Union of Councils for Soviet Jews
Encyclopedia
Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union (abbreviated UCSJ) is an umbrella organization of Jewish human rights
groups working in Eastern Europe
and Central Asia
. The UCSJ is based in Washington, D.C.
and is linked to other organizations such as the Moscow Helsinki Group
and it has offices in the countries where they operate.
The UCSJ was formed in 1970 as part of the Movement to Free Soviet Jewry
, a response to the oppression of Jews in the Soviet Union
and other countries of the Soviet bloc. Today, most of its offices are based within the United States
where it has eight member councils. Additionally there are seven offices in various locations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, including Moscow
, Almaty
, Bishkek
, Lviv
, Riga
, Tbilisi
and Minsk
(although the latter was closed in 2005).
s, whether these are targeted against Jews or other minorities in the region, such as Roma or Muslim
s.
of the European Union
as part of a three-year project designed to combat racism
, antisemitism and islamophobia
in Eastern European countries. The reports it produces on the situation in various countries are often presented to the US State Department.
Some 525,000 Jews remained in the post-Soviet states in 2003. Almost 450,000 of them live in Russia
, Ukraine
, Belarus
and Moldova
.
from Motherland and the Communist
party have signed a letter demanding Jewish organizations be banned in Russia. The letter referred to Judaism
as a religion
promoting ethnic hatred
and made reference to the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch
. In that regard, UCSJ made the following statement:
An investigation was launched.
The Prosecutor dropped charges of antisemitism against Duma deputies.
, who was accused of hate speech
:
However, it was established that Stomakhin tried to escape during his arrest and himself fell down from fourth floor of his building, according to his lawyer Alexei Golubev and news reports. His spine and bones were broken as a result.
UCSJ never apologized nor withdrawn their accusations.
child saint Gavriil Belostoksky
and related blood libel accusations in Belarus
, after the Belarusian state TV showed a film alleging that his ritual murder was a true story.
A branch of the UCSJ was closed by the government of Belarus
as part of what many observers saw as a wider crackdown on political dissent
in the region. (main article - Human rights in Belarus
)
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
groups working in Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
and Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
. The UCSJ is based in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
and is linked to other organizations such as the Moscow Helsinki Group
Moscow Helsinki Group
The Moscow Helsinki Group is an influential human rights monitoring non-governmental organization, originally established in what was then the Soviet Union; it still operates in Russia....
and it has offices in the countries where they operate.
The UCSJ was formed in 1970 as part of the Movement to Free Soviet Jewry
Movement to Free Soviet Jewry
The Movement to Free Soviet Jewry was an international human rights campaign that advocated for the right of Jews in the Soviet Union to emigrate....
, a response to the oppression of Jews in the Soviet Union
History of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union
The vast territories of the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest populations of Jews in the diaspora. Within these territories the Jewish community flourished and developed many of modern Judaism's most distinctive theological and cultural traditions, while also facing periods of...
and other countries of the Soviet bloc. Today, most of its offices are based within the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
where it has eight member councils. Additionally there are seven offices in various locations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, including Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, Almaty
Almaty
Almaty , also known by its former names Verny and Alma-Ata , is the former capital of Kazakhstan and the nation's largest city, with a population of 1,348,500...
, Bishkek
Bishkek
Bishkek , formerly Pishpek and Frunze, is the capital and the largest city of Kyrgyzstan.Bishkek is also the administrative centre of Chuy Province which surrounds the city, even though the city itself is not part of the province but rather a province-level unit of Kyrgyzstan.The name is thought to...
, Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
, Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
, Tbilisi
Tbilisi
Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...
and Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...
(although the latter was closed in 2005).
Activities
Activities of the UCSJ include reporting on the human rights situation of countries in the former Soviet Union (FSU), as well as assisting communities in need, providing support for asylum seekers and migrants, exposing human rights violations and hate crimeHate crime
In crime and law, hate crimes occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, class, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, social status or...
s, whether these are targeted against Jews or other minorities in the region, such as Roma or Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
s.
Funding
The UCSJ receives its funding from the European CommissionEuropean Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
of the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
as part of a three-year project designed to combat racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
, antisemitism and islamophobia
Islamophobia
Islamophobia describes prejudice against, hatred or irrational fear of Islam or MuslimsThe term dates back to the late 1980s or early 1990s, but came into common usage after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States....
in Eastern European countries. The reports it produces on the situation in various countries are often presented to the US State Department.
Some 525,000 Jews remained in the post-Soviet states in 2003. Almost 450,000 of them live in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
and Moldova
Moldova
Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...
.
Statement of UCSJ on alleged antisemitism in the Russian State Duma
Nineteen members of the State DumaState Duma
The State Duma , common abbreviation: Госду́ма ) in the Russian Federation is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia , the upper house being the Federation Council of Russia. The Duma headquarters is located in central Moscow, a few steps from Manege Square. Its members are referred to...
from Motherland and the Communist
Communist Party of the Russian Federation
The Communist Party of the Russian Federation is a Russian political party. It is the second major political party in the Russian Federation.-History:...
party have signed a letter demanding Jewish organizations be banned in Russia. The letter referred to Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
as a religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
promoting ethnic hatred
Ethnic hatred
Ethnic hatred, inter-ethnic hatred, racial hatred, or ethnic tension refers to feelings and acts of prejudice and hostility towards an ethnic group in various degrees. See list of anti-ethnic and anti-national terms for specific cases....
and made reference to the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch
Kitzur Shulchan Aruch
Kitzur Shulchan Aruch may refer to:#The famous work of that name by Shlomo Ganzfried#A similar Sephardi work entitled "Kitzur Shulchan Aruch" by Rabbi Raphael Baruch Toledano....
. In that regard, UCSJ made the following statement:
"The best example of how far some members of the national parliament are willing to go to demonize minorities came in January 2005, when 19 members of the State DumaState DumaThe State Duma , common abbreviation: Госду́ма ) in the Russian Federation is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia , the upper house being the Federation Council of Russia. The Duma headquarters is located in central Moscow, a few steps from Manege Square. Its members are referred to...
from Motherland and the CommunistCommunist Party of the Russian FederationThe Communist Party of the Russian Federation is a Russian political party. It is the second major political party in the Russian Federation.-History:...
party signed an open letter to the Prosecutor General’s office demanding that Jewish groups be banned in Russia. The letter referred to JudaismJudaismJudaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
as a “Satanic” religionTheistic SatanismTheistic Satanism, sometimes referred to as Traditional Satanism, Spiritual Satanism or Devil Worship, is a form of Satanism with the primary belief that Satan is an actual deity or force to revere or worship. Other characteristics of Theistic Satanism may include a belief in magic, which is...
and made reference to the medieval Blood Libel (the belief that Jews ritually murder Christian children during PassoverPassoverPassover is a Jewish holiday and festival. It commemorates the story of the Exodus, in which the ancient Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt...
and use their blood to bake matzo). Russian Jewish groups—who have long ago grown accustomed to more modern-day antisemitic accusations of controlling the media, the financial system, etc.—reacted with horror to this intellectual descent into the barbarismBarbarianBarbarian and savage are terms used to refer to a person who is perceived to be uncivilized. The word is often used either in a general reference to a member of a nation or ethnos, typically a tribal society as seen by an urban civilization either viewed as inferior, or admired as a noble savage...
of the Dark Ages".
An investigation was launched.
The Prosecutor dropped charges of antisemitism against Duma deputies.
The case of Boris Stomakhin
UCSJ president Micah H. Naftalin condemned conviction of journalist Boris StomakhinBoris Stomakhin
Boris Vladimirovich Stomakhin is a Russian radical political activist, and editor of "Radical politics" periodical. He was convicted to five years in prison on charges of inciting ethnic hatred and making public appeals for extremist activity...
, who was accused of hate speech
Hate speech
Hate speech is, outside the law, any communication that disparages a person or a group on the basis of some characteristic such as race, color, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, or other characteristic....
:
"This sentence exposes the underlying hypocrisy of the Russian government's half-hearted struggle against extremist groups and hate speech." "This month alone, the FSBFSB (Russia)The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation is the main domestic security agency of the Russian Federation and the main successor agency of the Soviet Committee of State Security . Its main responsibilities are counter-intelligence, internal and border security, counter-terrorism, and...
refused to investigate the distribution of a neo-Nazi hit list containing the names and addresses of human rights activists whom the authors 'sentenced to death,' a publisher of a newspaper in Ulyanovsk who publicly called for the murder of Jews got a suspended sentence, and three youths who broke the jaw and fractured the skull of the Minister of Culture of the Kabardino-Balkaria Republic while screaming racist slogans were sentenced to just six months to a year in prison. You don't have to agree with Mr. Stomakhin's radical, though non-violent, views on Chechnya to see that his sentence was disproportionate and unjust."
False accusations by UCSJ of Russian authorities
The statement if UCSJ on Boris Stomakhin also contained false accusation of Russian authorities, that they have broke Stomakhin's spine and bones during the arrest.However, it was established that Stomakhin tried to escape during his arrest and himself fell down from fourth floor of his building, according to his lawyer Alexei Golubev and news reports. His spine and bones were broken as a result.
UCSJ never apologized nor withdrawn their accusations.
In Belarus
The UCSJ alerted the public to the revival of the cult of Russian Orthodox ChurchRussian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
child saint Gavriil Belostoksky
Gavriil Belostoksky
Gavriil Belostoksky or Zabludowsky is a child saint in the Russian Orthodox Church. The legend of his death describes a ritual murder which has been described as a blood libel...
and related blood libel accusations in Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
, after the Belarusian state TV showed a film alleging that his ritual murder was a true story.
A branch of the UCSJ was closed by the government of Belarus
Government of Belarus
The Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus is the executive branch of state power in Belarus, and it is appointed by the President of Belarus...
as part of what many observers saw as a wider crackdown on political dissent
Dissent
Dissent is a sentiment or philosophy of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or an entity...
in the region. (main article - Human rights in Belarus
Human rights in Belarus
Since the election of the country's first president, Aleksandr Lukashenko in July 1994, Lukashenko has steadily consolidated his power through authoritarian means. Government restrictions on freedom of speech and the press, peaceful assembly, and religion remain in place...
)
External links
Other Jewish organizations in the former Soviet Union
- Federation of Jewish Communities of the CISFederation of Jewish Communities of the CISFederation of Jewish Communities of the CIS is a Jewish organisation dedicated to restoring Jewish life, culture and religion in the Commonwealth of Independent States , the former Soviet Union...
- Russian Jewish CongressRussian Jewish CongressThe Russian Jewish Congress is a non-profit charitable fund and the largest secular organisation of Russian Jews. It was established in 1996 by the initiative group of the Jewish businessmen, active workers and religious figures for revival of the Jewish life in Russia...
- The Congress of Jewish Religious Communities of Russia (KEROOR) headed by Adolf Shaievich
- The World Congress of Russian Jewry
- Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (FEOR)
- Vaad (Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Russia)
- Moscow Jewish Community
- Jewish Association of St. Petersburg (JASP).
- Chabad Lubavitch movement
- Jewish University in Moscow
- Petersburg Institute for Jewish Studies
- Foundation for Jewish Campus Life (Hillel)