Meeting with Jewish groups shows true face of freedom in Ukraine (12/04/94)

Meeting with Jewish groups shows true face of freedom in Ukraine

by Andrij Wynnyckyj

JERSEY CITY N.J. - This summer, the American Jewish Committee's "Project Ukraine" took further strides to lay the groundwork for long-term constructive interaction between Ukrainians and Jews on both sides of the ocean. Progress in this field is feasible in large part because of direct contacts with the Jewish community in Ukraine.

These contacts have also provided evidence that CBS's "The Ugly Face of Freedom" report misrepresented the situation of the Jewish community in Ukraine and the climate of inter-ethnic relations in the country.

On July 29, the AJC mission, led by David Roth, trip organizer and director of the Institute of Pluralism, met with representatives of the Jewish press and members of the Union of Jewish Communities and Associations of Ukraine (UJCAU), joined by the Ukrainian-Jewish production team of the documentary "And a New Day Will Come." The UJCAU's president is former Ukrainian Helsinki Group member losef Zissels.

The rendezvous took place at the umbrella organization's headquarters on Kursk Street in Kyyiv and was covered by national, and local Kyyiv and Lviv television. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Zissels. Among those in attendance were Leonid Finberg, member of the UJCAU board of directors; Mykhailo Frenkel, editor of the weekly Khadashot; Simon Bourd, producer of the Ukrainian Television Network's bi-monthly program "Yahad"; Alexander Naiman, Kyyiv branch director of the International Association for Jewish Studies and Jewish Culture; Arkadiy Monastirski, Ukraine's representative to the World Jewish Congress and coordinator of a number of leadership training programs and artistic efforts; and Ihor Kuperberg and Evgeniy Volensky of the K'vod Avot (Honor the Fathers) seniors' assistance organization.

At the outset, Mr. Zissels gave a short history of the UJCAU (established in January 1991), an umbrella organization uniting all Jewish secular and religious institutions and organizations in Ukraine. The UJCAU's president said its emphasis is on a professional approach to various social problems, and is far less political than has been traditional for Jewish bodies.

Cautioning that this was his personal view Mr. Zissels described it as the result of a historic reconciliation between two Jewish political and cultural movements: the autonomists - those who want to remain in Ukraine and foster their own strong locally defined identity; and the Zionists - those who seek to emigrate to Israel and whose primary identification is with the Jewish state in Palestine.

As a result, Mr. Zissels said, perhaps the single greatest source of internal conflict in the community was removed, since the arguments over whether or not Jews should emigrate were largely stilled. Echoing a sentiment expressed by the chief rabbi of Ukraine, Yaakov Dov Bleich, the UJCAU president said it became primarily a matter of personal choice that was driven mainly by the legacy of atheistic hostility of the Soviet regime and the cruel economic conditions that had descended on Ukraine prior to independence and have intensified since.

According to the former dissident, this also led to a more even-handed assessment of conditions actually faced by Jews. Because the stridency of arguments on both sides has subsided, debates now concern the means of departure, assistance for the journey, and what amount of assets the emigrants would leave behind to support burgeoning education and pensioner support programs, rather than whether Ukraine was a hostile political, ethnic or economic environment.

In fact, Mr. Zissels contended, the matter of greatest concern facing the Jewish community in Ukraine is its dire demographic situation. Every year, about 1,200 Jewish children are born, while approximately 8,000 to 9,000 deaths are recorded in the community, since the average age of the Jewish population is very high. The situation is aggravated by the fact that the young are frequently those most willing and able to emigrate.

Mr. Kuperberg dramatized this crisis by saying that one of the after effects of World War II and the Holocaust is the very high proportion of Jewish single seniors who have no relatives in Ukraine. "They either were not born, were killed or left following the war," the K'vod Avot representative saidm "so now our organizations have to play the role of the relatives that would have taken care of these people."

Mr. Zissels regained the floor to say that despite this adversity, Jewish life in Ukraine is rebounding. Eleven Jewish run full-time schools have been established, and about 60 Sunday schools. One of the goals of the UJCAU is to train about 250 teachers to provide adequate staff thoughtout the country.

In response to a question about financial support from Ukraine's Ministry of Nationalities, Mr. Zissels said that because of the severe austerity measures hitting all government cultural agencies, its budget was actually smaller than the UJCAU's. He quickly rejoined that this did not suggest a lack of political commitment in fostering the development of ethnic organizations and activities.

In introducing Mr. Frenkel of Khadashot, the Jewish periodical with the largest circulation in Ukraine, Mr. Zissels informed the gathering that there are about 15 Jewish newspapers in Ukraine, an assortment of national and local radio programs, and two television programs.

Mr. Frenkel said most publications concentrate on cultural affairs, but some contend with manifestations of anti-Semitism and radical right wing publications.

Mr. Naiman, who is also the author of a monograph on the history of Jewish life in Kyyiv, said that instances of published attacks on Jews, such as those published in the Lviv-based newspaper Za Vilnu Ukrainu, are a matter of concern, and suggested that a sharp reaction from the Ukrainian diaspora would be very effective in dealing with the problem.

Next to speak was Mr. Bourd, who described his bi-monthly 45-minute broadcasts as a public square in which the Ukrainian and Jewish intelligentsia meet to share views and overcome inter-ethnic hostility and xenophobia. The producer mentioned that the program's time allotment was quite limiting, since the frequent broadcasts about Jewish life in Israel and North America generate considerable interest among a wide audience.

Mr. Monastirski then spoke about his involvement in the "Shorashim" (Roots) leadership program which aims to train those interested in cultural and educational concerns, whose maiden program conducted a series of seminars in October. He also described the ongoing research effort dedicated to rewarding those who saved Jews during the Holocaust, and contended that their numbers have traditionally been underestimated.

Mr. Monastirski offered a more optimistic picture of the activities of Jewish youth in the country who, he claimed, were increasingly active in reviving shtetl life in Ukrainian towns, holding music festivals. The latter is a particularly successful venture, Mr. Monastirski claimed, attracting tourists from abroad to take in this resurgence in the Jewish musical tradition.

The last speaker was Mr. Finberg, the coordinator of "Project Ukraine's" activities in Kyyiv, who is active in pedagogy and in the organization of summer camps and recreational associations. Mr. Finberg said that four years ago, there were no public incidents or displays of anti-Semitism to speak of, but there was an undercurrent of institutional hostility to Jews.

Now, affirmed Mr. Finberg, while discrimination against Jews in state and entrepreneurial institutions no longer exists, and the ground for Jewish cultural development is quite receptive, the more florid manifestations of nationalist extremism, impossible under the Soviet regime, appear in stark and shocking relief. However, Mr. Finberg also stressed that they should not be exaggerated.

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