ABSTRACT
During the late 1890s anarchists and socialists united against anti-Semitism. In the first few years of the twentieth century both groups resumed their propaganda for their respective movements. Bildung was the main focus. Initially the Jewish socialists were the driving forces in this effort, which the anarchists later took over. Jewish workers thus had no choice but to organize as sections of French unions. While in most cases they did just that, the first Jewish union in Paris was the independent capmakers' union. Jewish workers needed to be enlightened to join forces with other workers and the general socialist movement. Such was the view of the Jewish socialists. The first Jewish union in Paris was the capmakers' union. The capmakers' union was established in a period when the French unions were in the midst of establishing, re-establishing, reorganizing and merging. The Jewish political organizations and trade unions experienced near-opposite courses of development in Paris.
