World Jewish News

Josef Zissels during the discssion

London experts debate state of Ukrainian, Jewish relations today

Debating on the degree of anti-Semitism in modern Ukraine and the role of Jews in it three top experts from Toronto and Ukraine clashed in their views when they spoke up to the crowd in the Jewish Community Center in London on Jan. 29.

Soviet dissident Iosif Zissels, historian Yaroslav Hrytsak and lawyer Mark Freiman engaged in a discussion on the Ukrainian-Jewish relationships, organized by Ukrainian Institute in London and Ukrainian Jewish Encounter.

“Is Ukraine an anti-Semitic country?” asked British journalist and the moderator Peter Pomerantsev.

“To some extent, every country is anti-Semitic,” Hrytsak stressed.

Zissels, who spent six years in custody as a political prisoner in the 1970s-1980s, shared Hrytsak’s view saying: “Anti-Semitism is everywhere. It is a matter of what is it like.”

He turned to the audience: “Does anyone know how many anti-Semitic incidents happen in Britain annually?”

There was no reply.

“I know. 600 incidents. About 600.”

He has been studying anti-Semitism for 30 years now, Zissels said. The Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities, or VAAD, that he chairs annually conducts research on such incidents. According to his figures, Ukraine is much less anti-Semitic than other European countries: “There was no physical attack on the basis of anti-Semitism occurring in Ukraine in 2017-2018. As for of anti-Semitic vandalism, last year we had 12 cases.” He compared it to “2,000 cases in Germany, 800 in France and 200 in the Czech Republic.”

“Here is a picture of anti-Semitism in Ukraine. It is there, but it is very low,” Zissels said.

Freiman, the lawyer, argued that the degree of the pressure in the Ukrainian society is still quite noticeable: “There are issues, there are reminisce of anti-Semitic movements, there are incidents that occur. There are people who still hold on to old hatreds. You cannot totally dismiss that.”

The reasons for that, Freiman indicated, are ignorance of Ukrainians to learn more of the “true history of the World War II” and Russian media defamation targeting Ukraine.

“Current propaganda campaign raged against Ukraine in part plays on those (negative) memories and simply presents Jewish audiences with a message – nothing has changed. This is the way Ukrainians still are,” Freiman told the Kyiv Post referring to pogroms and Holocaust against Jews in Ukraine.

Nazi Germany, aided by its collaborators, did murder Jews in Ukraine during World War II, acknowledged Zissels. But among Ukrainians, he said, were also those brave who protected Jews: “I know about 2,000 Ukrainians who saved the Jews during the Holocaust and I want to live in Ukraine where the descendants of these people live, and not the descendants of those scammers who helped to kill Jews.”

What unites Ukrainians and Jews, said Zissels, are democratic values in Ukraine.

Jews fought for these values with Ukrainians during the EuroMaidan Revolution in 2014 and now continues protecting the country from Russian aggression in the Donbas: “We are united with the Ukrainians by our common future in a democratic country independent from Russian imperialism, where there is no anti-Semitism, there is no xenophobia and there is a sustained economic development.”

By Anna Myroniuk

Kyiv Post