quote: MOSCOW - A group of nationalist Russian lawmakers called Monday for a sweeping investigation aimed at outlawing all Jewish organizations and punishing officials who support them, accusing Jews of fomenting ethnic hatred and saying they provoke anti-Semitism.
In a letter dated Jan. 13, about 20 members of the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, asked Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov to investigate their claims and to launch proceedings "on the prohibition in our country of all religious and ethnic Jewish organizations as extremist."
The letter, faxed in part to The Associated Press by the office of lawmaker Alexander Krutov, said, "The negative assessments by Russian patriots of the qualities and actions against non-Jews that are typical of Jews correspond to the truth ... The statements and publications against Jews that have incriminated patriots are self-defense, which is not always stylistically correct but is justified in essence."
The stunning call to ban all Jewish groups raised concerns of persistent anti-Semitism in Russia.
Jewish leaders have praised President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites)'s government for encouraging religious tolerance, but rights groups accuse the authorities of failing to prosecute the perpetrators of anti-Semitic and racial violence.
Russia's chief rabbi, Berel Lazar, said lawmakers were looking for support "by playing the anti-Semitic card."
The prosecutor general's office could not immediately be reached for comment on the letter, which the Interfax news agency said was signed by lawmakers from the nationalist Rodina and Liberal Democratic parties as well as the Communist Party.
Krutov, a Rodina member, is deputy chief of the Duma's Committee on Information Policy.
With Putin planning to join events this week commemorating the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp by Soviet troops, Russia's Holocaust Foundation head Alla Gerber said it was "horrible that as we're marking the 60th anniversary of this tragic and great day ... we can speak of the danger of fascism in the countries that defeated fascism."
While the Russian state itself is no longer anti-Semitic, there are "anti-Semitic campaigns that are led by all sorts of organizations," she said.
"The economic situation is ripe for this. An enemy is needed, and the enemy is well-known, traditional," Gerber said.
Echoing anti-Semitic tracts of the Czarist era, the letter's authors accuse Jews of working against the interests of the countries where they live and of monopolizing power worldwide. They say the United States "has become an instrument for achieving the global aims of Judaism."
"It is possible to say that the entire democratic world today is under the monetary and political control of international Judaism, which high-profile bankers are openly proud of," the letter says.
Along with outlawing Jewish organizations, the lawmakers call for the prosecution of "individuals responsible for providing these groups with state and municipal property, privileges and state financing."
I never held any doubts that anti-Semitism still existed in Europe, but I never imagined that government officials would actually open support it.
[ January 25, 2005, 01:11 AM: Message edited by: newfoundlogic ]
Posted by reader (Member # 3888) on :
I did. Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Holy crap.
Posted by beverly (Member # 6246) on :
quote: accusing Jews of fomenting ethnic hatred and saying they provoke anti-Semitism.
This reminds me of a story from Porter's childhood. He comes to his parents crying because his brother bit his finger. Apparently, he had been poking his finger in his brother's mouth. He demands, "Mom and Dad, tell Derek to keep my finger out of his mouth!"
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
This is so... There are no words in my mind. Posted by newfoundlogic (Member # 3907) on :
This is like twenty members of the KKK getting elected to Congress. I just can't believe they're willing to do this. How far away is a Russian Kristallnacht? Maybe I'm overreacting to a minority, but it seems like things are going well in Israel with peace negotiations then there's this. Russia doesn't even have the same numbers of Muslim immigrants as does France. I just can't see where this is coming from. I feel numb or something.
Posted by mothertree (Member # 4999) on :
I am sadly not surprised. Calumnies against Jews (is that the right phrase?) seem to generate spontaneously if they are not actively dispelled.
Posted by Lupus (Member # 6516) on :
this is insane. Putin needs to do something about this...hell, he is a dictator in all but name...he might as well use that power for good.
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
The only words that come to mind are bad words that will get **** out.
Posted by Mrs.M (Member # 2943) on :
Russia is in turmoil right now and it's part of the culture to turn to anti-Semitism in such times. I'm not at all surprised (but, sadly, anti-Semitism never surprises me).
Andrew's maternal grandfather had to flee Russia with his sister right before the war. They were the only ones from their family to make it out.
Posted by Derrell (Member # 6062) on :
(((rivka))) I don't know if the hugs will help ease the pain of reading that, but I don't have any words that can adequately express how I feel after reading it. Maybe I'm naieve, but I'm dumbfounded to think that this could be allowed to happen in civilized nation, especially after the horrors of Hitler.
Rivka, I don't know what to say that could possibly ease the pain, so I'll simply offer hugs. (((rivka)))
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Thanks, Derrell. But the ones who really need the hugs are the Jews who are still living in Russia.
The more things change, the more they stay the same . . . *sigh*
Posted by Derrell (Member # 6062) on :
(((All the Jews in Russia))) (((Hatrack's Jewish community))) I guess it's true that those who don't learn from history, are doomed to repeat it. Didn't the people who are doing this learn anything from the horrors of the Third Reich? Apparently not. Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
Should I add that Sri Lanka is going through something very similar, only it's a hatred of all things Christian?
There is currently a (whatchamacallit) bill in front of parliament right now stopping unethical conversions. Which essentially means anyone converting from any religion, ie Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, to Christianity. Conversions the other way would be fine, however.
And the black sheep of the Christian community are the Mormons, who, apparently pay $5 a head to the LDS missionaries for everyone who shows up at church.
In case you don't know any different, it's not true. And, quite honestly, $5 a head would not be sufficient for the amount of work it takes to get them there.
If you like, I can quote an article from a magazine. And there's irony there, too. But later.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
$5 a head wouldn't even pay for the jello. Posted by Telperion the Silver (Member # 6074) on :
What the....
What the *#$& are those so-called statesmen thinking??? Horrible...beyond horrible.
Posted by Storm Saxon (Member # 3101) on :
What a chipmunk mentality Russia is showing.
Posted by Amka (Member # 690) on :
What Mrs. M said is right. Russia is in some serious turmoil right now. The current congress is not truly representative of the people. They can't be voted out. They have no fear of reprocussions from the people, and so are doing whatever the H E double toothpicks they want.
Recently, they decided to cut off all 'freebies' given to retired people and give them an extra 3000 (not sure if it is dollars or rubles) a year instead. Their pension used to be 10000 and now is 13000. The extra money does not even begin to cover everything they lost. These pension benefits included, if I understand correctly, such things as medical care, utilities, and transportation.
What you have to remember is that these are the people that worked under the communist regime and were not allowed to have any savings of any type. The government would take care of them from birth to death.
Not only were the elderly affected. Suddenly, they are now far more of a burden on their descendants than anyone had planned for, and these families were already stretched to make a living for just themselves.
At the same time, the congress, many of which are around the same age or just younger than the retirees, have given themselves a raise, have free cars from the government themselves that can pretty much ignore all traffic rules, and refuse to give up free public transportation. It seems like a small thing, but the average person simply doesn't own a car. They have relied on public transportation. This is serving as kind of an example of how corrupt these guys are.
There have been riots and demonstrations going on over this. There are very definate rumblings of revolution happening over there.
[ January 25, 2005, 11:05 AM: Message edited by: Amka ]
Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :
quote: the letter's authors accuse Jews of working against the interests of the countries where they live and of monopolizing power worldwide
Gee, you think they'd at least come up with something more original. These are the same accusations that anti-semites have been vomiting up for the last 2000 years. Though I suppose that shouldn't be surprising, since racism in any form automatically requires that you shut off your brain. Posted by FlyingCow (Member # 2150) on :
Yes, he said chipmunk, and he means chipmunk!
Posted by Storm Saxon (Member # 3101) on :
Posted by Belle (Member # 2314) on :
Man, that's very disturbing to read. Posted by dread pirate romany (Member # 6869) on :
Very disturbing and scary Posted by TheHumanTarget (Member # 7129) on :
Let me preface my statement with this:
I don't believe in discrimination on any grounds.
I don't believe that the Jews are responsible for Russia's current problems.
However, I do find it curious that Jews have been the designated scape goat for social and economic problems in such geographically dispersed locations around the globe.
Were I a more ignorant man, I'd be guided by the old adage of "Where there's smoke, there's fire." Anyone have any INTELLIGENT (non-religious, unsarcastic) insight into why the Jews seem to draw the ire of every population they integrate into?
Posted by Mrs.M (Member # 2943) on :
TheHumanTarget, there's no short answer to that question. Here are some very cursory explanations:
In Europe, usury was against Christian law, so Jews were traditionally money-lenders. Whom do people resent more than those they are indebted to? Jews also played a major role in the establishment of the current European banking system, which again garnered resentment. Also, since the laws of kashrut require strict cleanliness and prohibit pork and shellfish, Jews did not contract several diseases that Gentiles did. When Europeans colonized the world, they brought their prejudices with them.
Posted by TheHumanTarget (Member # 7129) on :
Adam613, you have an interseting point on the mass conversions. I wonder how different things might have been if the Jews had attempted to convert the masses. The very fact that the Jews didn't seek to expand their religious base probably raised suspicions from the beginning. Everyone seemed to want the masses, except the Jews...leading to thoughts of 'I wonder why they don't want me'?
Simply conjecture...
Posted by newfoundlogic (Member # 3907) on :
I don't think Christians in medieval Europe said to themselves, "I hate Jews, they aren't trying to convert me!"
Instead the reason for Jewish persecution is simple. Large groups always need scapegoats. The scapegoats are always minority groups. Jews are a visible minority in every single European country, or at least were before the Holocaust. The reason why Jews are a minority is because of the Diaspora which left the Jews spread out all over the world.
The whole usery/banking thing just determined how Europeans would hate the Jews, not why. For example, Gypsies have received their share of persecution as well because they are a minority too. However, because they aren't involved in banking and financing they're stereotyped as penniless thieves.
Outside of Europe, in areas such as Indonesia or Pakistan where there are virtually no Jews, there is still anti-Semitism, but this arises for a common hatred of Israel.
Posted by James Tiberius Kirk (Member # 2832) on :
--j_k
Posted by Joldo (Member # 6991) on :
This is sick, this is wrong, why on earth aren't leaders doing the moral thing and either breaking off relations or at least shaking their finger sternly at Russia? Not just for the anti-Semitism, but for the fact, among countless others, that hardly anything has changed since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
quote:They never supported forced mass conversion, while the Christians and the Muslims did.
Jewish people never supported any kind of conversion if I understand what I've read on this board correctly.
Both Islam and Christianity have had mass conversions absent force, in the past and present.
Dagonee
Posted by BannaOj (Member # 3206) on :
I wonder if Israel would organize airlifts again if things got bad. If they get all of the Jews out of Russia safely and there isn't anyone left to blame then what would happen? Would they go after Israel itself? (Understanding that the antiSemitism is irrational to begin with, further irrational behavior would be expected...)
AJ
Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :
I don't think anti-semitism has anything to do with what Jews may or may not have done themselves. Racism is always irrational and stupid, but antisemitism is always moreso. The arguments and conspiracy theories advanced are always the same ones, and always so stupid that you'd think people could see right through them. And yet, people swallow this crap. Anti-semitism isn't something that is caused by anything; it's always there, waiting for the slightest excuse (usually complete fabrications) to pop up. There is no rational explanation for it.
You'd think the world had it in for the Jews.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
"There is no rational explanation for it."
Not true, I'm afraid. There are rational explanations for everything.
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
Indeed; one of the most effective explanatory methodologies in analysis is rational choice theory.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
Yes, adam, you're right. I should have said "seek," and "never" is always frought with danger.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
quote: Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kwasniewski and Israeli President Moshe Katsav joined survivors later at the infamous rail siding at the nearby Birkenau camp, where Nazi doctors carried out the "selection" of new arrivals. That meant choosing those deemed able to be worked to death from the majority who were immediately sent to the gas chambers.
Putin won long applause when he acknowledged that anti-Semitism and xenophobia had surfaced in Russia, tackling an issue that the Kremlin had long failed to confront directly. Putin said many in the world should be ashamed of new manifestations of anti-Semitism six decades after the defeat of fascism.
"Even in our country, in Russia, which did more than any to combat fascism ... we sometimes unfortunately see manifestations of this problem and I, too, am ashamed of that," Putin said.
Posted by Storm Saxon (Member # 3101) on :
Too bad in a lot of other areas, Putin is less than admirable. But, yeah, this is nice to see.
Posted by Yozhik (Member # 89) on :
quote:Russian Parliament Condemns Anti-Semitic Letter link
Associated Press
MOSCOW, Feb. 4 - The Russian parliament's lower house adopted a declaration Friday sharply condemning a letter that urged prosecutors to outlaw all Jewish organizations in Russia, but the nationalist and Communist factions whose members had signed the letter were absent or voted against.
In a 306-58 vote that hewed to party lines, the State Duma adopted a declaration saying that the "clear anti-Semitic intent" of the letter and other appeals for government actions targeting Jews "prompts indignation and sharp condemnation." ------------------- The Duma declaration said it was "particularly sorrowful" that the letter came as the world mourned the victims of Auschwitz, and that while its authors later withdrew their request, "the simple fact of such appeals cannot fail to concern us."
It said the consequences of initiatives such as the letter "could be extremely dangerous for a multiethnic state like Russia."
The Duma declaration reflected the Kremlin's eagerness to be seen as intolerant of anti-Semitism: Almost all the votes in favor came from lawmakers in the dominant, pro-Kremlin United Russia party and from the handful of independent lawmakers.
Votes against the declaration came from Communist lawmakers - six of whom were among the letter's signatories - and members of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party. The Homeland faction - six of whose members signed the letter - is boycotting parliament sessions in an unrelated protest.
The LDPR (Liberal Democratic Party of Russia) has always been anti-Semitic. It was an issue back in 1996, when Zhirinovsky was making headlines. (Oddly enough, Zhirinovsky's father was Jewish.)
Posted by Storm Saxon (Member # 3101) on :
I am really happy to see that. Really happy. As was mentioned, anti-semitism has a long history in Russia.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Thank you for letting us know, Yozhik.
quote: It was an issue back in 1996, when Zhirinovsky was making headlines. (Oddly enough, Zhirinovsky's father was Jewish.)
Not so odd, or unusual. There is no one so filled with hate as a Jews who hates Jews. Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
I'm happy to see this initiative was fostered by a small minority. I hope their influence in Russian politics wanes rapidly to nothing.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
quote: In Europe, usury was against Christian law, so Jews were traditionally money-lenders.
There is another reason for Jews' becoming money-lenders has. You see, the bible doesn't permit usury either. But because most kingdoms forbade Jews to be farmers or study in Academies, Jews were forced into a different profession. Therefore, becoming money-lenders was permitted by the "Halacha" (which is the body of Jewish law supplementing the scriptural law, which can be changed throughout the years according to circumstance), and Jews were allowed to lend money to gentiles.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
quote: "Halacha" (which is the body of Jewish law supplementing the scriptural law, which can be changed throughout the years according to circumstance)
*wince* That is a terribly misleading -- if not outright incorrect -- explanation of "Halacha."
Halacha literally means "law" -- and that is exactly what it is, Jewish Law. However, it does not "supplement" scriptural law, and the ways it can be "changed" are very specific. Halacha encompasses what you call scriptural law. However, much of the time the scripture is unclear on details. Wear tefillin, it says -- but what should they be made out of? Exactly how are they worn?
So the laws had to be interpreted (which is done using very specific methods of exegesis). Additionally, some laws were added to because of various concerns (this is I think what you mean when you say, "can be changed throughout the years according to circumstance") -- but again, only very specific types of additions can be made, and only under very specific conditions.
Posted by TMedina (Member # 6649) on :
Additionally, in times of stress or difficulty, minorities, strangers and the odd or misfit will often be targeted for retribution, justifiable or not.
The Jews of the Middle Ages in Europe had several factors working against them:
They were (edit: often) wealthy or at least wealthier than the mob
They practiced a strange (sic) faith, different from the mainstream in a time where being different was bad
As a frequently isolated minority, they made easy targets and scapegoats even when the above factors were not in play
You see the same kind of behavior in the witch trials - the odd or old or the unusual were often singled out as being witches or worthy of the Inquisition.
-Trevor
Edit: In a futile attempt to avoid gross exaggerations.
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