Rabbi David Lincoln receives UATC Human Relations Award (03/26/95)

Rabbi David Lincoln receives UATC Human Relations Award

CHICAGO - Some 200 Chicago-area Ukrainians attended the award ceremony paying tribute to Rabbi David H. Lincoln at Ss. Volodymyr and Olha Ukrainian Catholic Church on March 12. The event was sponsored by the Ukrainian American Justice Committee (UAJC) in cooperation with the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA) and the Ukrainian Heritage Defense Committee (UHDC) of the Ukrainian National Association.

Following remarks by Bishop Michael Wiwchar, UCCA Vice-President Orest Baranyk, UNA Vice-President and UHDC Chairman Nestor Olesnycky, and UAJC Co-Chairman Dr. Myron B. Kuropas presented Rabbi Lincoln with the UAJC Human Relations Award. He was cited "for his courageous defense of the truth; for his moral integrity and commitment to his faith; his humanitarian efforts on behalf of the improvement of Ukrainian-Jewish relations."

To allow local Ukrainian Americans an opportunity to view its message, the plaque was prominently displayed in a showcase at Selfreliance Federal Credit Union for the week preceding the event.

"I suppose that your very presence here today shows that Ukrainians are not genetically anti-Semitic," Rabbi Lincoln began as he modestly accepted the award. "I couldn't believe what I saw on CBS because I was there [in Ukraine]. I conducted services in Lviv. I was in the synagogue.

"I was with the Jewish community there. I visited other Jewish communities there - Ivano-Frankivske, Ternopil, Stryi, Mukachiv. I witnessed what was for me one of the great miracles of our age. I think my friends in the Jewish community are perhaps unaware of the history of Jews in Ukraine, especially in recent years under communism. I think my fellow Jews should be dancing in the streets and rejoicing at the miracle beyond all comprehension, the miracle of the revival of Jewish life after all that had gone before," he noted.

Ukraine's record

"Ukrainian-Jewish relations have not always been the best, but I would like to know what European nation has a 100 percent record of decency and goodness towards the Jewish people. I also feel that Ukraine has been unfairly pointed out as sort of the leader of anti-Semitism, when in fact is should be rather the other way around because things happened in Ukraine that didn't happen in other countries," he continued. "There is no other country in the world that had this Jewish national autonomy with a Yiddish-speaking minister in the government who represented the Ukrainian government in other countries," he emphasized.

"In some ways, the '60 Minutes' program brought us closer together," noted Rabbi Lincoln. "There will be those who will continue in their hatred of Ukraine. There are those who will continue in their hatred of Jews. There are always people on the fringes, but I received a very encouraging fax from Rabbi [Yaakov] Bleich. He is thrilled beyond measure about this gathering here today. He used the Hebrew words that say that it is a sanctification of God's name, our coming together here...I am particularly proud that it's Chicago that started this. I've lived here for 18 years. I now live in New York, and I must tell you that Ukrainians in New York are a little upset that Chicago got the jump on them..."

"You cannot accuse people of being genetically anti-Semitic. That is utter nonsense. If it is so bad for Jews there - as Morley Safer told me, 'Rabbi you can't deny they are living in great fear' - I simply said 'this is not the Soviet Union anymore, why don't they leave? If they're living in such fear, why are they still there? Israel will pay them to leave. Why are they opening Jewish day schools? Why are they opening rabbinical seminaries? Why are they opening summer camps? Why are they opening synagogues which have been given back to them by the Ukrainian government?" He added, "Why are they doing all this if they're living in such terror? It doesn't make sense!..."

Pro-Ukrainian upbringing

"As Dr. Kuropas pointed out, I was brought up in England, in a home that was pro-Ukrainian," Rabbi Lincoln said. "My father used to speak about [Symon] Petliura and tell that he was not anti-Semitic. Don't believe the propaganda that you hear, he told me. That's the way I was brought up."

The New York Rabbi went on to ask, "I wonder how you can accuse an entire people of collaboration if they don't have a country? I don't try to whitewash the crimes against the Jews in Ukraine. I have been very outspoken. But when the war was over, there were thousands of Jews left. It was the Communists who later devastated Jewish institutions," he said. "Today, Ukrainians don't want Jews to leave for economic reasons."

"You cannot perpetuate hatreds. That doesn't seem to be right...Our histories go back a thousand years. Our Hasidic movement was founded there...Why don't we perpetuate the better part of our relationship?" he asked.

"In conclusion, I want you to know that things will get better in Ukraine. We will both live as brothers and sisters in that glorious future that awaits both our peoples," Rabbi Lincoln stated.

Following Rabbi Lincoln's remarks there was a standing ovations and the singing of "Mnohaya Lita."

The honoree later signed copies of his book, a translation from Yiddish of Moses Silberfarb's "The Jewish Ministry and National Autonomy in Ukraine" and was interviewed by a reporter from Svoboda and two reporters from "Kontakt," the Ukrainian television program.

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