FACES AND PLACES: Double standards don't help dialogues (10/12/97)

FACES AND PLACES

by Myron B. Kuropas

Double standards don't help dialogues

In their letter to The Ukrainian Weekly, American Jewish Committee (AJC) officers Michael Slotznick and Leonard Grossman attack me for having "a problem with Jews." They write that I "have made strong negative statements or insinuations about individual Jews, the state of Israel or the Jewish people." I am out of touch, they argue, with "prevailing views in Ukraine and among Ukrainian Americans of good will," and as such I am "no credit to the Ukrainian people today." At no point, interestingly enough, do they suggest that what I write is untrue. Only that it is "scandalous."

Let me assure Messrs. Slotznick and Grossman that I have no problem with Jews in general, only with individual Jews or organizations that misrepresent, malign or savage the Ukrainian people. When I write about those Jews, I invariably cite sources, usually other Jews, in my opprobrium. Yes, I've criticized Israel. If I can condemn Ukraine's government for its many faults, why am I forbidden to chastize the Israeli government for the Demjanjuk debacle?

Messrs. Slotznick and Grossman apply a double standard when it comes to crimes against humanity. They argue that Jews like Messrs. Trotsky, Kameniev, Sverdlov and Zinoviev, all of whom were responsible for establishing the most barbaric government in the history of the world, "never acted in the name of the Jewish people." True enough. Why can't the same standard apply to Ukrainian criminals? Did Ukrainians who killed Jews act in the name of the Ukrainian people?

Given their indignation, one would think that Jews never bash Ukrainians. Let's get real. My research indicates that Ukrainians are always fair game among some Jews. I am aware of no book about Jewish life in Ukraine, for example, that has avoided gross exaggerations of "the crimes of the Ukrainian people." This is permissible, of course, if we apply the Slotznick/Grossman double standard.

I am saddened by the AJC jeremiad because no Ukrainian American has worked longer and harder with the AJC to improve Ukrainian-Jewish relations than I have. My relationship began in 1969 when I met Irving M. Levine and my longtime friend, the late David Roth. Soon thereafter I was asked to serve as one of 12 advisors on the National Project on Ethnic America, a depolarization program associated with AJC's Institute of Human Relations.

For the next 10 years I worked closely with the AJC, bringing other Illinois Ukrainians (Luba Markewycz-Toloczko and Julian Kulas, among others) into the dialogue process. I involved the AJC in the creation of Project Senior Ethnic Find when I was regional director of ACTION, a federal agency. During my time as a special assistant to President Gerald Ford, the AJC co-sponsored a White House conference on Ethnicity and Mental Health, one of four such conclaves I coordinated. I signed a number of Jewish appeals that appeared in The New York Times, including one critical of President Ronald Reagan's visit to Germany's Bitburg Cemetery. I was involved also in various panel discussions and wrote numerous articles on the need for Ukrainians and Jews to work together to improve relations.

In 1979 I was presented with a plaque by the AJC honoring me for, among other things, "helping forge links among all groups ..." In 1981 the AJC sponsored my trip to Israel where I met Jakov Suslensky, an Israeli citizen who dedicated his life to improving Ukrainian-Jewish relations. That same year Mr. Suslensky came to the United States, where he was warmly received by the Ukrainian American community and all but ignored by Jewish leaders.

Ukrainian-Jewish relations began to deteriorate soon after it became evident that the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) had established a working relationship with the KGB. Thanks to David Roth, I was invited to address the AJC leadership in New York City and explain the Ukrainian position. Although the reception was cordial, I changed no one's mind.

Still believing that further dialogue would help, I convinced Maynard Wishner, former AJC president, to co-chair a Ukrainian-Jewish committee to discuss the issues honestly and openly. We met for almost seven years and, in the end, issued a statement that declared, in effect, that we would abide by the decision of the courts.

During this dialogue process, our group (which included Mr. Kulas, Roman Golash, Bohdan Watral, Orest Baranyk, Vera Eliashewsky and Walter Tun) brought out many issues that were never acted upon or resolved. We suggested that the AJC condemn the Ukrainophobic ADL video on the Cleveland trial of John Demjanjuk; we asked the AJC to push for the inclusion of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky in the Aisle of the Righteous at Yad Vashem; we questioned the true purpose of people like Neal Sher and Eli Rosenbaum who appeared before Jewish groups inciting hatred of East Europeans; we wondered why AJC had easy access to our press and often appeared in our community while no such access was offered to us. This meant that the Ukrainian community knew all about our dialogue while the Jewish community did not.

When Bill Wolfe, a Jewish attorney and an early believer in Mr. Demjanjuk's innocence, addressed our dialogue group, few Jews attended. When we invited our partners to a meeting with Yoram Sheftel, who visited Chicago on three different occasions, none of our partners came. When the Ukrainian American Justice Committee honored Rabbi David H. Lincoln for his courageous stand against "60 Minutes," our dialogue partners were not in attendance.

As it became more and more apparent that Ukraine was moving towards independence, our AJC partners expressed concern regarding pogroms. In 1990 I volunteered to interview a Jew of their choice in Kyiv. His name was Marc Kotlyar. He and other Jews I met confirmed what we had been saying all along. Jews in Ukraine were members of Rukh, supported Ukrainian independence, had no fear of pogroms, and, unlike many Jews in America, felt no animosity towards Ukrainians. Mr. Kotlyar was in Chicago a few months later and addressed our dialogue group as well as a large group of Ukrainians who welcomed him warmly. He was never invited to address a Jewish group.

Once Ukraine declared its independence, the AJC leadership was suddenly "in touch." Mr. Roth established his Ukraine-Jewish working group in 1993, and I was invited to meet with the Ukrainian contingent at AJC headquarters in Washington, to explain our dialogue and the problems we've encountered in the United States. Jews from Ukraine offered to help bring our two groups together in America. The offer was never taken up.

In 1996 I was the recipient of the "David Roth Human Relations Award" presented by the Illinois Ethnic Coalition, an organization headed by Marcia Lazar, a member of our Ukrainian-Jewish dialogue group.

When equals dialogue, there can be no double standards. Like solid marriages, meaningful dialogues are built on openness, integrity and trust, not "feel-goodism." I shall continue to pursue the truth because only the truth will free both Ukrainians and Jews of their biases.

Myron Kuropas' e-mail address is: [email protected]

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