Prof Alan Crump, a ‘Bundist’, not a ‘Buddhist’

Natalie Knight

As author of the article in the magazine “The contribution of South African Jews to the Arts” (p64), I wrote that the late Professor Alan Crump, head  of the arts faculty at Wits told me “that both his parents were Jewish, but that he had been brought up as a Bundist.” The sub-editor or automatic spell check made a correction that was amusing but  inaccurate, substituting the word ”Buddhist” for “Bundist”.

The professor was proud of the fact that his parents were Bundists. He would not have regarded the error as a compliment.

 (Finalist in the Europcar Jewish Achiever Award)

According to Wikipedia, Bundism was a secular Jewish socialist movement founded in Russia in 1897. The Jewish Labour Bund was an important component of the social democratic movement in the Russian empire until the Russian Revolution of 1917. – Editor