Return of the Jews: To Russia not Israel

Return of the Jews
For decades the story of Russia's Jews has been one of fear and flight to Israel. Now many are coming home.

That's why an estimated 50,000 Jews have returned to Russia in the past five years. They come mostly to booming Moscow—but also to godforsaken places like Russia's Jewish Autonomous Region, a swampy Siberian area larger than Israel that is plagued by mosquitoes in summer and minus-35-degree temperatures in winter. ,,, Part of the reason, he says, is that under President Vladimir Putin, life for the Jews of Russia has changed. "It's a lot better," he says. "There's work. Russia is rising again."

The contrast is indeed stark, at least by some measures. In Russia oil prices are setting new highs. Economic growth is set to surpass 7 percent in 2004, as it has in most recent years. In Israel the economy is a mess. Unemployment tops 10 percent, and the intifada is in its fifth year. Even the Jewish Autonomous Region—created in the 1930s by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin to lure Jews from western Russia to a new Siberian "homeland"—is enjoying a modest boom. As Dubinin puts it, "You can make a good living."

All this defies expectations. "Jews in Russia are as free as they are anywhere else in the world," declares Rabbi Berel Lazar, a top Jewish leader who has forged unusually good relations with the Kremlin—partly on the strength of the fact that Putin himself, Lazar says, happily shared an apartment with a Jewish family when growing up as a boy in St. Petersburg.

I am starting to realize why the "Putin for Dictator" crowd is so passionate. Most of them are linked to the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). According to ROC doctrine, the Czar is supposed to head the Church. As such, all true ROC members, both inside and outside Russia, long for a return of the Czar. Then it should come as no surprise that these same people want to imput Czar-like qualities to Putin. Putin, for his part, is playing these unsuspecting ROC believers like a finely tuned fiddle. End Result?...Putin can do no wrong.

Message to ROC members...Putin is not the Czar.

The Orthodox Christian tradition has always been distinguished for brown-nosing to the secular authority (frequently on nationalistic lines) and excessive insistence on secular obedience. Historically, the West was lucky that Western Roman Empire collapsed into a welter of tribal dukedoms leaving the church in the West more or less autonomous of the secular authority and occasionally as secular authority on feudal lines. It gave it the time to develop.
The Eastern tradition was not so lucky: the Eastern Empire did not collapse until 15 century, the emperors remained rather active and frequently interfered with and tried to control church functioning (e.g. iconoclast movement) and governance (e.g. John Chrysostomos). Orthodox tradition stems directly from there.
Huntington said it best: in the West God and Caesar are equals; in Islam God is Caesar; in the East (China, Japan) Caesar is God; in Orthodoxy God is Caesar's junior partner.
Quite a few Russian thinkers (starting with Chaadaev) were able to figure the conclusion that the Orthodoxy is a millstone on Russia's neck and called for a wholesale abandonment of it. Regrettably they have not been successful. Cultures are resilient on time scale of centuries, almost like genetics (on 10000 yrs time scale). So what else to expect?

Man, you are a walking encyclopedia! I wont comment on whether the ROC is good or bad. But it does seem their doctrine re: the Czar as head of the ROC leaves them wide-open to be preyed upon by the likes of someone like V. Putin. If you have knowledge in this area (which it definately appears you do), I'm all ears!!!

Don't forget to ping me if you find yourself posting to a thread you think I might be interested in...

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