FACES AND PLACES: Ukraine-bashing continues (06/13/99)

FACES AND PLACES

by Myron B. Kuropas

Ukraine-bashing continues

No matter how things change for Jews in Ukraine, there will always be someone ready to believe the worst.

The latest example of this kind of Ukraine-bashing is an article that appeared in June 7 issue of The Weekly Standard, an increasingly influential, neo-conservative journal edited by Irving Kristol. Titled "Ukraine: Back to the Future" (ironically the title of one of my own recent pieces), it was written by Arnold Beichman, a research fellow at the prestigious Hoover Institution, stomping ground of such renowned academics as Robert Conquest. Despite his impressive credentials, Dr. Beichman's commentary is a superficial, fact-deficient, hearsay-laden bit of Ukrainophobic miasma.

A Jew whose father emigrated from Kolky, a shtetl located three hours' drive from Zhytomyr, Dr. Beichman decided to pay a visit to his father's village. "Before making travel arrangements," he writes, "I inquired whether there might be a local rabbi to shepherd me around Kolky. I got my answer: No. Kolky was 'Judenrein,' the Nazi word for a town or city free of Jews." He doesn't say who gave him that answer, but it certainly couldn't have been a local Ukrainian who remembers the Nazi terror.

After mentioning this incident by way of introduction - there is no other reference to Ukraine - Dr. Beichman proceeds to analyze growing anti-Semitism in Russia and concludes incredibly, that "The story is much the same throughout the former Soviet Union ... self-exile seems to be the only course left to Russian and Ukrainian Jews. Their bags, I'm sure, are already packed."

The truth, of course, is quite different. With an estimated population of some 600,000, Jews today are the second largest of 130 minority groups in Ukraine, surpassed only by the Russians. Although many Jews left Ukraine in the early years of independence, most left for economic reasons, a fact confirmed by Yaakov D. Bleich, chief rabbi of Kyiv, during a meeting with Ukrainian American leaders on March 17.

A recent poll summarized in a publication of the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress (AUJC), one of four Jewish umbrella groups in Ukraine, reported that 62 percent of the Jews surveyed had no intention of leaving Ukraine. A rather unexpected development, moreover, is the fact that some 5,600 Jews (with their families) have re-emigrated to Ukraine.

An extensive report titled "Ukraine: Situation of the Jews," prepared by the Research Directorate of the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board notes that Jews in Ukraine are experiencing a religio-cultural renaissance unthinkable during Soviet times. The report reads: "This revival has been characterized, among other things, by the opening of 14 full-time schools, including International Solomon University in Kyiv and the establishment of Hebrew studies departments at the universities of Kyiv and Odesa. There are currently 70 Sunday schools, 11 daycare centers, eight yeshivas and 70 ulpans (Judaic study centers) in Ukraine, where around 20,000 children and adults receive instruction and more than 300 teachers are employed, as well as 40 Jewish religious societies and 24 synagogues operating in Ukraine, including Zhytomyr. In Kyiv alone there are two synagogues, three Jewish newspapers and two professional theater companies.

Although there are reports of "escalating anti-Semitism" in Ukraine from Jewish sources outside of Ukraine, notably the National Council of Soviet Jewry (NCSJ), the United Council of Soviet Jewry (UCSJ) and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), other investigations, such as the "Anti-Semitism World Report 1997" published by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research and the American Jewish Committee, conclude that since independence "Ukraine has been a democratic state in which the rights of the Jewish minority have been fully respected." It should be pointed out that UCSJ Director Micah Naftalin, reported on a June 24, 1998, interview with two Jews, one in Lviv, the other in Kyiv (hardly a representative sample) in which they described an intense anti-Semitic climate in western Ukraine. One can only speculate, moreover, why, almost 10 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Jewish organizations still work on behalf of "Soviet Jewry."

Finally, at a 1998 conference in Kyiv organized by the European Center on Actions Against Anti-Semitism and Racism, it was concluded that Ukraine's record, though not perfect, was hardly that described by Dr. Beichman and certain Jewish American organizations.

Are Jews suffering in Ukraine? Yes, along with millions of other Ukrainians who can barely afford to make ends meet because of the disastrous economic situation. But the Jewish community receives substantial financial assistance from Israel and Jews throughout the world. According to a recent AUJC report, some $25 million is received by the AUJC annually from such sponsors as Chabad, Yad Israel, Sukhnut and the L. Pinkus Fund. Thousands of Jews are successful businessmen; and some have become millionaires.

Does anti-Semitism exist in Ukraine? Unfortunately, yes. But it is largely confined to such fringe extremist groups as the Ukrainian National Assembly, the State Independence of Ukraine Party, the Ukrainian Social National Party, and the Ukrainian Conservative Republican Party (a most unfortunate name). To date, they have elected no deputies to the Verkhovna Rada. Ukraine may have many problems, but rampant anti-Semitism is not one of them.

I can appreciate why the NCSJ, the UCSJ and HIAS behave as they do. Their livelihood depends on perpetuating the notion that Jews are threatened. No threat, no organization, no jobs. But what motivates someone like Dr. Beichman? I have always believed that research fellows at prestigious institutions do serious research. This does not appear to be the case with Dr. Beichman, who still confuses Ukraine with Russia and labors under the delusion that former Soviet republics have remained essentially the same.

I believe Dr. Beichman's uninformed commentary is an enormous disservice to the Hoover Institution, The Weekly Standard, and Jewish neo-conservatives like Mr. Kristol and John Podhoretz who have labored to make The Weekly Standard a journal of high integrity.

It is the irony of ironies that Jews and Ukrainians in Ukraine, a land just emerging from the shadow of class hatred and ethnic animosity, appear to be getting along, whereas in the United States, a land that prides itself on its "multicultural sensitivity," Jews and Ukrainians remain at loggerheads.

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

| Home Page |