RJC Monitor - 03.28.2003

 

The Russian Jewish Congress

Does Israel Want War in Iraq? 

“Israel is the only nation in the Middle East which is seriously preparing for an attack with weapons of mass destruction,” says Yevgeny Satanovsky, President of the Russian Jewish Congress and head of the Institute for Israeli and Middle-Eastern Studies. 

Speaking at a press-conference organized by the Mir Novostei Center March 24 in Moscow, Mr. Satanovsky warned that in the conflict unfolding in the region, Israel is emerging as a hostage and, potentially, a victim of the US military campaign. 

The simple reason why that the Russian Jewish community as, in fact, most Russians cannot regard the war in Iraq as something abstract and far away is that “Israel is home to over one million of our former compatriots, people who speak Russian,” the RJC president stressed. “Nearly a quarter of a million of them are ethnic Russians, Ukrainians, Tatars, Belorussians and others who moved to Israel over the past decade together with their relatives. Moreover, tens of thousands of people residing in Israel today are still citizens of the Russian Federation.”

Yevgeny Satanovsky also answered questions related to the incident with musician Garik Sukachyov, the leader of a popular Russian rock-n-roll band, who refused to perform at the ‘Rock Against Terror” show organized by the Russian Jewish Congress together with the Moscow government March 20. In a letter sent to the show organizers one day before the concert, Mr. Sukachyov surprised not a few of his fans by canceling his appearance because “the organizers are ambiguous as to who they want to defend.” 

Sukachyov’s letter bristled with words of condemnation of the “fascist policy” of Israel “toward the people of Palestine.” In a most extraordinary passage, Sukachyov, moreover, blamed the concert organizers, the Russian Jewish Congress, above all, for “everything that has been going on in the occupied territories.”

There are people in Russia today for whom the term 'terrorism' is associated not with the "Nord Ost" theater hostage siege in Moscow (October 2002) or the massacre in Budenovsk (the city in the South Russia where a city hospital was seized in 1996 during a raid by Chechen gunmen), or the daily killings by Palestinian shahids of children and teenagers in Israel, but with the fascist Israeli regime oppressing the Palestinian people," said Yevgeny Satanovsky. 

RJC President Briefs Head of the Federation Council’s Foreign Affairs Committee 

On March 26, Yevgeny Satanovsky had a meeting with Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Federation Council of the State Duma. The two leaders discussed the Russian-American relations and coordination of efforts by Russian NGOs and government structures in the situation of hostilities in Iraq. 

In briefing Mr. Margelov on the position taken by Russian Jewish leaders in defense of Israel, Satanovsky stressed that it reflects not only their concern for the national interests of Russia and the historical links with the Jewish state, but also their anxiety for the destinies of about a million former citizens of the USSR who now reside in Israel. 

Russian Jews are quite skeptical about plans to restructure the Middle East according to an American model, since the past decade has taught them that US analytical assessments are often far removed from reality. Hence, glad as many Russian Jewish leaders seem to be in anticipation of the imminent removal from the political arena of one of the most vicious dictators, they are worried that the price of this removal might prove too high for the entire region and especially for the small Jewish state in particular, Satanovsky said. 

7th Jewish Children’s Arts Festival Opens in Moscow 

The presentation of the Anthology of Jewish Songs highlighted the opening the 7th Moscow International Festival of Jewish Children’s and Youth Art. The ceremony and first concert took place March 26 at the Moscow City Hall.

The Festival, organized by the Moscow-based Jewish Art Center for the past 12 years, is a landmark event in Jewish cultural life as it presents a unique panorama of creative achievement of hundreds of amateur Jewish groups from around the former USSR.

The Anthology of Jewish Songs presents paper music and texts of old stettles, ancient festival tunes and modern Israeli songs. The production of the Anthology is a result of many years of research work done at the Jewish Arts Center, which is headed by Vladimir Pliss and Leopold Kaimovsky. The unique project was sponsored by the president of the Popechitel Fund, Alexander Sukhanov. The Russian Ministry of Culture, the Moscow municipality, the JDC, RJC and the MEKPO Jewish Cultural Heritage organization also contributed to this effort to revive the tradition of Jewish folk singing.

The opening ceremony heard addresses by Chief Rabbi of Russia Adolf Shayevich and Yevgeny Satanovsky. 

Over 350 young singers, dancers, instrumentalists and actors from 24 cities of the former Soviet Union will appear in concerts in Moscow and five nearby cities, including Tula and Tver. 

The festival will run till April 1. 

Liberation Date Observed 

The 59th anniversary of the liberation by the Red Army of the town of Mogilev-Podolsky in the Ukraine during WWII was observed March 19 at the office of the Moscow chapter of the International Union of Former Jewish Prisoners of Fascism. 

March 19, 1943, saw the culmination of a major military operation by the units of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, which drove the Nazi occupation forces from Podolye, a region in the south-western Ukraine.

In the first months of WWII, Podolye, formerly a region of the Pale with a large Jewish population, was overrun by the Germans, who having exterminated thousands of Jews in small villages and stettles later drove people from larger towns into ghettos and concentration camps. Tens of thousands were added to this prison population as the Germans deported to Podolye Jews from other areas, primarily Rumania and northern Bukovina.

Regular mass executions, hunger and diseases killed thousands more, so for those who survived, March 19 has been the Day of Salvation ever since. 

Several communities of former prisoners are planning to visit Podolye next year to observe the 60th anniversary of its liberation. Special events are being planned at places of mass executions, especially in Pechora, the biggest concentration camp in the area.