Anti-Semitism in Russia - 03.21.2005
Anti-Semitic Letter Resurfaces
NEW Version of Anti-Semitic letter: English Russian
Coverage:
NEW - Russian Prosecutors Target Jewish Grp.
St. Petersburg Times: Prosecutors Say Letter Not Anti-Semitic
London Telegraph: Chess Champ Spassky Signs Petition
FJC: Russian Foreign Ministry Condemns Letter
FJC: Chief Rabbi meets with Prosecutor General
J'selem Post/JTA: Mass call to outlaw Jewish groups
Yediot Ahronot: Russians Call for Ban on Jewish Groups
Moscow News: Orthodox Group Repeats Anti-Semitic Demands
Anti-Semitism in Russia - 01.18.2005
Russian MPs Sign Anti-Semitic Letter
Original anti-Semitic letter: English Russian
Russian Foreign Ministry Statement
NCSJ Responds to FM Statement
Jewish Groups Respond: NCSJ EAJC FJC RJC MBHR/HF
Pres. Putin Denounces Anti-Semitism: Reuters ITAR-TASS
Russian MPs Condemn Letter: AP Interfax New York Times
More coverage:
Jewish News Hits Russia's Mainstream Press
Jewish Groups Differ on Response to Letter
Russian Jews Wary As Anti-Semitism Rises
PRESS RELEASE
Release Date: January 25, 2005
Contact: Mark Levin
David Shulman
(202-989-2500)NCSJ Calls on Russian Government to Condemn Extremist Parliament Members
Washington, D.C. – In the wake of vicious anti-Semitic attacks in Moscow, NCSJ condemned a letter signed by members of Far-Right and Communist parties in the Russian Duma (Parliament) that seeks to ban all Jewish organizations because they are “extremist”. NCSJ calls on President Vladimir Putin, as he has done on numerous occasions in the past, to condemn such attacks and to repudiate this outrageous statement.
The letter claims that Jews themselves are responsible for fomenting ethnic strife, including the perpetration of anti-Semitic attacks against the Jewish community. It cites as evidence the notorious ‘blood libel’ – a claim that Jews practice ritual murder – and calls Judaism “Satanic”.
“At a time when the world is commemorating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp by Allied forces, including the Soviet Red Army, this letter demonstrates a deplorable lack of sensitivity for fundamental principles of pluralism and tolerance,” said NCSJ Executive Director Mark B. Levin.
NCSJ Chairman Robert J. Meth commented that “once again, the Red-Brown coalition has demonstrated its true feelings about Russian Jews. It is utter nonsense for any elected officials to ‘blame the victim’ for such attacks.”
“These vicious statements have no place in a civil society,” said NCSJ President Joel M. Schindler. “The Russian Government must speak out against this letter, and proclaim that they will not condone such language.”
NCSJ: Advocates on behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States & Eurasia, a voluntary, non-profit agency created in 1971, is the mandated central coordinating agency of the organized Jewish community for policy and activities on behalf of the estimated 1.5 million Jews in the former Soviet Union.
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Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
Department of Information and PressPress Release [Russian Original]
In connection to a letter addressed to Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation by a number of public figures published in the newspaper “Rus pravoslavnaya” [Orthodox Russia], which contained explicit anti-Semitic statements, it is necessary to stress that this statement has nothing in common with the official position of the Russian government, which categorically rejects any manifestations of interethnic hate and xenophobia, including anti-Semitism.
We regret the fact that publication of this letter coincides with the UN General Assembly’s special session on the 60th anniversary of liberation of prisoners from Nazi concentration camps, which has become a “tribute to the memory of” the victims of the Holocaust.
Efforts of the Russian government within the framework of various international forums are aimed at strengthening tolerance and fighting discrimination. Within this framework, we would like to call attention to a resolution introduced by the delegation from the Russian Federation at the 60th session of the UN Commission on the Rights of Man (Geneva, March-April 2004), [which calls for] “impermissibility of certain kinds of practices, that encourage the escalation of modern forms of racism, racist discrimination xenophobia and related intolerance.”25 January 2005
Translated by: Masha Bolotinskaya, NCSJ Program Assistant
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PRESS RELEASE
Release Date: January 25, 2005
Contact: Mark Levin
David Shulman
(202-989-2500)NCSJ Commends Russian Foreign Ministry Response
Washington, D.C. – NCSJ Executive Director Mark B. Levin commended the rapid response by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to a virulently anti-Semitic letter, signed by members of the Russian Duma (Parliament) and sent to the Russian Prosecutor General’s office. The letter accuses Jews of fomenting ethnic hatred and provoking anti-Semitism.
In an earlier statement, NCSJ called on Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Duma to repudiate the anti-Semitic message.
NCSJ also recognized the strong Russian Jewish Community response to this ugly and hateful message. NCSJ supported the statement by Russian Jewish Congress President Vladimir Slutsker, himself a Duma member, calling for an investigation of this incident. The letter was condemned by both Chief Rabbis of Russia, Berel Lazar and Adolf Shayevich.
For more information, visit http://www.ncsj.org/AuxPages/012505_Duma.shtml
NCSJ: Advocates on behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States & Eurasia, a voluntary, non-profit agency created in 1971, is the mandated central coordinating agency of the organized Jewish community for policy and activities on behalf of the estimated 1.5 million Jews in the former Soviet Union.
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St. Petersburg Times - 06.03.2005
St. Petersburg Times
Prosecutors Rule Paper's Use of Word 'Zhid' Is Legal
By Irina Titova, STAFF WRITER
The City Prosecutor's Office has again refused to open a criminal case for inciting ethnic or religious intolerance over anti-Semitic articles printed in two city newspapers, Za Russkoye Delo and Rus Pravoslavnaya.
In a written explanation of the refusal, deputy city prosecutor Alexander Korsunov declared that the derogatory term "zhid," or Yid, does not denote adherents of a specific religion.
"The term 'zhid' [mentioned in the article] and its grammatical modifications are not officially recognized as ... belonging to a certain religion," he wrote.
"The pretentious attitude of the author of the article and editors-in-chief to Judaic dogma, introduced in the article 'Jewish Happiness, Russian Tears," is based on an analysis of the officially published book 'Kitzur Shulchan Arukh,' which contains instructions of the rules of behavior for people of Jewish nationality towards non-Jews," Korsunov wrote.
The book is an ancient Jewish text.
"An appeal by the author [Korsunov] to the Prosecutor General with the request to check the data given in the book, and in case of its confirmation to forbid the activities of Jewish national religious unions as extremist ones, his desire to attract readers' attention to existing differences between dogmas ... in the absence of any calls for committing illegal actions against representatives of this or that nation, race or religion, provoking hatred or hostility ... does not constitute a crime as described in article 282 part 1 of the Criminal Code ... ," he said.
The request to open a criminal case came from Ruslan Linkov, head of the St. Petersburg branch of Democratic Russia, and Yury Vdovin, co-chairman of human rights organization Citizens' Watch.
Linkov and Vdovin in January 2005 criticized Rus Pravoslavnaya for publishing a so-called "letter of 500," which was "saturated with extremism and hatred toward Jews."
The letter was signed by 20 State Duma deputies.
The City Prosecutor's Office first rejected opening a criminal case, deciding that a warning to the newspapers was sufficient. In May they decided to reconsider the rights activists' request.
The newspapers' editors have argued that the prosecutor's office has been too harsh toward them.
In repeated comments to The St. Petersburg Times, the editors of the newspapers have denied the charges, saying all they did was analyze historical materials.
Vdovin said he did not accept city prosecutors' explanation.
"It could be a consequence of the secretive sympathy of such bodies for xenophobic moods, including anti-Semitism," Vdovin said Wednesday in a telephone interview.
"Our administration supports such moods on purpose to divert the public's dissatisfaction with the social and economic situation. This way people tend to blame Jews for all their problems rather than the authorities," he said.
There is a danger that "in a while officials would not be able to control such moods," he added.
Linkov said he planned to write a letter to the General Prosecutor to explain his concerns, and to bring an lawsuit against the city prosecution office for its "illegal" and "absolutely unjustified" refusal to open a criminal case against "a blatant crime."
Linkov also said modern Russian dictionaries define "zhid" as an insulting name for Jewish people.
Rabbi Michael Farbman, of the Progressive Jewish Community Shaarei Shalom, said of nationalism in Russia that "Russian nationalism should find the positive in itself, not the negative in others."
"A strong nation is not afraid of anyone," Farbman said, adding that nationalists do not represent all Russians.
London Telegraph - 04.10.2005
London Telegraph
Outrage in Russia as Spassky puts name to rabidly anti-Semitic petition
By Bojan Pancevski
Boris Spassky, the former chess world champion, has caused uproar in Russia by signing a petition that demands the country's state prosecutor bans a number of Jewish organisations.
Spassky was among 5,000 Russians who put their name to a letter calling for a ban on all religious and national groups acting on the principles of the Shulchan Aruch, a repository of Jewish law originally written in the 1560s.
The "Letter of 5,000", sent three weeks ago, branded Judaism "anti-Christian and inhumane" and accused believers of "committing ritual murders".
It warned of a "hidden campaign of genocide against the Russian people and their traditional society and values", and was backed with quotes from anti-Semitic literature from the 19th century.
Late on Friday, after constant criticism from religious leaders and figures in the chess world, Spassky tried to distance himself from the campaign. He did not deny that he had signed it, but said: "The appearance of my name was a mistake. As a 'Chess King' I have always tried to fortify and unite the multinational kingdom of chess, and not to cause division within it. I will remain faithful to that principle in my old age."
Evgeny Gik, a Russian chess master and writer who is a long-term acquaintance of Spassky, had condemned the letter in a Russian newspaper. He recalled how, in the 1990s, Spassky travelled from his home in France to the St Petersburg chess club to be the guest of honour at a dinner party.
There, according to Gik, Spassky remarked: "Everything is good in Russia, but I don't know how the Russian people can have allowed so many big-nosed people into government." Gik said that several grandmasters left the table in protest.
Lev Ponomarev, a respected human rights activist, also condemned Spassky's involvement in the letter. "I am ashamed that people of such high moral authority are taking the lead in creating a kind of orthodox Taliban," he said.
Spassky, who was born in 1937 and learned to play chess at five, became world chess champion in 1969 - a title that he held until 1972, when he was beaten by the American, Bobby Fischer. The match was perhaps the most legendary chess duel of all time.
Many leading Soviet-era players were Jewish, including Garry Kasparov, officially the highest-ranked in the world but now retired. The intense competition created a "them and us" division between Jewish and non-Jewish players, who include Spassky. Although this is the first time that Spassky has given vent to anti-Semitic feelings in public, Fischer - whose parents were, in fact, Jewish - has frequently exposed himself as a Holocaust denier and anti-Semite.
In an interview in 1999, he said that Jews were "criminals, parasites, liars and thieves" and described America as a "farce controlled by dirty, hook-nosed, circumcised Jew bastards."
The American was detained in prison in Japan last year for travelling on a passport that had been revoked by the US. He was wanted for breaking a trade embargo by playing a rematch with Spassky in the former Yugoslavia, in 1992. The wording of the petition signed by Spassky was almost identical to an earlier "Letter of 500", signed by key Russian politicians and sent to the prosecutor, Gen Vladimir Ustinov, in January.
Both petitions called for a ban on the sale and publication of the Shulchan Aruch and for Jewish schools to be monitored to stamp out "extremism". Other leading Russians who signed the later letter included the sculptor Vyacheslav Klykov, the mathematician Igor Sharevich, the writer Vassily Belov, and Orthodox church officials.
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Jerusalem Post - 04.03.2005
Jerusalem Post
Mass call to outlaw Jewish groups
By JPost staff and JTA
Over 5,000 known public activists and members of the clergy in Russia have sent a petition to the state prosecutor's office in which they demand to outlaw Jewish groups.
In the petition, the signatories use quotes from Kitzur Shulhan Aruch, which they argue prove their claim that Judaism is a fanatic and racist religion that hates gentiles.
Among those who signed the letter, according to Army Radio, are ex-generals, artists and the former world champion in chess.
Israel's Ambassador to Russia, Arkadi Milman, called the new affair severe and said that Israel will contact Russian authorities in an attempt to prosecute those responsible for the petition.
The recent anti-Semitic petition comes two months after about 20 members of the lower Russian parliament house, the State Duma, asked Prosecutor- General Vladimir Ustinov to investigate their claims that Jews are fomenting ethnic hatred and provoking anti-Semitism.
Arguing that Jews were to blame for anti-Semitism, the authors of the letter demanded that Jewish groups be outlawed, based on legislation against extremism and fomenting ethnic discord.
However, in a 306-58 vote that hewed to party lines, the State Duma adopted a declaration saying that the 'clear anti-Semitic intent' of the letter and other appeals for government actions targeting Jews 'prompts indignation and sharp condemnation.'
The stunning calls to ban all Jewish groups comes amid concerns of persistent anti-Semitism that continues to plague Russia.
Jewish leaders have praised President Vladimir Putin's government for encouraging religious tolerance, but rights groups accuse the authorities of failing to adequately prosecute the perpetrators of anti-Semitic and racial violence.
Russia's chief rabbi, Berel Lazar, said the lawmakers were either insane or 'quite sane but limitlessly cynical' and were hoping to win support 'by playing the anti-Semitic card.'
With Putin planning to join events this week commemorating the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops, Russia's Holocaust Foundation head Alla Gerber said it was 'horrible that as we're marking the 60th anniversary of this tragic and great day... we can speak of the danger of fascism in the countries that defeated fascism.'
She said that while the Russian state itself is no longer anti-Semitic, there are 'anti-Semitic campaigns that are led by all sorts of organizations.'
'The economic situation is ripe for this, an enemy is needed, and the enemy is well-known, traditional,' Gerber said.
Echoing anti-Semitic tracts of the Czarist era, the letter's authors accuse Jews of working against the interests of the countries where they live and of monopolizing power worldwide. They say the United States 'has become an instrument for achieving the global aims of Judaism.'
'It is possible to say that the entire democratic world today is under the monetary and political control of international Judaism, which high-profile bankers are openly proud of,' the letter says.
Along with outlawing Jewish organizations, the lawmakers called for the prosecution of 'individuals responsible for providing these groups with state and municipal property, privileges and state financing.'
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Yediot Ahronot - 04.04.2005
Yediot Ahronot
Russians call for ban on Jewish groups
Russian Christain Orthodox activists say Jewish books promote religious hatred; among those who had signed the petition are former Chess World Champion Boris Spassky, author Vasily Belov
By Ronen Bodoni
Anti-Semitism in Russia: Some 5,000 Christian Orthodox activists in Russia have signed a petition that calls for outlawing Jewish organizations in the country.
The petition calls for a ban on Jewish groups and argues that Jewish literature, such as the book Shulchan Aruch (a repository of Jewish Law written originally by Rabbi Yosef Karo in the 1560's,) foments religious hatred.
The petition was sent to the State Prosecutor's Office, but at this time it is unclear whether the state prosecutor received the petition or how he will act on the matter.
Among those who signed the petition are several prominent Russian public figures, such as former Chess World Champion Boris Spassky, author Vasily Belov, and mathematician Igor Shafarevich.
Russian Parliament Member Alexander Krutov told the Moscow Times "the public raises such questions (regarding the banning of Jewish organizations), and they should be discussed."
He said those who signed the petition are members of a religious Orthodox group.
In January some 500 Russians, among them 20 members of the State Duma (the lower house of parliament,) presented a similar letter to the Prosecutor's Office.
The letter said Jewish organizations were "anti-Christian and inhumane, and their customs go as far as ceremonial murder."
Shalom to discuss issue with Putin
Boris Gorin of the Jewish Communities Federation of Russia told Interfax an official investigation should be launched against those who express blatant anti-Semitism.
Regarding Boris Spassky, he said "people who have achieved success in life and hold certain status in society must understand they are putting their name to shame when they sign such petitions."
Israeli Foreign Ministry official Nimrod Barkan said "we are very concerned about the events that are taking place in Russia."
"The situation in Russia is the best it has been in recent years as far as anti-Semitism is concerned, but it is still worrying," he said. "What is particularly troubling is that the Russian authorities are not doing all they can to launch a vigorous campaign against anti-Semitic activity."
Barkan added that in 2004 some 155 anti-Semitic incidents occurred in Russia, compared to 83 in 2003.
"There are only 300,000 Jews in Russia; this is a small minority numerically speaking, but they hold a mythical role in the Russian perception," he said.
Barkan said Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom will discuss the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is scheduled to visit Israel at the end of the month.
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MosNews - 03.24.2005
Orthodox Group Repeats Demand to Ban Russia’s Jewish Organizations — Russian MP
(MosNews) - A second letter has been sent to the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office demanding that several Jewish organizations be banned, Russian MP Alexander Krutov said.
“As far as I know, on March 21, an address on behalf of Orthodox believers was sent to the Prosecutor General’s Office,” Interfax news agency quoted him as saying. The deputy added that a specially formed initiative group gathered signatures under this letter. Russian MPs have not signed it, Krutov said.
“The community raises such questions [on a ban of Jewish organizations], and they are to be considered. The question exists, the problem exists, and they are to be solved,” Krutov, deputy chairman of the parliamentary committee on information policy, said. Similar letters were sent to the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament.
The letter’s authors have demanded a ban on all religious and national organizations based on the Jewish code of conduct, Shulhan Aruha. Among those who reportedly signed the letter are famous Russian writer Vassily Belov, sculptor Vyacheslav Klykov, mathematician Igor Shafarevich, Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov, and former chess champion Boris Spassky. However, Ivashov declined to comment on the reports.
A similar letter was sent to prosecutors at the end of January. Then, it was also signed by a group of Duma deputies including Krutov. The letter, signed by over 500 people including about 20 MPs, called the Jewish religion “anti-Christian and inhumane, whose practices extend even to ritual murders”.
The letter sending coincided with the day commemorating the WWII Holocaust victims. However, the deputies retracted their letter shortly afterwards. This time, it coincided with the Jewish holiday of Purim. The Duma condemned nationalist manifestations in Russian society, but it did not mention any of the deputies’ names.
Reuters - 01.27.2005
Putin Says Ashamed of Russian Anti-Semitism
KRAKOW, Poland (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he was ashamed of acts of anti-Semitism in present-day Russia and vowed action to eradicate it. His comments, made at a ceremony to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi death camp Auschwitz, came days after a group of Moscow parliamentarians called for the banning of Jewish organizations in Russia.
"We must unequivocally and unanimously tell present and future generations: no one has the right to be indifferent to anti-Semitism, nationalism, racial and religious intolerance," he said.
"We are not working effectively enough. Even in Russia, the country which did more than any other country to defeat the Nazis, we unfortunately see signs of anti-Semitism. And I am also shameful because of that."
About 20 nationalist and Communist deputies put their names to a letter, along with more than 500 other people, calling on Russia's General Prosecutor to investigate Jewish organizations and ban them under a law against extremism.
The deputies retracted their call after news of it emerged but Russia's chief rabbi Berl Lazar said the letter had caused outrage among the country's 1 million Jews and raised questions about the lessons learned from the Holocaust.
Deputies who signed the letter were mainly from the nationalist Rodina (Motherland) party -- which scored well in parliamentary elections with Kremlin backing -- with some from the Communist opposition.
Russia's Foreign Ministry denounced the document's "openly anti-Semitic views."
Last week, two rabbis were beaten with bottles in Moscow, the latest in a string of attacks in an area of the city where the Jewish community center is located.
Putin, who met Lazar in Krakow on Thursday, also likened Nazi barbarism of World War II, where 9 million Red Army soldiers died, to present terrorist fears.
"Today, instead of the Nazis we see terrorists who also ignore human rights in pursuing their aims and are prepared to murder anyone who does not conform to their notions," he said.
"We are convinced that we can preserve our civilization only if we join forces against our common enemy as it was during World War II."
Putin has allied Russia with the United States in its war on terrorism and frequently links separatists in mainly Muslim Chechnya with militants bent on destabilizing countries in a broad arc through Asia and Europe.
The Germans killed 1.5 million people at Auschwitz, the Nazis' largest death camp complex build as part of Adolf Hitler's "final solution" plans to exterminate European Jews.
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ITAR-TASS - 01.27.2005
Putin says Russia to oppose any manifestations of anti-Semitism
KRAKOW, January 27 (Itar-Tass) - Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has told an international forum entitled Let My People Live, underway in Krakow that the Russian government will always oppose any manifestations of anti-Semitism.
“We’ll do this using the force of law and public opinion,” he said.
As the forum is timed for the 60th anniversary of liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, Putin said: “We must remember the bitter lessons of the past and must do everything in our power to rule out a repetition of those experiences in the future”.
“Auschwitz became a bloody reality of Nazi crimes, since the Nazis declared Jews a second-rate nation,” Putin said.
He indicated that the Holocaust was the tragedy for the Jewish people as well as for the whole mankind.
He also said he felt ashamed by acts of anti-Semitism and xenophobia in Russia.
“We all of us must say together that no one can remain indifferent towards the acts of anti-Semitism, xenophobia, and racial intolerance,” he said at an international forum entitled Let My People Live.
“Germany’s Federal Chancellor said recently he felt ashamed by his country’s past, but the past is gone now anyway, while we must feel ashamed by what is happening today,” Putin said.
“Even in Russia, the country that did the most to defeat Nazism and liberate the Jews we can often see the manifestations of that disease [anti-Semitism],” Putin said.
“We are ashamed by them,” he indicated.
Putin called for fighting together with terrorism.
“Our civilization is facing other and no less dangerous threats, but I’d like to warn the civilization that we’ll be able to weed the terrorists out only if double standards are dropped,” he said.
As he reverted to the topic of Auschwitz, Putin said: “Soviet soldiers were the first ones to see the horrors of that camp. They shut down the furnaces in this and other camps forever”.
“They also liberated the city of Krakow,” he said. “About 600,000 Soviet soldiers fell on the frontlines in Poland. They paid their lives for freeing the Jewish people as well as other nations”.
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Jewish Telegraphic Agency - 02.02.2005
As letter hits mainstream media, Jewish news become Russian news
By Lev Krichevsky
MOSCOW (JTA) -- Jewish news rarely becomes part of mainstream media coverage in Russia, but a recent case involving an anti-Semitic letter was an exception.
What captured the media's attention was a letter that was rabidly anti-Semitic -- even by Russian standards -- allegedly signed by a huge group of some 500 "Orthodox Christian patriotic" people, as the authors wanted to be called, including 20 members of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament.
The letter has raised the issue of whether anti-Semitism is again spreading in Russia -- and how active the Jewish community should be in reacting to issues of anti-Semitism.
The lengthy document was published on the Web site of a small fringe newspaper, Rus Pravoslavnaya, or Orthodox Russia, and demanded that the prosecutor general consider imposing a ban on Judaism and Jewish community institutions in Russia, claiming they are extremist and anti-Christian.
To prove their thesis, the authors went so far as to accuse Jews of ritual murders and provided a long list of anti-Semitic quotes from sources spanning 120 years of Russian history.
The letter became a subject of widespread public debate, mainly because it appeared on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, and because the authors claimed it was signed by a large number of Russian lawmakers.
The document put President Vladimir Putin in an awkward position, particularly because a few days after the letter was made public he visited Poland to participate in events marking the Auschwitz liberation.
Following in the footsteps of many international politicians in recent years, Putin told an international forum in Krakow he was "ashamed of the manifestations of anti-Semitism in Russia. No one has the right to be indifferent toward anti-Semitism, xenophobia and racial intolerance."
Although Putin did not make any reference to the controversial letter, his Krakow confession was heard in Russia as a direct response to those who penned and signed the anti-Semitic document.
All major Jewish leaders -- including the country's two chief rabbis -- were quick to condemn the letter and its signatories, and many mainstream newspapers gave front-page space to the story.
Following the media attention -- and the reaction from Putin, the Foreign Ministry and Russia's Security Council -- the signatories promptly recalled the letter from the prosecutor general's office, and all but one of the 20 lawmakers reportedly repudiated their signatures. Some even claimed they had never signed the document and were unaware of its existence before the public scandal erupted.
On the surface, the reaction to the last week's incident was easy to predict.
Jewish officials and human rights activists were widely quoted in the media blasting the letter, and liberal mainstream newspapers echoed the Jewish indignation over the document.
And some Jewish leaders continued to call on the prosecution of those responsible for the letter even though it was recalled.
"A criminal offense has been made," Vladimir Slutsker, the Russian Jewish Congress' president, said on a radio show Sunday. "That the letter has been recalled in my opinion makes no difference."
But major Jewish leaders did not respond when some top-ranking officials showed what some might consider to be insensitivity over the issue.
Vladimir Ustinov, Russia's prosecutor general, said the letter should be seen as a manifestation of "kitchen anti-Semitism that is hard to root out in Russia. The main thing is that it shouldn't go beyond the kitchen," he said, speaking to the Parliament's upper house on Jan. 26.
Ustinov said the topic of anti-Semitism was not worth debating, claiming that "the more we talk, the bigger the interest is toward this topic."
It took Israel's ambassador to Moscow, Arkadi Milman, to respond to this remark. Speaking the following day at the Holocaust Day memorial event in Moscow on Jan. 27, Milman said that to go along "with kitchen anti-Semitism in the hope that it remains under control would be the same thing as to agree with kitchen cannibalism hoping that this way it doesn't go out of control."
While the origins of the controversial letter still remain obscure, theories abound.
Stanislav Belkovsky, a Jewish political analyst, wrote an article that appeared on a popular Web news portal, lenta.ru, and was widely circulated among Russian-speaking Jewish Web surfers.
In his article, Belkovsky suggested that the letter was concocted within Putin's administration in order to harm the reputations of left-wing opposition lawmakers.
All 20 lawmakers who reportedly signed the letter were members of the two Duma factions, the Motherland and the Communists, that were highly critical of the federal government's handling of social reforms.
Belkovsky said the letter was intended to show the West that any successor to Putin would be worse than the incumbent.
Most Jewish leaders refused to speculate on the conspiracy theories, but Slutsker said that if the letter was indeed a provocation, it was aimed against Putin himself.
But some Jews disagreed, saying the general atmosphere of Putin's regime made any scenario look possible.
The idea of Jewish collective guilt is "quite close to the people, and can be used by the FSB, despite the sad historical precedents," wrote political columnist Leonid Radzikhovsky. The commentary, published in the Moscow weekly Jewish Word, referred to the Federal Security Bureau, a successor to the Soviet-era KGB. The FSB is widely seen as gaining power under Putin, an ex-KGB man.
"I'm afraid we don't know the truth in this story, and may never find it out," said Maksim Kagan, a doctoral student in mathematics, while spending Sunday night at a Moscow club that was hosting a show by an Israeli rock group. "But the fact that a Jewish issue may have been used intentionally for some political purpose should in itself be a reason for concern."
"Take Chechnya, or Yukos or Beslan. In none of these stories I have a sense we were told the truth," he said, echoing a widespread attitude among many Russians that during Putin's rule the state-controlled media, especially television, has returned somewhat to the Soviet practice of reporting only one officially approved point of view on major developments.
After recent news stories on high-profile cases of anti-Semitic violence in Moscow, some Jews say they are scared.
"I'm afraid to think that every third individual in my country is an anti-Semite," said a middle-aged Jewish woman at a Moscow Jewish community center.
She was speaking Monday night after a popular Moscow radio station conducted a call-in poll asking the listeners whether they believed that Jews' participation in politics and business should be limited by the law: Thirty percent of 6,327 callers said "yes."
Some Jews, especially the younger generation, say it's time for Russian Jews to become more proactive when it comes to issues of Jewish concern.
"Shall we become as active as Jews in many other countries?" asked Beata Istakharova, a young Orthodox Jewish woman from Moscow, addressing a group of young Jewish professionals who gathered last week in a Moscow restaurant to celebrate the festival of Tu B'Shevat.
She said "as a Jew, as a mother" she was concerned by the anti-Semitic attacks, both verbal and physical, that took place in recent weeks in Russia. "Maybe it's time for us to decide whether we should be more vocal when it comes to issues that we talk so much about when we get together."
Only a couple of people among the three dozen Jews in the group agreed with her.
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New York Jewish Week - 02.10.2005
New York Jewish Week
The Great Hate Debate
Russian Jewish leaders differ on value of Duma repudiating anti-Semitic letter signed by some nationalist lawmakers.
Walter Ruby - Special To The Jewish Week
Leaders of the fractious Jewish community in Russia are taking opposing positions on whether a vote last week by the lower house of Russia’s parliament to condemn an overtly anti-Semitic statement signed by 19 of its members amounts to progress in the fight against anti-Jewish bigotry.
Yet four major Jewish leaders — Chief Rabbis Berel Lazar and Adolf Shayevich; Vladimir Slutsker, president of the Russian Jewish Congress; and Mikhail Chlenov, secretary general of the Eurasian Jewish Congress — agreed in separate phone interviews that the recent upsurge of anti-Semitism in Russia is more intense than anything since the mid-1990s. They said it has caused deep worry among the estimated 500,000 Jews living in Russia.
Rabbi Lazar and Slutsker, the two pre-eminent Jewish leaders in the country, praised Russian President Vladimir Putin as a staunch and indispensable ally of the Jewish community in the fight against anti-Semitism. But Rabbi Shayevich, a bitter rival of Rabbi Lazar, said Slutsker is “too close” to Putin to be an effective advocate for Jewish concerns or in the struggle for human rights and democracy, which many in Russia and abroad believe Putin himself to be imperiling.
About the Duma vote, Rabbi Lazar, a Chabadnik who has been in Moscow since 1989 and heads the most powerful Jewish umbrella body in Russia, the Federation of Russian Jewry, or FIOR, said, “There is no question this is a step forward. Much more needs to be done, but it is very positive the letter was repudiated by the Duma.”
Rabbi Lazar said Russian Jews are “certainly worried” by the anti-Semitic outbreak of recent weeks, “but aren’t running for the door. In many ways, things are worse in France and other European countries than here.”
But Chlenov said, “There is a widespread impression among many Jews here that the vote by the Duma accomplished nothing, since it is now clear that there will be no substantive action taken against the deputies who signed the letter.”
About 500 individuals signed the letter, which appeared Jan. 13 on the Web site of the St. Petersburg newspaper Rus Pravoslavnaya. The 19 Duma deputies who signed were all from the Communist Party and the nationalist, pro-Putin party Rodina.
The letter asked Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov to launch proceedings “on the prohibition in our country of all religious and ethnic Jewish organizations as extremist.”
Its publication and repudiation by the Duma come amid a series of events over the past month that have made anti-Semitism a hot story in Moscow. The events include the brutal beating of a leading Jewish religious activist, Rabbi Alexander Lakshin, while walking on the street near Chabad’s Marina Rosche synagogue, and two television discussion programs aired in the past week that allowed several signers of the letter to propound anti-Semitic theories to millions of viewers.
After the first program, “K’Baryer,” a “Crossfire”-style debate, was shown Feb. 3, some 53 percent of the more than 100,000 viewers who called the station maintained that Albert Makashov, a Communist Party deputy who has long revelled in unabashed anti-Jewish rhetoric, got the better of his debate opponent, Aleksei Leonov, a former cosmonaut who denounced Makashov for ethnic incitement.
During the second TV program, “Vremina,” two other Duma members who signed the anti-Semitic letter, Alexander Krutov and Sergei Supko, asserted that the Shulchan Aruch insults Christians and demanded that the procurator-general investigate whether such incitement is taking place in Jewish religious schools where the Shulchan Aruch, the Code of Jewish Law, is studied.
All major Jewish bodies were quick to condemn the letter and its signatories. Several Jewish leaders, including Slutsker, Chlenov and Rabbi Shayevich, promised to open legal proceedings against its signers.
Russian Jews have complained for years that the country’s legal authorities are less than ardent about prosecuting purveyors of hate speech despite an article in the Constitution that makes it a crime to incite religious or ethnic hatred.
The Jewish leadership was relieved when Putin, on a trip to Poland to participate in ceremonies marking the liberation of Auschwitz, said he was “ashamed of the manifestations of anti-Semitism in Russia,” adding, “No one has the right to be indifferent toward anti-Semitism, xenophobia and racial intolerance.”
Under pressure from the Putin administration, the Duma voted Feb. 4 by 306-58 to adopt a declaration stating that the “clear anti-Semitic intent” of the Jan. 13 letter “prompts indignation and sharp condemnation.” The Duma declaration said it was “particularly sorrowful” that the letter came as the world mourned the victims of Auschwitz, adding that the consequences of such initiatives “could be extremely dangerous for a multiethnic state like Russia.”
Yet the night before the vote, Makashov staunchly defended the letter on “K’Baryer.” The show’s host, Vladimir Solovyov, who is Jewish, defended the invitation to Makashov by contending that it is important to expose the issue of anti-Semitism instead of allowing it to fester.
Yet Chlenov, the founder of the Vaad, the first official Jewish organization in the Soviet Union back in 1989, said the TV debate helped Makashov spread his anti-Jewish libels before an audience of millions.
“The fact that 53 percent of viewers felt Makashov won the debate does not necessarily mean they are all anti-Semites, but also reflects the fact that Makashov is a dynamic debater, whereas Leonov was quite weak,” Chlenov said.
On “Vremina,” with veteran talk show host Vladimir Posner, Slutsker countered Krutov’s attack on the Shulchan Aruch. Slutsker, a wealthy businessman, pro-Putin member of the Senate and student of kabbalah, pointed out that statements asserting Jewish superiority to non-Jews in the ancient text were made vis-a-vis pagans and not Christians, as Krutov asserted.
Rabbi Lazar, who was appointed chief rabbi in 2000 by Putin’s office and is known to be personally close to the president, said he had “no second thoughts” about having presented Putin a medal at last month’s ceremony at Auschwitz. The award was in gratitude for the Soviet Army’s liberation of Poland, despite recent steps by Putin seen as anti-democratic, such as curbing the independent media and ending direct elections of governors.
According to Rabbi Lazar, “The president has been a strong friend of the Jewish people, and his statement at Auschwitz shows that he sees a big danger from anti-Semitism in Russia.”
As for Putin’s recent steps against democracy, Rabbi Lazar said, “I do not see myself as a political voice who should comment on every move of the government. My job is to keep the Jewish community safe and help to strengthen Russia-Israel ties.”
Slutsker, who took over the Russian Jewish Congress in October and has brought that body closer to the positions of Rabbi Lazar and FIOR, said, “I welcome the vote in the Duma, which puts it on record against anti-Semitism.”
A faithful supporter of Putin during his career in the Senate, Slutsker said the West should give Putin the benefit of the doubt on his steps to cut back on democratic expression in Russia.
“In the wake of 9-11, even the United States had to limit certain democratic rights,” Slutsker said. “Russia, which has far fewer resources than the U.S. and millions of Muslims within its borders, also had to do so. Yet ending the direct elections of governors does not impact the Jewish community. The real threat to Jews comes from Rodina and the Communist Party.”
Rabbi Shayevich believes “there is a connection” between Putin’s anti-democratic measures and the recent anti-Semitic revival, and he criticized Rabbi Lazar for not speaking out more forcefully.
“Rabbi Lazar is too close to power,” said Rabbi Shayevich, who was Russia’s lone chief rabbi before Putin appointed Rabbi Lazar and began a policy of favoring FIOR over Rabbi Shayevich and the RJC. “Rabbi Lazar always defends the president, as long as he doesn’t go directly against the Jewish community. For my part I have criticized the president’s policy on Chechnya and the government’s cutting back on social benefits to pensioners.”
Chlenov, who believed the Duma members were encouraged to publish their anti-Semitic letter by the authoritarian climate created by Putin, said: “The reality is that there is no consensus in the Jewish community on the issue of authoritarianism, yet there definitely is a consensus on anti-Semitism. The Jewish community is determined to press the authorities to crack down on those who spread ethnic hatred.”
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Associated Press - 02.04.2005
Russia's Duma lambastes anti-Semitic letter
By The Associated Press
(AP) - The Russian parliament's lower house adopted a declaration Friday sharply condemning a letter that urged prosecutors to outlaw all Jewish organizations in Russia, but the nationalist and Communist factions whose members had signed the letter were absent or voted against.
In a 306-58 vote that hewed to party lines, the State Duma adopted a declaration saying that the "clear anti-Semitic intent" of the letter and other appeals for government actions targeting Jews "prompts indignation and sharp condemnation."
Last month's letter, whose signatories included 20 Duma deputies, asked Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov to launch proceedings "on the prohibition in our country of all religious and ethnic Jewish organizations as extremist" - essentially a call for a ban on all organized Judaism.
Arguing that the teachings of Judaism and the behavior of Jews were responsible for anti-Semitism, the authors said that anti-Jewish statements by "Russian patriots" are justified and that Jewish groups should be outlawed based on legislation against extremism and fomenting ethnic discord.
The letter drew disgust and criticism from Jewish and human rights groups. President Vladimir Putin, speaking during events marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, acknowledged that anti-Semitism and xenophobia had surfaced in Russia - an issue the Kremlin had long failed to confront directly.
The Duma declaration said it was "particularly sorrowful" that the letter came as the world mourned the victims of Auschwitz, and that while its authors later withdrew their request, "the simple fact of such appeals cannot fail to concern us."
It said the consequences of initiatives such as the letter "could be extremely dangerous for a multiethnic state like Russia."
The Duma declaration reflected the Kremlin's eagerness to be seen as intolerant of anti-Semitism: Almost all the votes in favor came from lawmakers in the dominant, pro-Kremlin United Russia party and from the handful of independent lawmakers.
Votes against the declaration came from Communist lawmakers - six of whom were among the letter's signatories - and members of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party. The Homeland faction - six of whose members signed the letter - is boycotting parliament sessions in an unrelated protest.
Some Communist lawmakers defended the letter. Sergei Reshulsky said that "aside from emotional statements, I have not heard coherent criticism of the lawmakers who signed the letter," and Tamara Pletnyova said the views about Jews that it espoused "did not come out of nowhere."
She cited a song she heard on the radio in which the singer says she will marry a Jew because Jews are shrewd.
Russia has a long history of state-sponsored anti-Semitism, from Czarist-era pogroms to Soviet-era discrimination.
While the government no longer perpetuates anti-Semitism following the Soviet collapse, many Jews and rights advocates accuse Russian leaders of being silent in the face of xenophobia - expressed in the occasional desecration of Jewish cemeteries and more frequent skinhead attacks against dark-skinned foreigners
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New York Times - 02.05.2005
New York Times
Russian Legislators Vote to Condemn Anti-Semitism
By SOPHIA KISHKOVSKY
MOSCOW - The lower house of Parliament voted Friday to condemn anti-Semitism after an uproar touched off when a group of mostly nationalist and Communist legislators demanded last month that Jewish organizations be investigated and even outlawed for fomenting ethnic hatred and stimulating anti-Semitism themselves.
But while 306 lawmakers approved the nonbinding resolution, 58 refused to endorse it. "There should be no room for anti-Semitism or ethnic and religious hatred," the resolution said. "Any steps aimed at inciting national or religious dissent and hatred must be stopped immediately."
The resolution carries no consequences.
The nationalist and Communist legislators had written a letter last month to the prosecutor general calling for the investigation of Jewish organizations.
The Communist Party called for the vote to be removed from the agenda, contending, "There is no anti-Semitism in Russia."
Twenty legislators signed the letter, which blamed Jews for carrying out ritual killings, for collapsing the Soviet Union and for controlling Russian and international capital.
It was made public on the eve of President Vladimir V. Putin's trip to Poland for the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops.
"Even in Russia," Mr. Putin said then, "which did more than anybody else to crush fascism and liberate the Jewish people, we often see symptoms of this disease today, and we feel ashamed about this."
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Interfax - 02.09.2005
Federation Council condemns Duma deputies' anti-Semitic initiative
MOSCOW (Interfax) - The Federation Council on Wednesday made a statement condemning State Duma deputies' letter to the Prosecutor- General's Office requesting checks on Jewish organizations.
"The Federation Council condemns the call to ban these ethnic religious organizations as extremist," Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov told the press.
He described the letter as "a manifestation of anti-Semitic propaganda."
He said the Federation Council indisputably defends Russian citizens' constitutional rights, including their right to choose a religion and to develop their ethnic cultures.
Reports were circulated in late January that 19 deputies of the Rodina and Communist Party factions sent a collective letter to the Prosecutor-General's Office requesting checks on the work of Jewish religious and ethnic organizations. The letter caused a broad negative response in the public.
The State Duma sharply condemned anti-Semitism.
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JTA - 02.10.2005
Russian Jewish groups speak out
MOSCOW (JTA) - Russian Jewish human-rights groups demanded that lawmakers who signed an anti-Semitic letter be stripped of their parliamentary immunity from prosecution.
In a letter to Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov and the speaker of the lower house of the Russian Parliament, Boris Gryzlov, distributed Wednesday, the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights, the Holocaust Foundation and other groups said the condemnation of the anti-Semitic lawmakers that already took place in the Duma should be followed by legal action against those responsible for the letter. “Otherwise the unrestrained nationalists will again — as it has been the case in the past — feel themselves absolutely unpunished,” the letter said. The activists also criticized Parliament member Albert Makashov, who attacked Jews last week in a televised debate.
Makashov’s appearance has demonstrated “the degree to which the disease is neglected and the necessity for coordinated government and public actions to suppress the activities of extreme nationalists, to educate the population, to overcome myths and bias. We can’t cover up the trouble any longer.” Inciting ethnic or religious hatred is a punishable offense in Russian criminal code, but few such cases have ended up in courts in the past
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