NCSJ Baltic Trip - September 2002

Estonia

In the 10 years since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Estonia has gone from being part of a closed and inefficient economic system to one of the leading transition economies of the former Communist bloc.  One of the major reasons for this success is its historical proximity to Europe, particularly Finland.  Estonia is also among the most computerized and Internet-friendly countries in the world.

View of central Tallinn, Estonia

Prior to World War II and the 1940 Soviet invasion, half of the country’s 4,500 Jews lived in the capital, Tallinn.  A massive Soviet deportation operation on the night of June 13, 1941, sent 10,000 Estonians, among them nearly 500 Jews, to Siberia.

As the front line of the war drew near Estonia in August 1941, many Jews escaped to the Soviet Union.  Unfortunately, many Estonian Jews were more afraid of the Communists than of the Nazis, and it is estimated that 1,000 Jews were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during 1941-42.  At the Wannsee Conference held in 1942 to discuss the implementation of Hitler’s Final Solution, Estonia was declared the first Judenfrei (country free of Jews).

Thousands of Jews from all over Europe were sent to concentration camps and forced- labor camps in Estonia, including several thousand Lithuanian Jews following the liquidation of the ghettos in Vilnius (Vilna) and Kaunas (Kovno). The majority were murdered by the Nazis and Estonian collaborators.

After the war, some of the survivors returned along with Russian-speaking Jews from the Soviet Union.  Today the Jewish community of Estonia consists of approximately 3,000, concentrated in Tallinn.  There are smaller communities in Tartu, Narva, Kohtla-Jarve and Parnu. Eighty percent of the community is intermarried, and the majority of the community is Russian-speaking.

(l.-r.): Celja Laud, Chair of the Jewish Community of Estonia; Lesley Weiss

Celja Laud is the Chair of the Jewish Community of Estonia.  Jewish life in Tallinn is centered on the newly-renovated JCC and the synagogue.   Known as Dor Vador (“Every Generation”), the JCC offers a range of programs, services and clubs for Jews of all ages. The community publishes a Jewish newspaper, Hashakhar (Dawn), and the radio show “Shalom Aleichem” is broadcast monthly.  There are active survivor organizations – the former Ghetto Prisoner’s Association and the Union of Veterans of WWII.  Part of the JCC synagogue complex, which is an L-shaped three-story building, is the Jewish day school.  A Jewish gymnasium before the war, it now houses a state school with 267 students.  The rabbi at the synagogue is Habad Lubavitch.  JDC services are organized under the auspices of the JCC, which provides a full range of food packages, medical care, home care and other social services to the elderly.  The community wants to expand the facility to accommodate all the activities and services the community provides.

Several Sunday schools operate in Estonia’s smaller communities.  A kindergarten will open in Tallinn in November 2002.

The community also receives support from the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, the Claims Conference, the Baltic Jewish Forum, and other family foundations.  The Jewish Community of Estonia is a member of the World Jewish Congress, the European Jewish Congress, and the European Council of Jewish Communities.  Representatives of the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Israeli Embassy are in regular contact with the community.  Nativ sends Hebrew teachers to the Jewish Day School.

One issue of concern to the Jewish community is the Estonian government’s lack of responsiveness to the anti-Semitism expressed by the media and by public officials and others since the visit of Wiesenthal Director Efraim Zuroff to announce the “Operation: Last Chance” project.  Even before this visit, the U.S. Ambassador to Estonia, Joseph DeThomas, published an article in one of the Estonian newspapers, stating that Estonians are not doing enough to deal with the Nazi period in their country.  Both the statement and Zuroff’s visit were widely criticized by Estonian citizens and the media.   Anti-Semitic messages continue to be received by the Jewish community.

In 1998, the President of Estonia convened the International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes against Humanity.  The main objective of the Commission is to investigate crimes against humanity that were committed against Estonian citizens during the Nazi and Soviet occupations. Jewish organizations have raised concerns about any implicit parallel between the Holocaust and the Soviet occupation. There is a feeling among Jewish community members in Tallinn that the Commission is only concerned with Soviet crimes against ethnic Estonians, not with the crimes of the Nazis and Estonian collaborators against Estonian Jews. It is also unclear whether the findings of the commission have been disseminated in Estonian.

Marker at the Klooga killing field near Tallinn, Estonia

The Estonian government decided in July 2002 to set January 27 each year as Holocaust Memorial Day; the day marks the Soviet liberation of Auschwitz and has been chosen by a number of other European countries to commemorate the Holocaust.  No official ceremonies are planned; the focus will be on educational and school programs.  The decision was criticized by the local population. Among the more severe reactions was a letter released in one of the major newspapers by an official in the Ministry of Justice who stated that he would not send his son to school on the day in question.  He added that the Holocaust is a Jewish invention and does not relate to the Estonian nation.

The Jewish community in Tallinn is struggling with the issue of historical awareness and would like to hold a conference on the Holocaust leading to a Center of Holocaust education or a Jewish historical museum.  In the coming years, the Jewish Community of Tallinn is seeking to broaden its cultural, religious, and educational activities.

In Estonia, as in Lithuania and Latvia, these small but well-organized Jewish communities are committed to rebuilding their Jewish communal structures.  NCSJ returned convinced of the need for active and sustained American Jewish support and involvement in the region.

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Introduction