Alexander Levin: Are the Jews of Ukraine afraid to report anti-Semitism?

Israeli Center for Research on Anti-Semitism. M.Cantor, having a high authority, headed by the chief scientist of Yad Vashem, Professor D. Porat, published reportI, as Vice President Euro-Asian Jewish Congress and the Head of the Jewish community of Kiev, I consider it my duty to comment.

Alexander Levin. Photo: wfrj.org

In general, the report was compiled correctly and correctly. The author of the report on Ukraine, Center employee Dr. Irena Kantorovich, who left the Center in the spring of 2018, gave the correct facts about the authorities' continuing weak reaction to anti-Semitic manifestations in 2017, the reason for which was the lack of professionalism of both the authorities and law enforcement officers.

At the same time, I am surprised by the report’s conclusions about “an increase in violence against Jews in Ukraine” - in reality, data from cities and communities does not indicate an increase in anti-Semitic attacks.

Particularly surprising in the scientific report of the Cantor Center is the following phrase specifically on Ukraine: “Our assessment is that the actual number of cases of anti-Semitism is higher because Jews refrain from reporting such cases.” In a similar way, one can invent or attribute any number of cases of anti-Semitism to Ukraine, citing the fact that “Jews simply do not report these cases.” That is, the Jews allegedly do not report, but at the same time, the Kantor Center in Tel Aviv receives information about these “unreported cases” from somewhere. The report gives the impression that only in Ukraine are Jews afraid to report anti-Semitism, while in other countries they boldly speak out about it. This passage is very biased and lacks a scientific and professional basis.

The report called "attempts to justify and glorify nationalist leaders who actively collaborated with Germany's anti-Jewish policies of persecution and murder during World War II" as a form of anti-Semitism. The Jewish community of Ukraine is really concerned about the glorification of those OUN-UPA leaders who collaborated with the Third Reich. While we criticize the renaming of streets in honor of such leaders, we understand that the trend of these renamings is not directed against Jews. It is a consequence of the desire of many Ukrainians to find new/old heroes who fought for the independence of Ukraine, but does not in any way indicate the anti-Semitic intentions of the initiators of such renamings.

The report identified a case of “repeated damage to tombstones at a Jewish cemetery in Kolomyia.” This indeed took place, but the report does not reveal details: a cemetery site in the city center became the subject of a legal dispute between foreign Hasidic pilgrims and city residents, who were accustomed to passing through the dilapidated cemetery overgrown with trees as if through a city park. The Hasidim, without coordinating the documents with the mayor's office, blocked the site with a fence.

It seems rather strange that the report lists among the manifestations of anti-Semitism the opening in Babi Yar of a monument to the Ukrainian nationalist poet Olena Teliga, who was executed by the Nazis in Kyiv. The report states: “Teliga published anti-Semitic poems and articles calling for the killing of Jews, enemies of Ukraine.” In reality, Teliga did not publish poems against Jews and did not write articles calling for the killing of Jews. In the 1930s, she was an admirer of “strong-arm” politicians in the style of Italy and Germany, then worked for an occupation newspaper in Kyiv in the fall of 1941.

In general, it is striking that the entire text of the Cantor Center report was immediately used in propaganda against Ukraine. Many Russian media outlets, including the state-owned RIA Novosti and the pro-government Komsomolskaya Pravda, on the day the report was published, immediately tore out from the report exclusively the chapter on anti-Semitism in Ukraine and made loud headlines like “Ukraine has been accused of anti-Semitism. According to Israeli researchers, Kyiv is not fighting violations of Jewish rights.", or “Report: Ukrainian Jews refuse to report incidents of anti-Semitism”.

All this makes us ask the question: is the report of the Cantor Center an objective study of anti-Semitism, or will it happen to propaganda goals far from the truth?

Alexander Levin,

Vice-President of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress,
Head of the Jewish community of Kiev

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