In 1896, he organized the Group of Jewish Socialists Abroad, the purpose of which was to prepare revolutionary propaganda literature in Yiddish, with the "Communist Manifesto" as a beginning. For this revolutionary library, Zhitlowsky wrote an introduction entitled "Yiddish—Why?". The Bund which published the booklet thought that Zhitlowsky's introduction was not sufficiently revolutionary and too nationalistic, because the author expressed the belief that the rebirth of the Yiddish language and literature would lead to the national and social awakening of the Jewish people.