Posted on 07/05/2022 2:45:40 AM PDT by UMCRevMom@aol.com
Jews have been fleeing Russia in droves | Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP via Getty Images
As Vladimir Putin’s war rages on for the fifth month in Ukraine and repression suffocates civil liberties back home, Russian Jews are worried they’ll soon become the Kremlin’s targets.
Jews have been fleeing Russia in droves; those who’ve stayed behind are terrified of directly criticizing the war, which Putin has cynically claimed he launched to “de-Nazify” Ukraine.
“In our congregation, we don’t talk about any political issues,” said a Moscow rabbi who asked not to be named. He added that after a 2011 crackdown on protests linked to Putin’s reelection, he ordered that politics must stay out of his synagogue, which has roughly 300 members.
“Any words which we say publicly [about the war] can be used against us as a Jewish community,” the rabbi said.
Vladimir Khanin, an associate professor at Israel’s Ariel University and an expert on the Russian Jewish diaspora, said he estimates around a third of Jews living in Russia are currently “actively” expressing their opposition to the war; most “aren’t happy” with the situation, but are too scared to speak out. He estimates that only 10 to 15 percent of Jewish people in Russia support the war — partly because 70 percent of Russian Jews live in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and most are “more liberal, more modernized” and better educated than the average Russian, he said.
Unlike Russian Orthodox leader Patriarch Kirill, whom the EU mulled sanctioning over his support of Putin’s war, Jewish religious figures have been more critical. Berel Lazar, the chief rabbi of Russia who was previously known to be friendly with Putin, called for “peace” and offered to be a mediator in the conflict. Other leading Jewish figures have made similar appeals, including the President of the Federation of Jewish Communities Alexander Boroda.
Meanwhile, Moscow’s Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, under pressure from the authorities to back the war, fled the country two weeks after the conflict began. He now lives in exile in Israel, and has said he has no plans to return to Russia, though he will remain in his position.
The longer Putin’s war drags on, the more likely he is to look for scapegoats, and Russian Jews are all too aware that the lesson from their country’s bloody history of pogroms is these scapegoats can often end up being them. In the most notorious case, the assassination of Czar Alexander II in 1881 unleashed a wave of anti-Semitic mob violence.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov gave a taste of what could be to come, comparing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Adolf Hitler, who he said “also had Jewish blood.” Putin subsequently walked back on those comments, issuing a rare personal apology to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, but Russia’s Jews were on notice.
“Due to the constant negative attitude toward us, hatred … we are used to being silent, adjusting to the current government, and [we] always keep a foreign passport at the ready,” said one 23-year-old Jewish woman from Derbent, in southern Russia, who works in retail (she asked for her name not to be used). “You never know when you’ll have to run again,” she added. “We understand that none of us are truly protected.”
While according to academics and pollsters, life for Russia’s Jews has improved since the fall of the USSR in 1991, it’s coming off a low base. In a Levada Center poll, for instance, 45 percent of Russians said they had a positive attitude toward Jews in 2021, up from 22 percent in 2010. Russians said Jews were the minority group they were most comfortable having close to them — but only 11 percent said they’re ready to have a Jewish friend, up from 3 percent in 2010.
Ilya Yablokov, a digital media lecturer at the U.K.’s Sheffield University who has written about anti-Semitism in Russia, said anti-Jewish xenophobia could flare up at any moment if the Kremlin wants it to.
“In the 1980s and 1990s, the brutal anti-Semitism of politicians was a reaction to the social polarization of Russia,” Yablokov said. “In the 2000s, things got better economically so the level of anti-Semitism went down,” he continued, with the Kremlin targeting other minority groups and making the West its No. 1 boogeyman.
But Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and the West’s retaliating sanctions, has Russian Jews fearing they’ll once again be targeted by the Kremlin.
“It’s back to the 1990s,” said Khanin, referring to a period when anti-Semitic conspiracy theories proliferated and far-right firebrand Vladimir Zhirinovsky spouted vitriol against Jews.
Starting from scratch
Fearing that the writing is on the wall and horrified by the war, many Russian Jews are seeking to flee the country.
In response, Israel has stepped up its specialized diaspora immigration program, sometimes known as Aliyah, which grants citizenship to those who can prove their relatives are Jewish up to the third generation. Waiting times at local consulates were shortened from up to nine months to a few weeks, according to an Israeli government official involved in the immigration process, who asked not to be named as they were not authorized to speak to the media. Tel Aviv also allowed refugees to apply for citizenship after arriving in Israel, which the official said “a large majority” have opted for.
According to estimates, around 165,000 Jews lived in Russia in 2019, at that time making them the sixth-largest Jewish community outside of Israel. In the first three months after Putin launched his invasion on February 24, approximately 10,000 of them were granted Israeli citizenship, the official said, compared with just 800 in as many months prior.
But adapting to life in Israel comes with its fresh set of challenges.
Olga Bakushinskaya, a 56-year-old Russian journalist who moved to Israel in 2014 after Russia annexed Crimea, started a Facebook group to help new Russian arrivals integrate into the country in 2016. She said requests for help have exploded over the past few months, with over 3,000 Russians (and Ukrainians) joining the group since February — mainly middle-class and middle-aged parents with children, who worked in academia or computer programming.
“Many made no plans and just came,” Bakushinskaya said, adding that Russians have little idea about the practicalities of living in Israel. “We’ve helped many hundreds who come to us every week.”
Bakushinskaya said she now spends up to three hours a day helping new arrivals with everything from making friends, to sorting rent, to registering their children for school. The group has also run webinars on topics including how to open bank accounts.
While many Israelis have welcomed the new arrivals, not everyone is so friendly. Bakushinskaya said she has been helping Russians who’ve been greeted with suspicion by some older Israelis who emigrated from Russia in the 1990s, who brand them as “non-Jews” since most are secular, and clash with those who criticize Israel.
Artem Budikov, a 29-year-old actor who was born and raised in Moscow and has a Jewish mother, left Russia for Israel on May 9. With no close connections in his new homeland, Budikov, who said he would not consider himself deeply religious, has been staying with a distant childhood friend since he arrived. He said he is receiving a monthly stipend of around €700 from the Israeli government, as well as subsidized Hebrew lessons, and is now looking for work.
Budikov said he made the decision to leave Russia the day after Putin declared his “special operation” in Ukraine. “It didn’t make sense in my head how this was possible and I didn’t understand how I could continue working with my mouth shut,” said Budikov. It took him a few weeks to save up the €900 he needed to buy his plane ticket out.
He gave what would be his final performance of his favorite play, Molière’s “Le Tartuffe,” in a Moscow theater, then went straight to the airport, where he flew to Sri Lanka, then on to Israel.
“No one knew that I was [acting in] my last play,” Budikov said. “It was very hard psychologically … when we took off, I was alone in my row [on the plane] and I just started crying — and I cried until I fell asleep.”
The point of the story being written and promoted now is to try to counter the prevalence of actual living NAZIS fighting for Ukraine.
NO, you are wrong in comment #35.
The FACT IS that the actual, real, live RUSSIAN NAZIS are today fighting AGAINST Ukraine.
PROOF: The photo shows the RUSSIAN red and white modified NAZI swastika emblem!!!!
Comment 18: Russian nazi emblem [Note: swastika embedded]
of the RNU [Russian National Unity] was founded in October 1990. RNU was estimated to have 100,000 active members all over Russia.
Members wear black and/or camouflage uniforms; the group adopted a red and white modified swastika emblem, openly expressed admiration for German national socialism and publicly celebrated the rise of the Nazis.
At this rate? You would have to go back to the early 90s. Israel's official numbers are ~12,600 from 2/24 to 4/8. That's like 10% of the Jewish population in like 6 weeks. When the Chief Rabbi leaves, it's a major issue.
still posting BS i see
.
5/15/2022, 2:52:27 PM · 87 of 125
Greetings_Puny_Humans to CarolinaReaganFan
There are already reports that the Russians are preparing to withdraw from Izyum since they lost Kharkiv.The Ukrainians are also planning to re-take Izyum in the very near future
-——————— ———— ———— ————
So how’s that recapture of Izyum working out for ya??
almost as good as Z’s successful evacuation of Mariupol ..
. no worries,, Z gets another chance when Severo.lisichansk andd then Siversk/Bakmud falls ..
None so blind as those who do not wish to see. I read carefully about Ukraine since the 2014 Euor-Maidan “protests” - aka Soros’ and US corroptocrat funded color revolution. And what Urkaine was doing before that, to repress the Russian speaking population, esp in eastern Ukraine.
That Russian “hero” was a really sick boy. He took a puppy and raised it for few months and then cut its head off on camera to show how ruthless he is. There is a video of him doing it on the internet.
“That Russian “hero” was a really sick boy. He took a puppy and raised it for few months and then cut its head off on camera to show how ruthless he is.”
Oh, how disgusting! He is a REAL Russian Nazi fighting in Ukraine probably enjoying torturing, killing, raping Ukrainia town-peoples.
Why are you mentioning a party that got banned from Moscow in 1999?
Hell, even the Pope is now for abortion, in that he condemns refusing Communion to 9th-month abortion extremists like Nancy Pelosi.
So don't expect the world to get upset about this or that rabbi's issue in Russia. This much I know: I know that in Russia, they don't have "drag queen story hour" enshrined as a virtue.
So why do you keep sticking up for actual Hitler-worshipping Nazis fighting against the Russians?
Does a Nazi Swastika stenciled on an American-made helmet bother you even a little? Just a little?
A little? At all?
You do understand that you are repeating bullshit discredited anti-Russian propaganda that even the Kiev govt has disavowed? You do realize this, right?
How is this different than WW1 propaganda claiming that German soldiers used Belgian babies for “bayonet lacrosse?”
Do you have any shame? Are you paid? Or just stupid?
“party that got banned from Moscow in 1999”
Russian Nazis fighting in Donbas for 8 years
The Russia Nationalist Unity Part [RNU] organization was is “supposedly” banned. However, party members merely split into numerous other groups, i.e. Alexander Barkashov, Russian Orthodox Army, and others have since engaged in Nazi pro-Russian activism that went as Russian Nazi to the Donbas to fight.
See prebious comments: 14, 18, 27, 35
excuse typo above- previous comments #14, 18, 27, 35
Post #18: This was the one I already responded to.
Post #27: That photo isn't from 2022, but from 2014.
Post #35: If the guy in the black jacket with the red and white symbol is a Russian neo-Nazi (as you allege), then why is his photo a part of a candlelight vigil with other (presumably deceased) Ukrainian soldiers?
Also, with regards to this: PROOF: The photo shows the RUSSIAN red and white modified NAZI swastika emblem!!!!
The symbol of the RNU that you posted is not the same as the one on the guy's jacket:
I've been unable to find the exact provenance of that particular swastika variation on the man's jacket; however, it is not self-evident that he was a member of RNU or one of its splinter groups.
Perhaps the lesson to take away from this is that we shouldn't get involved in a war where neo-Nazis and fascists are fighting on both sides.
The only reason Azov existed was the Soviet invasion of 2014. They have almost no political support. Now shall we discuss why national-bolshevik ideologist Dugin is taught in Russian war colleges? Stop being Lord Haw Haw for the Red Chinese-KGB Russian alliance and remember you were once a patriot and anticommunist. A man of courage and principle Man up enough to think for yourself.
The only American made helmets I care about are the ones worn by Americans.
Face palm, i meant to say the opposite! Mea culpa!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
