Excellent comment:
Simcha Yoel Barag � Rutgers University-Camden
IF CHABAD'S RUSSIAN CHIEF RABBI LAZAR had not been for years on such
good terms with the thug and murderer Putin, perhaps he would not
think it necessary to try and silence the Ukrainian rabbinate in it's
public protest against Russian aggression which so clearly threatens
the Ukrainian Jewish community.
On Fri, Mar 28, 2014 at 12:42 PM, Stefan Lemieszewski <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/russian-and-ukrainian-jews-at-each-others-throats/2014/03/27/0/
> Jewish Press
> 27Mar2014
> Russian and Ukrainian Jews at Each Other's Throats
> Being a Jew in the Diaspora usually means having to defend the host country
> in the vain hope it will guarantee their safety.
> By: JTA
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> GRAPHIC
> Russian Rabbi Berel Lazar meets Vladimir Putin.
> Photo Credit: Wikipedia
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has pitted Jewish leaders from both
> countries against each other, touching off a discordant exchange between
> prominent rabbis on opposite sides of the border.
>
> The discord had been brewing since the onset of the protests in Ukraine in
> November, but it turned public earlier this month after Russia deployed its
> military in Crimea in response to what President Vladimir Putin claimed was
> a "rampage" of anti-Semitic and nationalist groups.
>
> Putin's claim sparked angry reactions from Ukrainian Jewish leaders, many of
> whom said it was a false justification for aggressive Russian actions that
> were more dangerous to Jews than any homegrown nationalism.
>
> On Monday, one of Russia's chief rabbis, Berel Lazar, hit back, urging
> Ukrainian Jews to stay silent on matters of geopolitics and reiterating
> concerns about anti-Semitism in the post-revolutionary government -- concerns
> that he further suggested Ukrainian Jews were too afraid to voice for
> themselves.
>
> "The Jewish community should not be the one sending messages to President
> Barack Obama about his policy or to President Putin or to any other leader.
> I think it's the wrong attitude," Lazar told JTA.
>
> The revolution in Ukraine, a country with bitter memories of Soviet
> domination but also a large population of Russian speakers, erupted last
> fall after President Viktor Yanukovych declined to sign an association
> agreement with the European Union. Svoboda, an ultranationalist political
> party that Ukrainian Jewish leaders consider both anti-Semitic and
> dangerous, played a prominent role in the uprising that eventually ousted
> Yanukovych from office last month.
>
> Amid the revolutionary turmoil, several anti-Semitic incidents occurred,
> including the stabbing of a religious Jew in Kiev, several street beatings
> of Jews, the attempted torching of a synagogue and, at another synagogue,
> the spray-painting of swastikas and "Death to the Jews."
>
> At a March 4 news conference in Moscow, Putin said Russia's "biggest
> concern" was "the rampage of reactionary forces, nationalist and
> anti-Semitic forces going on in certain parts of Ukraine," warning that
> Russia would make further incursions if minorities were endangered.
>
> In response, Josef Zissels, chairman of the Association of Jewish
> Communities and Organizations of Ukraine, or Vaad, and 20 other leaders of
> the Ukrainian Jewish community sent Putin an open letter in which they
> disputed the existence of unusual levels of anti-Semitism in
> post-revolutionary Ukraine and accused Russia of threatening the security of
> Ukrainians.
>
> "Your policy of inciting separatism and crude pressure placed on Ukraine
> threatens us and all Ukrainian people," the letter said.
>
> On Wednesday, Vaad placed the letter as a full-page ad in The New York Times
> and several other newspapers.
>
> [ . . . ]
>
> =================
>
>
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