activities ultimately proved largely ineffective.^[6]

Otra organización surgió poco después, la Asociación de Trabajadores Judíos Rusos, cuyo nombre explicitaba la composición étnica de la comunidad de emigrados rusos en Estados Unidos. ^{[ 6 ]} En lugar de celebrar sus reuniones y debates en ruso, esta nueva organización utilizó el idioma común de la clase trabajadora judía, el yiddish . ^{[ 6 ]} Por primera vez, entre los participantes de esta organización se encontraban no solo intelectuales radicales, sino también trabajadores comunes de Rusia y de diversas naciones de Europa Central , unidos más allá de las fronteras nacionales por su lengua común. ^{[ 7 ]} Miller participó activamente en esta organización, así como en su sucesora directa formada por fusión, la Asociación de Trabajadores Judíos. ^{[ 7 ]}

La Asociación de Trabajadores Judíos mantuvo un estrecho contacto con el movimiento socialista de lengua alemana, incluyendo el incipiente New Yorker Volkszeitung (Periódico del Pueblo de Nueva York) y la federación laboral United German Trades. ^{[ 7 ]} En julio de 1886, la organización votó a favor de unirse a la organización anfitriona del movimiento alemán, el Partido Socialista Laborista de América , reuniendo así a activistas socialistas alemanes y judeo-rusos en una organización unificada. ^{[ 7 ]}

Miller también participó en el lanzamiento de un periódico en idioma ruso , Znania (La Bandera), en 1889, coeditándolo durante más de un año. ^{[ 3 ]} Su hermano, Lev Bandes, se unió a Miller en su trabajo en el periódico, pero este falleció poco después del lanzamiento de la publicación, dejando a Miller solo en el Nuevo Mundo. ^{[ 8 ]}

En 1890, Miller se unió a Philip Krantz y Abraham Cahan para lanzar Di Arbeiter Tsaytung (El Periódico de los Trabajadores), el primer periódico socialista publicado en Estados Unidos en idioma yiddish . ^{[ 3 ]} Este giro hacia el periodismo en yiddish —el idioma cotidiano de un gran porcentaje de la clase trabajadora judía inmigrante— tuvo éxito y en 1897 se unió a Cahan para establecer un diario socialista en yiddish, Forverts (El Diario Judío Forward). ^{[ 3 ]}

Miller was a popular writer and a talented public speaker, regarded as one of the best in New York's Jewish left wing milieu.^[9] He demonstrated a firm and unshakable commitment to the ideas of socialism and could move a crowd to loud applause with his aggressive rhetoric allayed against capitalist exploiters and other enemies of the socialist cause.^[9]

Miller was a delegate to the June 1898 convention of the Social Democracy of America and together with Morris Winchevsky, Meyer London was part of the minority group favoring political action rather than colonization that bolted the gathering to form the Social Democratic Party of America (SDP). He was the SDP's candidate for the New York state legislature in the 4th Assembly District in November 1898.^[10]

Miller did not limit himself to political journalism, venturing into the writing of Yiddish language plays and poetry, and venturing into the field of theatrical criticism.^[3] He also worked as a translator, rendering The Civil War in France by Karl Marx^[9] and the poetry of Walt Whitman into Yiddish.^[11]

In 1905 Miller and Cahan developed political and philosophical differences and parted company, with Cahan assuming full editorial control of the Forward while Miller resigned to launch his own daily Yiddish newspaper, Di Warheit (The Truth).^[3] Miller and Cahan waged editorial war against one another, with Miller more than holding his own in the contest.^[3]

Whereas Cahan's perspective expressed by the Forward was socialist and internationalist, Miller came to outspokenly support the ideas of Zionism — belief in the necessity of establishment in the Middle East of a Jewish national homeland.^[12] Towards this end in 1911 Miller made an extensive trip to Palestine, interviewing public figures and writing of his experiences for readers of his newspaper in America.^[12]

Durante los años de la Primera Guerra Mundial , Miller adoptó una postura que, para sus lectores judíos, resultaba controvertida: el apoyo a los aliados de la Entente contra Alemania, entre los que se encontraba el odiado régimen zarista ruso. ^{[ 13 ]} Esta postura afectó drásticamente la circulación de Di Warheit, ya que sus lectores antirrusos dejaron de ser suscriptores. ^{[ 13 ]}

Miller murió de una enfermedad cardíaca en la ciudad de Nueva York el 22 de mayo de 1927, luego de una enfermedad que duró una semana. ^{[ 13 ]} Tenía 61 años al momento de su muerte.