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MOSCOW, July 13 (Reuters) - A young man stabbed and seriously wounded the director of Moscow's Jewish Cultural Centre with a hunting knife in his synagogue office on Tuesday and threatened to ``carve up'' Russia's Jews, witnesses said.
``We heard a scream. Help! Help! We ran out of our offices. Our colleague was on the stairs yelling, 'He's getting away','' Russia's chief Rabbi, Adolf Shayevich, told Reuters at Moscow's main synagogue.
Dried blood was splattered down two flights of stairs where the director, Leopold Kaimovsky, had called for help shortly after morning prayer services in the 19th century synagogue.
``Our guards caught the attacker. While we held him he was shouting, 'There are 50,000 of us. We will kill you all. We will carve you all up','' Shayevich said.
He said the man -- later found to have a swastika drawn on his chest -- had stabbed Kaimovsky in his office with a large hunting knife. Guards found three other knives on him. Kaimovsky had been taken to hospital and was in ``very serious'' condition, Shayevich said.
A police spokesman said officers were holding a man they named as Nikita Krivchun, 21, a second-year student at a Moscow academy for labour studies. They were interrogating him before filing charges.
``At the moment it is too early to say what the motive is,'' the spokesman said.
But Rabbi Shayevich and other witnesses said the attacker had made clear he was carrying out a hate crime.
``What can you expect in a country where a general can openly call for pogroms, and prosecutors sit around wondering whether this might be grounds to start a criminal case,'' he said, referring to Communist lawmaker Albert Makashov, filmed last year at a rally saying Jews should be rounded up and jailed.
That case brought attention to what Jewish leaders called a new wave of Russian anti-Semitism. Makashov's party colleagues helped block a resolution in parliament censuring his behaviour. Prosecutors launched an investigation under a statute outlawing speeches that foment ethnic hatred, but never pressed charges.
``The situation in this country is ripe for this sort of thing, because the economic situation is so bad and people are looking for someone to blame,'' Shayevich said.
``A country that wants to turn into a civilised, democratic state has to keep an eye out at all times not to let such things happen. But when things like (Makashov's speeches) go without punishment, it gives people the desire to behave like this.''
Shayevich said Tuesday's attacker had not said he belonged to any specific group. He was wearing a plain shirt and jeans, but when guards removed his shirt they discovered a large swastika drawn on the left side of his chest in black ink.
courtesy of Ray Prigodich
PROMINENT JEWISH LEADER ATTACKED IN MOSCOW
Associated Press, 13 July 1999
MOSCOW (AP) -- A young man with a swastika tattooed on his chest walked into a synagogue and repeatedly stabbed a prominent Jewish leader Tuesday in the latest outbreak of anti-Semitism in Russia.
Leopold Kaimovsky, the 52-year-old director of the Jewish Cultural Center at Moscow's Choral Synagogue, was in grave condition following surgery at a Moscow hospital, a doctor said.
The alleged attacker, identified as 20-year-old Nikita Krivchun, was detained by guards at the synagogue and then turned over to police. The Interfax news agency described him as a student at a Moscow law school.
Dr. Alexei Lazarevich, chief of intensive care at Moscow's emergency Hospital No. 36, said Kaimovsky had been stabbed in the knee, thigh, shoulder, face and stomach. "He lost a lot of blood," the doctor said, adding that the stomach wound was especially serious.
Russia's chief rabbi, Adolf Shayevich, told The Associated Press that he saw a reverse swastika tattooed on the youth's chest.
Russia has seen a recent wave of attacks against synagogues, including bomb blasts in May near the Choral Synagogue and another Moscow synagogue. Neo-Nazi groups have denounced Jews at public rallies, and Communist lawmaker Albert Makashov and other parliamentary deputies have made virulent anti-Semitic remarks.
"This attack is the result of the general situation when such people as Makashov ... are not punished. They should sit next to this young man on the bench in the court," Shayevich said.
"Prosecutors do not see all the anti-Semitic slogans as a crime, and these anti-Semitic slogans are everywhere," he added.
Tamara Griboyedova, a spokeswoman for the synagogue, said Jewish leaders would have to consider improving their security.
"What else can we do?" she said.
The Israeli Embassy in Moscow issued a statement expressing "deep indignation" over the attack.
"We are convinced that law enforcement bodies should take more efforts to do away with such a shameful phenomenon," the embassy statement said.
During Soviet and czarist times, Jews in Russia faced systematic discrimination. The Russian constitution and President Boris Yeltsin's government insist all groups must be treated equally, but many Russians openly express prejudice against Jews.
Emigration to Israel has sharply risen this year, at least in part because of the rise in anti-Semitic incidents.
Copyright 1999& The Associated Press.
YOUNG MAN STABS JEWISH CENTER DIRECTOR
ITAR-TASS, 13 July 1999
MOSCOW, July 13 (Itar-Tass) - The young man, who attacked the director of the Jewish cultural center, Leopold Kaimovsky in a city synagogue on Tuesday, had a swastika sign tattooed on his chest, Russia's chief rabbi Adolf Shayevich told Itar-Tass.
The youth, aged between 18 and 20, sneaked onto the second floor of the synagogue, located in Spaso-Golenishchevsky Lane at approximately 13.00, local time, and stabbed Kaimovsky several times.
Doctors told Tass the director had been hospitalized in rather serious condition because he lost much blood. He has been taken to a surgery room. There have been no latest updates on his condition.
"The attacker must have sought a room with people as few as possible," Shayevich said.
There are three to four persons sitting in synagogue offices. The man went up to the second floor and entered the room in which there were Kaimovsky and a secretary. After he inflicted several knife wounds on the director, the latter succeeded in seizing the knife from the man, but the attacker had two more, he added.
According to the rabbi, the attacker is a industrial college student who had a student ID on him. He seemed a decent kind of guy, wore spectacles and his appearance did not suggest madness.
After he was caught and held until police arrived, it turned out there was a swastika tattoo on his chest. During the 15-minute interval before the police's arrival, the attacker was shouting anti-semitic slogans.
The Tuesday incident was not the first: two months ago there was an explosion here, and last year, guards detained a man armed with knives. Shayevich said security service at the synagogue is rather good, but the problem is that many people visit this building which has no metal detectors.
"The attack is the result of the impunity of the people who openly call for violence," he noted, "simply it is unthinkable for the country -- which lived through such a catastrophe as the Hitler invasion and lost almost 40 million people -- to calmly see the people with swastikas roaming streets and calling for pogroms."
Lots of pundits argue on whether or not it is fascism, or anti-Semitism, or if a new decree is needed. "The available decrees are sufficient to hold the culprits responsible and show to the whole world that our country really wishes to be democratic," the rabbi said.
(posted 13 July 1999)
On 21 June, the investigative department of the Sysert department of internal affairs in Sverdlovsk province initiated a criminal case, no. 302352, against Bishop Nikon (Oleg Vasilevich Mironov) on the basis of article 133 of the Criminal Code (coercion to engage in homosexual relations by means of material or other dependency of the victim). The criminal case was instigated at the place of the commission of the crime, the sadly famous dacha of Bishop Nikon, located in Sysert district. The case is being conducted by investigator Svetlana Sitkovskaia. Article 133 provides for a number of penalties, including a prison term of up to one year. Despite the initiation of the criminal case, Bishop Nikon remains the ruling bishop of Ekaterinburg diocese. However in connection with these events, at least eleven parishes of the diocese have refused to submit themselves to the bishop pending the conduct of a church trial. (tr. by PDS)
Russian test at Sobornost
(posted 12 July 1999)
MOSCOW -- Millions of people in the territories of Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine will gain more than a new millennium in the year 2000. They will acquire access to a new translation of the Bible. "We are about ready to send the new New Testament and Psalms translation to the printers," [reported] Michael P. Kulakov, former president of the Euro-Asia Division of Seventh-day Adventists, who is personally involved with the translation endeavor. "The remaining translation of the Bible books will follow."
"Project 66," named for the 66 books of the Bible, is an effort to translate the entire Bible into the Russian language. Russian-speaking Seventh-day Adventists have been the driving force behind the project, and the actual translation work has been coordinated by the Bible Translation Institute at the Adventist Church's Zaoksky Theological Seminary, located near the city of Tula. "Considering our mission, our church has taken the great and unique challenge in the country of Russia to give to the people an accurate and at the same time an easily readable translation," [said] Kulakov.
He [described] the meticulous effort not only to translate the Scriptures into a modern Russian language, but to compare the translation options, verify, proofread and often do it all over again. For Kulakov, the translation is the "task of my life." In the past, translations of the Bible in the Russian language have been either nonexistent or poor in quality.
"The Synodal translation of the Bible, completed in 1875, urgently requires revision, or still better, complete replacement," stated I. Yevseyev, chairman of the Russian Bible Commission, in his address to the 1917 Council of the Russian Orthodox Church. "It does not follow consistently the original text. A much more serious problem is its literary backwardness. The language of the translation is heavy, outdated, artificially approximated to the Slavonic and one century behind the literary language."
Many years later, the same issues remain. The Russian Orthodox Church has not been concerned with providing the people with copies of the Bible, and other religious entities have struggled to find scholars and specialists for translation work. In Kulakov's words: "Some religious groups in Russia and outside of the country produced and published in haste rather poor translations of the Holy Scripture. This aroused very severe criticism of the idea of Bible translations in general and made people suspicious [of] any new translation. In Russia today, there are very few scholars in the biblical languages and biblical science, but the demand for the literary quality of everything [that] is published is very high, and is in demand. One of the reasons for this is the great role which high quality literature has generally played in Russia."
"Project 66" provides one solution and will make it possible for evangelism to spread across the vast Russian-speaking territories. The New Testament has already been translated, along with the Psalms, and 10,000 copies will be published in Russia by the end of 1999. The entire translation project is scheduled for completion in the year 2000. The new Bible is being published in cooperation with Theological Institute of St. Apostle Andrew, a reputable publisher specializing in theological literature. "We have many evidences that the Lord is leading us in our endeavors to produce a truly worthwhile translation. And I am grateful for the interest and for the support which our fellow believers in the United States are giving to our Project 66," Kulakov commented.
The Ukrainian Seventh-day Adventists are also looking ahead and assisting the Ukrainian Bible Society in providing a similar translation of the Bible [in] the Ukrainian language.
Reprinted with permission from Adventist News Network.
courtesy of Ray Prigodich
(posted 11 July 1999)
The presiding bishop of the Episcopal church in USA, Frank T. Griswold, was in Moscow from 3 to 7 July, upon the invitation of the Most Holy patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus, Alexis II. He was accompanied by Bishop Roger White of Milwaukee, the co-chairman of the Joint Coordinating Committee on Cooperation of the Episcopal Church with the Russian Orthodox Church; Bishop Richard Grein of New York, the chairman of the National Committee of the Episcopal Church on Relations with Orthodox Churches in USA and founder of the Russian Committee in the New York diocese; Bishop Charles Keyser, director of military, prison, and hospital chaplains of the Episcopal church; Canon David Perry, ecumenical officer of the Episcopal church; Canon Professor J. Robert Wright, consultant on theological matters of the ecumenical office of the Episcopal church; Canon John Backus, chairman of the New York diocesan committee on relations with Orthodox churches; James Solheim, director of the New Service of the Episcopal Church; and Canon James Rosenthal, director of the Anglican Communion News Service. On 3 July Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold and those accompanying him were met at the Sheremetevo-2 airport by Bishop Savva of Krasnogorsk, chairman of the Department on Relations with the Military Forces and Law Enforcement Agencies, Archimandrite Feofan, assistant chairman of OVTsS, and monastic priest Ilarion Alfeev, secretary of OVTsS for inter-Christian communications. In the evening of the same day, members of the American delegation visited the cathedral church of the Epiphany at the time of the evening vigil and reverenced the relics of Saint Alexis, metropolitan of Moscow. Then the guests went to the church of the Holy Life-giving Trinity in Khoroshevo, where the rector, Archimandrite Feofan, informed the guests about the course of restoration work in the church's building and invited them to dinner.
On 4 July, Sunday, Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold and all members of the American delegation attended the divine liturgy in the church of Saint Sergius in the Vysokopetrovsk monastery, which was conducted by Metropolitan Sergius of Solnechnogorsk, the administrator of affairs of the Moscow patriarchate. Upon completion of the liturgy, Metropolitan Sergius welcomed the American guests, emphasizing that relations between the Russian Orthodox church and the Episcopal church in USA always have been cordial. Members of the American delegation joined in wishing a happy sixtieth birthday to the rector of the church, Hegumen Ioann Ekonomtsev, chairman of the Department on Religious Education and Catechesis. After a tour of the Vysokopetrovsk monastery the guests went to the church of the holy martyr Catherine (the annex of the Orthodox Church in America), where they met with Bishop Vasily Osborn of Sergiev, the rector of the church, Protopresbyter Daniil Hubiak, and with clergy and parishioners.
On the same day Griswold and members of the American delegation visited the monastery of the Don and reverenced the relics of Saint Tikhon, who in his lifetime served as archpastor in North America and later became patriarch of all-Russia and a confessor of the faith of Christ. The guests venerated the miracle working Don icon of the Most Holy Mother of God and visited the cell where St. Tikhon was held under house arrest. The American guests were deeply touched upon seeing in this cell an old photograph from an American newspaper in which the future patriarch of Moscow was depicted in the midst of bishops and clergy of the Episcopal church.
In the evening the delegation went to St. Andrew's Anglican parish where along with the clergy of the church and representatives of the American and British embassies they celebrated their national holiday, Independence Day. The secretary of OVTsS on inter-Christian Relations, Monastic Priest Ilarion, attended the reception.
On the morning of 5 July the delegation of the Episcopal church visited the church of Christ the Savior which is under construction and learned about its history and the course of the construction work. They went into the lower church of the Transfiguration. In the afternoon Bishop Griswold and all members of the American delegation were received by the most holy patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus, Alexis II, in his official residence at the Saint Daniel's monastery. This meeting also was attended by Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, chairman of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow patriarchate; Metropolitan Sergius of Solnechnogorsk, administrator of affairs of the Moscow patriarchate; Protopresbyter Matfei Stadniuk, the patriarch's secretary; Monastic Monk Ilarion Alfeev, secretary of OVTsS for Inter-Christian Relations; Protodeacon Vladimir Nazarkin; V.N. Malukhin, director of the communications service of OVTsS; and E.S. Speranskaia, an employee of the OVTsS secretariat for inter-Christian relations.
Patriarch Alexis of Moscow and all-Rus warmly welcomed Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold and his companions, noting that he had known many of them long and well. His Holiness emphasized that the memory of Saint Tikhon draws our churches together and exchange visits and joint social work strengthens our good relations. The most holy patriarch noted with gratitude the help which the Episcopal church of USA has extended to our church in the work of recovery of its normal life after decades of persecution, noting that the Episcopal church has never tried to engage in proselytism in Russia.
Presiding Bishop Griswold thanked the patriarch for such a joyous reception of the American delegation, emphasizing that he, as a new head of a church, would continue to develop cordial relations between Russian Orthodox and American Anglicans. The presiding bishop shared impressions from his first visit to Moscow churches and said that he was struck by the spirit of prayer which abides in them. Bishop Griswold said that he had great respect for Saint Serafim of Sarov and that the collected teachings and spiritual meditations on prayer of Saint Ignaty Brianchaninov, which have recently been translated into English, had revealed to him the depths of Orthodox holiness. The primate of the Russian Orthodox church gave a luncheon in honor of the presiding bishop and the delegation of the Episcopal church in USA, after which Patriarch Alexis and Bishop Griswold exchanged gifts as mementos.
In the second half of the afternoon there was a meeting and discussion of the American delegation with the chairman of OVTsS, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, and members of the OVTsS secretariat on inter-Christian relations. Metropolitan Kirill warmly welcomed the presiding bishop and described the work of the Department of External Church Relations (OVTsS). The master emphasized that one of the fundamental tasks of the department is developing a model of relations between the church, society, and the state. Metropolitan Kirill devoted special attention to the problem of overcoming the consequences of the war in Yugoslavia, identifying two directions: reconciliation and reconstruction of the country after the destructive bombing by the air forces of NATO. Expressing his lack of understanding of the conduct of the western countries in giving aid only to the Albanian side and not to all those who had suffered, Metropolitan Kirill emphasized that the unjust distribution of aid in itself is a time bomb. Metropolitan Kirill suggested to the representatives of the Episcopal church that they engage in discussion of ways in which our churches could cooperate in working out a joint strategy for resolving the situation in Yugoslavia. In his turn, Bishop Griswold reported that the fund of the presiding bishop of the Episcopal church has already amounted to one million dollars for aid to victims of the war in Yugoslavia. Members of the American delegation warmly supported Metropolitan Kirill's idea of calling an international Christian conference on Yugoslavia and declared that they know of the heroic efforts of Patriarch Pavle of Serbia for reaching a just peace in Yugoslavia.
Later in the meeting the possibility and necessity of reorganizing the World Council of Churches was discussed, with the goal of a more complete expression of the aspirations of the various confessional families to express their theological distinctives. The future of the work of the Joint Coordinating Committee on Cooperation between our churches was discussed. An assessment was made of the preparation of the next round in the theological dialogue between representatives of the two churches, whose topic is supposed to be set within the context of the new millennium and concentrate on a search for ways to overcome ideological differences between East and West. Questions of practical cooperation in the future, in particular an exchange of students, were also touched upon. At the conclusion of the meeting in OVTsS Metropolitan Kirill gave a dinner in honor of the presiding bishop and the delegation of the Episcopal church in USA.
On 6 July Griswold and some of the delegates went to the Saint Sergius Holy Trinity lavra and the Moscow Ecclesiastical Academy; they also visited the "Sofrino" art and manufacturing factory of the Moscow patriarchate. New York Bishop Richard Grein and Canon John Backus made a visit to the Department of Social Service and Charity, where they met with its chairman, Metropolitan Sergius of Solnechnogorsk. Bishop Charles Keyser visited the Department on Relations with the Armed Forces and Law Enforcement Agencies, where he had a discussion with the chairman of the department, Bishop Savva of Krasnogorsk. Then Bishop Keyser attended the consecration of a chapel in honor of Holy Prince Dmitry of the Don on the territory of the Institute of Armor Forces in suburban Kubink, which was conducted by Patriarch Alexis II.
On the same day there was a regular session of the Joint Coordinating Committee on Cooperation between our churches. In the evening Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold gave a dinner in honor of Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all-Rus in the restaurant of the Saint Daniel's hotel.
On 7 July on the way to the airport the American Delegation visited the Department for Relations with the Armed Forces and Law Enforcement Agencies. Its chairman, Bishop Savva, informed the guests about the course of restoration work which is being done in the church of the Jerusalem Icon of the Mother of God (lower) and the church of the Ascension of the Lord (upper), in premises which are occupied by a children's home. In the afternoon most of the delegation of the Episcopal church led by the presiding bishop left Russia. The guests were escorted by Bishop Savva and Monastic Priest Ilarion.
During their stay in Moscow the American delegation spent much time in prayer. Every day Bishop Griswold conducted the Eucharist in a room especially prepared for this in the Saint Daniel's hotel. Earlier than that Bishop Griswold prayed in the church of the Holy Fathers of the Seven Ecumenical Councils in Saint Daniel's monastery. The guests devoted themselves to profound prayer at the sancta of the Russian Orthodox church, the holy icons and relics of God's saints. The meetings and discussions in Moscow were conducted in a spirit of mutual understanding and friendship, which inspires confidence in the successful continuation of cooperation between the Russian Orthodox church and the Episcopal church in USA.
COMMUNIQUE
The presiding bishop of the Episcopal church in USA, Frank T. Griswold, was in Moscow from 3 to 7 July, upon the invitation of the Most Holy patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus, Alexis II. He was accompanied by Bishop Roger White of Milwaukee, the co-chairman of the Joint Coordinating Committee on Cooperation of the Episcopal Church with the Russian Orthodox Church; Bishop Richard Grein of New York, the chairman of the National Committee of the Episcopal Church on Relations with Orthodox Churches in USA and founder of the Russian Committee in the New York diocese; Bishop Charles Keyser, director of military, prison, and hospital chaplains of the Episcopal church; Canon David Perry, ecumenical officer of the Episcopal church; Canon Professor J. Robert Wright, consultant on theological matters of the ecumenical office of the Episcopal church; Canon John Backus, chairman of the New York diocesan committee on relations with Orthodox churches; James Solheim, director of the New Service of the Episcopal Church; and Canon James Rosenthal, director of the Anglican Communion News Service.
Most Holy Patriarch Alexis gave a luncheon in honor of the presiding bishop of the Episcopal church and members of the American delegation in his residence in the Saint Daniel's monastery. Chairman of the Department of External Church Relations, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, gave a dinner in honor of the delegation of the Episcopal church in USA. At the conclusion of his visit, Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold gave a reception in honor of the most holy patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus, Alexis II.
Significant events of the visit included attendance at the patriarchal cathedral of the Epiphany, the church of the Holy Life-giving Trinity in Khoroshevo, the Vysokopetrovsk monastery, and the church of the holy martyr Catherine in Vspolie (the annex of the Orthodox Church in America). There also were visits to the Saint Daniel's monastery, next door to the Saint Daniel's hotel where the American delegation stayed, and to the monastery of the Don, where they reverenced the relics of Saint Tikhon, who in his lifetime was archpastor in North America and later became the patriarch of Moscow and a confessor of the faith of Christ. The delegation visited St. Andrew's Anglican parish and the cathedral of Christ the Savior, which once was destroyed but now has been restored almost to its earlier form. The presiding bishop and several members of the delegation made a pilgrimage to the Saint Sergius Holy Trinity lavra, where they reverenced the relics of Saint Sergius of Radonezh.
The discussion conducted in the Department of External Church Relations under the leadership of Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold and Metropolitan Kirill focused on five basic questions: (1) the situation in Yugoslavia and the question of how our churches could cooperate in developing a common strategy and the convocation of a conference which could facilitate peace and help avoid crises like that of Kosovo in future; (2) the possibility of reorganization of the World Council of Churches with a goal of more fully expressing the aspirations of the various confessional families to express their theological distinctives; (3) the future of the work of the Joint Coordinating Committee on Cooperation between the two churches; (4) the preparation for the next round of theological dialogue between the two churches, whose topic should be defined within the context of the new millennium and concentrate on the search for ways of overcoming ideological differences between East and West; and (5) questions of practical cooperation in future, in particular of resolving the current problem of student exchange. All discussions and meetings were conducted in an atmosphere of open exchange of opinions which inspires the hope for future development of mutual relations between the two churches which are united by cordial bonds that have existed more than a century and were officially established in 1862, when the general convention of the Episcopal church established the "Russian-Greek Committee." During the visit a regular session of the Joint Coordinating Committee on Cooperation was conducted. (tr. by PDS)
(posted 11 July 1999)
Abraham Brumberg is a noted authority on Russian and East European affairs.
Over the past eight months or so, Western media have carried alarming reports on the resurgence of anti-Jewish hatred in the former USSR, especially in Russia and Ukraine, where most of gthe region's approximately one million Jews reside. Russia has been the chief culprit, with two men most associated with the flare-up-- Alexander Barkashov, leader of a small band of rabid followers known as the Russian National Unity Party, and former general Albert Makashov , a Communist member of the Duma (parliament), who regularly criss-crosses the country with his rabble-rousing message, liberally drawn from the notorious Protocols of the Elders of of Zion and similar forgeries.
Another Communist, Viktor Ilyukhin, chairman of the parliament's security committee, has charged Yeltsin with surrounding himself with Jews bent on committing "genocide" against the Russian people. The leader of the Communist Party in and outside the parliament, Gennadi A. Zyuganov, a man singularly adept at projecting now a moderate, now an acidulous attitude to non-Russian ethnic groups (the first at international gatherings, the other at home with loyal disciples), has never explicitly embraced the views of Ilyukhin and Makashov, and once even criticized the latter for his "intemperance." Nevertheless, he staunchly insists that Jews are "overepresented" in the state's leading bodies .
As a result, emigration--in decline for several years--began to escalate in January of this year. . At a two-day conference held at Harvard University last March speakers warned about rising fascism and xenophobia in the former USSR.. A colleague of mine, a distinguished historian--himself not Jewish --came back from a recent trip to Russia filled with harrowing stories of hooligans insulting Jews on the streets, kiosks inundated with scurrilous broadsheets, and public television offering time to the purveyors of mass hatred.
As a person with scholarly and journalistic experience in East European matters, I was eager to see for myself, so I joined, in a private capacity, a two week tour of Russia and Ukraine, sponsored by the US Jewish Community Development Fund (JCDF), an organization supporting Jewish cultural and religious activities in the former USSR. Just concluded, the trip in part confirmed past impressions, but it also yielded some startling evidence of relations between Jews and non-Jews and of a vibrant Jewish life at odds with the image of perv asiv e antgisemitism and oppressive fearf among Jews.
Ukraine, where our tour started, offered the frirst set of surprises.. Long regarded as a country steeped in brutal antisemitism., Ukraine has been the site of some of history's most hideous anti-Jewish massacres. During the Second World War, many Ukrainians abetted Hitler's New Order. There was a Ukrainian SS Division, some of the countsry's church leaders fawned on Hitler, and some rank -and-file Ukrainians cooperated with the Nazis in rounding up Jews and transporting them to the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Majdanek.
Like so many generalizations, however, this image of implacable Jew-hatred must be treated with circumspection. In l648-49, a series of massacres that have sometimes been described as the greatest calamity that befell the Jews before the Holocaust, was actually directed primarily at the Polish gentry, in fact occasionally prompting the latter, not especially known as philosemites, to make common cause with the Jews. During the Civil War in l9l8-19, thousands of Jews fell victim to bloody pogroms, which were often agttgributed exclusively to Ukrainians. Not true. Others, especially Russians serving in the White and Bolshevik armies, were no less guilty of such crimes. .
Still, the image of distinctive Ukrainian antisemitism lingered; it seemed all too appropriate that many of the "anti-Zionist" screeds that came out in the Soviet Union in the 1960s were published in Ukraine, a few of them under the imprimatur of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences.
Given this checkered history, I found it remarkable that so many Jews I met--in Kiev, with a population of 80,000 Jews out of a total of two and a quarter million, Cherkassy with a Jewish population of several thousand, and Smela, with barely 200--regard the past as dead and buried. They seem determined, for the time being at least, to stay where they are and go on with their lives. The most disaffected Ukrainian Jews, about a third of the total Jewish population, has already left, most of them for Israel, the United States, and Germany. The rest, with the help of American and Israeli institutions, maintain several synagogues (though only about 25 percent of Ukrainian and Russian Jews consider themselves religious), community centers, and a network of student Hillel organizations full of self-confident young people, who, as I could see, take pride in their accomplishments. There are Sunday schools and kindergardens: at one, in Kiev, I was charmed by four-year olds dancing Israeli dances, showing off their few sentences in English, and joining with a group of Ukrainian children in a spirited rendition of the Ukrainian gopak. Cultural events--concerts, theatrical performances, public lectures--take place tghroughout he country In Cherkassy, I spent sev eral hours at a large pub lic hall wherfe Jewish veterans and others celebrated the anniversary of the victory over Germany in l945, and where I was told b ty several participants that such celebrations give the lie to those who claim that Jews had tried to avoid serving in gthe arm ed forces. (In fact Jews constituted a significantly higher proportion of soldiers and of meal winners.) At the same time, some Jews spoke with patent sincerity of their good relations, even deep friendships, with Ukrainians.
What explains this seeming metamorphosis? For one thing, the Ukrainian dissidents of the l970s and l980s made an heroic--and largely successful-- effort to resolve Jewish-Ukrainian tensions by cooperating openly with the refuseniks and other Jewish human rights activists. Second, since l991 the Ukrainian leadership has not only lifted all restrictions on organized Jewish life, but has actively helped and supported the Jews in fashioning their institutions, thus earning the gratitude of many.
There is another factor: The growth of a powerfully positive sense of membership in a Jewish community. In western Ukraine (Galicia) antisemitism has for various historical reasons been more pronounced than in the heavily russian East. It is still: Several young people from Lvivi (Lvov), capital of Westerrn Ukraine, sp;oke gloomily about the pervcasive antisemitism in their city, where putrid antisemitic publicaitons and hateful remarks on the streets and in stores poison the atmosphere for several thousand Jewish inhabitants. Nevertheless, even there the cohesion and support of community organizations counteract the daily indignities. .. "I often feel lonely and alienated during the day," said one young woman from Lviv wistfully, "but in the evening I find warmth and succor in our Hillel headquarters." In answer to a question by one of my co-travelers, she said defiantly that she planned to remain in Lviv, "which is still my city, unless the economic situation becomes altogether unbearable and the Jews are made to pay for it." She added, however, that many of her friends are planning to emigrate.
After leaving Ukraine I spent a week in Moscow, the old historic town of Tula, and St. Petersburg. Everywhere, young people demonstrated the same insouciance as their Ukrainian peers. Middle-aged Russian Jews are also impressed. "It is remarkable," Boris Frezinsky, a well-known scholar, told me in his St. Petersburg apartment, "to see these young people on the streets veritably flaunting their Jewishness." Fifty-eight years old and half Jewish, he remembers the impact of antisemitic policies on him and his coevals twenty, thirty, or forty years ago. We both recalled the typically furtive behavior of Russian Jews before the rise of the dissident movement, when meeting an American like myself seemed to be fraught with incalculable danger.
In Russia, more than in the Ukraine, klezmer bands proliferate, some of them no less skilled than their counterparts in the United States. And nowhere in Ukraine are there Jewish studies courses with enrollments that compare with those in Russia: in Moscow alone, four universities offer Judaica programs leading to the equivalent of a Ph.D. degree, with roughly 650 students registered. (In one of them, the Maimonides Academy, whose philology department is headed by Professor Michael Chlenov, a prominent anthropologist and chairman of the Council of Russian Jews , students who take Hebrew are also obliged to take several courses in Yiddish)
But the biggest surprise for me was the story of the small town of Borovichi, south of St. Pertersburg, with a Jewish population of no more than l00. Some time ago Barkashov's hooligans took to the streets of Borovichi, shouting obscene anti-Jewish slogans and scattering antisemitic leaflets. The police at first pooh-poohed it as "just a minor nuisance," but when a local 19 year old was murdered, the police, suspecting the "Barkashovites" (though this was never proved), sprung into action. They expelled the Nationalists, and, asked the Jewish community to organize a course for the police on antisemitism, its history and its causes. The somewhat stunned Jewish community happily complied.
Do these developments, however encouraging, suggest that the gloomy scenarios which I mentioned at the beginning of this article are isolated or without foundation? To assume so would be to exchange one hyperbole for another . Yes, Russian and Ukrainian Jews are still generally eager to proceed with their lives, in their own homes, where they grew up and hope to raise their children. But the Makashovs and Barkashovs continue to stage rallies--with, I was told, repercussions in Ukraine, too-- the parliament still refuses to take any action against Makashov, and in fact emigration has increased, though thus far not very significantly.
In Moscow Vladimir Shapiro, an eminent sociologist, told me of a recent survey that found antisemitism rampant in high schools throughout the Russian Federation. And he added another caveat. The Jewish population of Russia and Ukraine, he said, is steadily shrinking, with only one child born for every ten deaths. This demographic slide obtains both among those who formally identify themselves as Jews (so-called "passport Jews") and those who consider themselves Jews regardless of their passport ethnicity. He added that the persistence of very small Jewish families (two children at most) is not necessarily good news for those who want to preserve the Jewish presence in that part of the world.
The Jews of Russia and Ukraine, then, cannot be regarded as an endangered species. Their perseverance and sense of cohesion are admirable. Their indifference to the propaganda of the Jewish Agency, which has pleaded with them to go to Israel and even at times withheld support from activities, such as Yiddish schools, that do not accord with conventional Zionkist ideology, is also striking.
The situation, then, is fluid. The fear that Jews, as so often in the past, may again find themselves scapegoated for their countries' economkic ills, cannot be dismissed. . Which is to say that what their future holds remains to be seen.
from Johnson's Russia List
(posted 10 July 1999)
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