Hereness

Hereness (Dasein) might be perhaps be called more expediently, Now-Being (Jetztsein), ...

Der veg tsu undzer yugnt embodied the diaspora nationalist ideology of doikeyt, or “hereness," an East European Jewish political principle that championed the legitimacy of Jewish communities wherever they found themselves.

What do I mean by home? Not the nation state; not religious worship; not the deepest grief of a people marked by hatred. I mean a commitment to what is and is not mine; to the strangeness of others, to my strangeness to others; to common threads twisted with surprise. Diasporism takes root in the Jewish Socialist Labor Bund’s principle of doikayt — hereness — the right to be, and to fight for justice, wherever we are...Doikayt is about wanting to be citizens, to have rights, to not worry about being shipped off at any moment where someone else thinks you do or don’t belong…I name this commitment Diasporism.