Ioffe tracks a rising tide of anti-Semitic incidents in Russia:
The Russian Jewish Congress, for instance, issued a report saying that there has been a marked increase in anti-Semitism in Russia in the first four months of 2014. Though there were no physical attacks on Jews, there were some minor incidents—everything from cemetery attacks to Russian nationalist thugs chanting anti-Semitic slogans. But most of this rise, the Congress reports, “was manifested first and foremost in public anti-Semitic statements, the number of which has increased dramatically.”
The report notes public statements from politicians, like the member of Putin’s United Russia party in Kaliningrad who accused his opponents of being “Jews, hiding among the opposition” and destroying the country. Dmitry Kiselev, who has threatened to turn the U.S. “into radioactive ash,” was called out for pointedly pointing out the Jewish names of some opposition writers and saying that they should be wary of comparing the Sochi and 1936 Berlin Olympics because, in Germany, they wouldn’t have been allowed to write, let alone live. The columnist of one state-friendly Russian newsletter listed Jewish members of the Russian opposition, saying that “they have no homeland because of their political beliefs.”
Yet at the same time, Putin is claiming that his intervention in Ukraine is saving the country from fascists and anti-Semites. Josh Cohen looks into how Ukrainian Jews feel about that:
Despite the substantial presence of right wing nationalists on the Maidan during the revolution, many in Ukraine’s Jewish community resent being used by Putin in his propaganda war. …
On March 5, 21 leaders of Ukraine’s Jewish community signed an open letter to Putin excoriating the Russian president for using Ukraine’s Jewish community to bash the interim government — and insisting that the real threat to Ukraine’s Jews emanated from Russia: “We know that the political opposition consists of various groups, including some that are nationalistic. But even the most marginal of them do not demonstrate anti-Semitism or other forms of xenophobia. And we certainly know that our very few nationalists are well-controlled by civil society and the new Ukrainian government — which is more than can be said for the Russian neo-Nazis, who are encouraged by your security services.”
This letter to Putin brought forth an important point: namely, that much of the real anti-Semitism directed at Ukrainian Jews is actually coming from Russia.
Previous Dish on Jews in Ukraine here.
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