NCSJ - 04.23.2007

NCSJ Remembers Boris Yeltsin

Press Release

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- NCSJ is saddened by the death today of Boris Yeltsin, who served as President of Russia from 1991 until 1999. President Yeltsin was a key figure in the transition from Communism to a more open and free society that allowed over 1 million Jews to emigrate and a revival of Jewish life for those who remained. 

"President Yeltsin will be remember for speaking out forcibly against anti-Semitism in Russia following the bombing of a Moscow synagogue in 1998, when he called it 'an act of barbarism,'" said NCSJ Chairman Edward B. Robin. 

Robin added, "Later that year, President Yeltsin spoke at the dedication of a new synagogue on the same site, and he commemorated Soviet Jewish soldiers who fought during World War II, marking the first time that Russia's top government leader acknowledged the role Jewish soldiers played in the war." 

At the dedication, Yeltsin promised to launch a "major offensive" against anti-Semitic and extremist statements made by Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov. 

"His tenure as President contributed to an environment which created the revival of Jewish communities that we see in Russia today," added NCSJ Director Mark B. Levin.

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News and remembrances

JTA	Jews laud Yeltsin for ending state-sponsored anti-Semitism
Office of the Prime Minister of Israel	Olmert Sends Condolences on Passing of Yeltsin
Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia	Yeltsin gave Russia real religious freedom
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe	Helsinki Commission Mourns Death of Former President Yeltsin
JTA Brief	Jewish life prospered under Yeltsin
Bill Clinton	Boris the Fighter

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Office of the Prime Minister of Israel - 04.25.2007

PM Olmert Sends Condolences on Passing of Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, on behalf of the Government of Israel, expresses his sorrow and the condolences of the Israeli people over the passing of former Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

During the late President Yeltsin's term in office, the gates were opened for Jews from the former USSR to immigrate to Israel. His relationship with the Russian Jewish community enabled Jewish life to flourish.

Under the late President Yeltsin's leadership, Russian-Israeli relations developed apace. He accepted the credentials of Israel's first Ambassador to Russia.

Prime Minister Olmert sent his condolences to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian people.

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JTA: Global Jewish News - 04.24.2007

Jews laud Yeltsin for ending state-sponsored anti-Semitism

By Lev Krichevsky

MOSCOW (JTA) — Boris Yeltsin, Russia's first popularly elected president, made a lasting impact on Russian Jewry, though his legacy included its share of controversy and tragic failures.

Russian Jewish leaders agree that the community should remember Yeltsin, who died Monday at age 76, primarily as the man who ended decades of state-sanctioned anti-Semitism in Russia.

"With Yeltsin's passing, a page is closed for the Jewish community, that of revolutionary changes in the life of Soviet and Russian Jewry," said Borukh Gorin, spokesman for the Federations of Jewish Communities, Russia's largest Jewish group.

"Yeltsin was an important figure" for the Jewish community, said Mark Levin, executive director of NCSJ, a Washington-based group that works on behalf of Jews in the former Soviet Union. "His opening of the country allowed for the development of Jewish communities throughout Russia. His willingness to create a more open, democratic country certainly had an impact on the Jewish community."

Both of Russia's chief rabbis offered their condolences Monday to Yeltsin's wife, Naina, and daughter, Tatyana.

Mikhail Chlenov, who established Russia's first legal Jewish group in the early years of Yeltsin's rule, said Jews should remember Yeltsin as a great figure.

"It was his great achievement that the new Russia came to life without that evil called state anti-Semitism," said Chlenov, president of the Va'ad of Russia.

Others credit Yeltsin for allowing Jewish life to develop freely in Russia to an extent that was hard to imagine even under his predecessor, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

With American Jewish activists marking the 40th anniversary this year of the movement to free Soviet Jewry, it is notable that meaningful Jewish emigration began under Gorbachev, but it was Yeltsin who really opened the floodgates.

"While Gorbachev made freedom of emigration a reality for Soviet Jews, it was Yeltsin who made possible an unprecedented freedom of Jewish life in the country," Gorin said. "Jewish schools and new synagogues were opened -- it was he who made the impossible possible."

Yeltsin was much criticized for economic policies that left millions of Russians below the poverty line, but he was the "ultimate Russian president with a very Russian character," Gorin said. "It's no exaggeration to say we were blessed to have Yeltsin as president."

Another leading figure of the Russian Jewish renaissance during Yeltsin's presidency noted the fundamental changes in civil liberties and economic freedom that Yeltsin helped establish in Russia -- changes that ultimately benefited Jews.

"I won't make a direct connection between Yeltsin's rule and Jewish life in Russia unless we take into account the maxim that the more freedom there is, the better it is for Jews," said Alexander Osovtsov, who served as executive vice p resident of the Russian Jewish Congress from 1996 to 2000.

But Yeltsin's legacy also was filled with controversy.

"His resignation did not mean an immediate return of the things he demolished, but I cannot consider it accidental that during his rule, many people with anti-Semitic views came to power," Osovtsov said.

Osovtsov noted in particular Boris Mironov, an anti-Semitic publicist now on trial for hate speech who served as press minister early in Yeltsin's tenure.

"This only underscores the controversies of this gigantic figure," said Osovtsov, who is now a liberal opposition activist.

At the same time, some observers said that controversial policies in the second half of Yeltsin's presidency -- such as the escalating war in Chechnya and his decision to appoint a successor rather than have one elected -- paved the rise to power for Vladimir Putin and the slide back toward authoritarianism that has been associated wit h his rule.

Yet Osovtsov said Yeltsin's legacy cannot be underestimated, since some of the fundamental changes associated with his reign -- including the end of state-sponsored anti-Semitism -- have continued long after he left the office.

Chlenov agreed that Yeltsin was a controversial and even tragic figure, which has become even more evident since he stepped down in December 1999 in favor of Putin.

Yeltsin successfully fought the predominance of communist ideology, but was unsuccessful in overcoming the influence of bureaucracy and powerful apparatchiks. Many of the negative trends in Russian political and public life since his resignation are a direct result of the unfinished struggle Yeltsin led, Chlenov said.

"These are these bureaucratic circles who are taking their revenge now," Chlenov said.

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Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia - 04.25.2007

Yeltsin gave Russia real religious freedom

Moscow, Russia - The Chief of Russia Rabbi Berel Lazar sent his condolences to the widow and daughters of the first Russian president Boris Yeltsin who died on Monday.

‘Your husband and father has won a special place in the memory of Russian people of all faith and ethnicities as the first president of the independent and free Russia and as a man who laid the foundations of the civil society in our country,’ the rabbi said.

The Russian Jewish community ‘is and will be especially grateful to Boris Yeltsin,’ the rabbi added.

‘We will never forget how determinedly he struggled to preserve Russia historically unique as a united multiethnic and multiconfessional state as well as how he gave Russia real religious freedom,’ he said.

According to Lazar, Boris Yeltsin as politician and a public leader has ever strongly opposed chauvinism and anti-Semitism, an ‘in was not by chance that during his presidency in Russia in dozens of cities Jewish communities were established and first Jewish schools and kindergartens were opened.’

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Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe - 04.23.2007

Helsinki Commission Mourns Death of Former President Yeltsin

 Washington, DC - The Chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Commission), Congressman Alcee Hastings (D-FL), today made the following statement on the death of Boris Yeltsin, former president of the Russian Federation. 

“It was with great sadness that I learned of the death of former President Boris Yeltsin. I am sure I speak for all the members of the Helsinki Commission when I say that we join with millions of others in Russia and throughout the world in mourning the loss of the first freely-elected president of the Russian Federation and an honored world leader. 

Mr. Yeltsin was a man of the people who rose up to lead his nation through a time of tumult and crisis. The American people will long remember him for his courage and determination in defending Russia against the forces of reaction and for his desire to see Russia a free and democratic member of the international community. 

We extend our deepest sympathy to the Yeltsin family and to the Russian people on their loss. "

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JTA: Global Jewish News - 04.23.2007

Jewish life prospered under Yeltsin

(JTA) — Boris Yeltsin, the former Russian president whose years in power saw a mass emigration of Jews and the renaissance of Jewish life in the former Soviet Union, died at age 76. While it was Yeltsin's predecessor, Mikhail Gorbachev, who opened the gates for Soviet Jews and paved the way for the fall of the Iron Curtain, Yeltsin continued to open up the country.

Yeltsin spoke out against anti-Semitism and generally was seen as friendly to the Jewish community. Under Yeltsin, Russia's relations with Israel improved and Russia became active in the Middle East peace process.

"Yeltsin was an important figure" for the Jewish community, said Mark Levin, executive director of NCSJ, a group that works on behalf of Jews in the former Soviet Union." His opening of the country allowed for the development of Jewish communities throughout Russia. His willingness to create a more open, democratic country certainly had an impact on the Jewish community."

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New York Times - 04.29.2007

Boris the Fighter

Op-Ed

By Bill Clinton

MOSCOW - As I walked behind Boris Yeltsin’s coffin at Novodevichy Cemetery on Wednesday, I found myself thinking about the man I worked with closely for nearly eight years and the role he played in changing the world, mostly for the better. 

Every time I met with him, Mr. Yeltsin left no doubt that he had two objectives above all others. The first was to make sure that the Russian people never again had to live under communism, or autocratic ultranationalism. The second was to form a solid, lasting partnership between a democratic Russia and the West. 

On the big issues that came up between us, Mr. Yeltsin and I had our differences, and his position was often made more difficult by economic problems and political pressures. But at the end of the day, he almost always did the right thing. He insisted on respecting Russia’s borders with the other old Soviet republics. That meant standing up to Russian nationalists who might have plunged the former Soviet Union into the kind of chaos that engulfed Yugoslavia.

He made the compromises necessary to get Ukraine, along with Belarus and Kazakhstan, to give up its Soviet-era nuclear weapons. He pulled Russian troops out of the Baltic states. He made Russia part of the diplomatic solution to the crises in Bosnia and Kosovo. And much as he opposed the enlargement of NATO, he accepted the right of Central European states to join the alliance and signed a cooperation agreement between Russia and the alliance.

Mr. Yeltsin really wanted the Group of 7 industrialized nations to take Russia in as an eighth member. The other G-7 leaders and I agreed, because of the progress Russia was making in developing a pluralistic democracy with a free press and a vigorous civil society, and because of his critical cooperation on security issues. We saw the creation of the G-8 as a vote of confidence in him and his country’s future. 

The last time I saw Mr. Yeltsin during my presidency was in June 2000, six months after he became the first leader of Russia to step down voluntarily as part of a constitutional transition. Though the burdens of office and his heart surgery had taken a toll on his health, he still had his trademark bear hug and smile. He clearly thought he had done the right thing in stepping down early and in selecting as his successor Vladimir Putin, who had the intelligence, energy and stamina the country needed to get Russia’s economy on track and handle its complicated politics. 

I told him I was impressed by what I had seen of President Putin but wasn’t sure he was as comfortable with or committed to democracy as Mr. Yeltsin. Mr. Yeltsin replied that we would have disagreements as Russia found its way into the future, but that President Putin would not turn the clock back and we would find a way to work together.

I saw Mr. Yeltsin one more time, when I went back to the Kremlin for the 75th birthday party President Putin held for him last year. He seemed in good health and at peace with himself and his work. 

Boris Yeltsin was intelligent, passionate, emotional, strong-willed and courageous. He wasn’t perfect, and he had to contend with staggering political and economic challenges as he led Russia away from centuries of authoritarian rule. But lead he did. At the end of the cold war, Russia and the world were lucky to have him. 

History will be kind to my friend Boris.

Bill Clinton, the 42nd president, heads the Clinton Foundation.