Press Release - 02.28.2002

 

NCSJ Scores Anti-Semitic Party

Contact: Shai Franklin

NCSJ today condemned a new Russian political party that espouses anti-Semitism.  At the February 23 organizing meeting of the People’s Patriotic Party, party leader Igor Rodionov reportedly stated that Jews “must return what they have looted in Russia and publicly repent to the Russian people for the crimes that Jewish terrorists and extremists have committed.”  Another party official was quoted in the Russian press claiming that Jews “committed grave crimes against humanity in the 20^th century.”

NCSJ called on the Russian government to publicly condemn the new party and its extremist platform, and to pursue all appropriate legal mechanisms for addressing this latest example of political anti-Semitism.  According to NCSJ Chairman Harold Paul Luks, “This new anti-Semitic party attempts to reawaken latent popular anti-Semitism through a political movement and already includes eight members of the Duma in its presidium.  Those who argue that this is a fringe party must not ignore political anti-Semitism or allow it to gain the trappings of political legitimacy.”

NCSJ urged the Russian government to respond in the spirit of its recent statements and commitments.  In a January 31 meeting organized by NCSJ in Washington, DC, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov reported to American Jewish representatives on the positive relationship between Russian authorities and the Russian Jewish community.  In a letter of November 13, 2001, to Secretary of State Colin Powell, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov wrote that the revival of Russian Jewish life and protection of minority rights are “an indispensable condition for Russia’s existence and development as a multiethnic country and the development of a civil society on the basis of generally recognized rules of international law and universal morality.”  In a November 13 meeting with NCSJ and other American Jewish leadership, Russian President Vladimir Putin reaffirmed his own support for the reemergence of the Russian Jewish community and his determination to oppose anti-Semitic movements in Russia.

“In the spirit of such statements and the Russian government’s positive efforts to date, we urge the Russian authorities to use all public and legal means in addressing this latest attempt to build a political party on hatred of the Jewish people,” said NCSJ Executive Director Mark Levin.

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 American Jewish community for policy and activities on behalf of the estimated 1.5 million Jews in the former Soviet Union. NCSJ comprises nearly 50 national organizations and over 300 local federations, community councils and committees across the United States. Through this extensive network, NCSJ mobilizes the resources, energies and talents of millions of U.S. citizens, and also represents the American Jewish community in dealings with similar national groups abroad, and at international fora.