'Now that Yeltsin has gone to eternity, his name is associated for us...with the complete eradication of state anti-Semitism—so let the earth rest in peace to him' : Russian Jewry
June 2007
“It is clear that for some reason the Jews did not like that they were threatened with being killed, and they supported Yeltsin as best they could ...” - this is Leonid Radzikhovsky (p. 52) about the attitude of the Jews towards B. N. Yeltsin. Having already retired (an event unheard of in Russia in itself), Boris Nikolayevich, I remember, once said in a conversation with the leaders of the Russian Jewish community that he greatly appreciates the kind attitude of the Jews towards him. Now that Yeltsin has gone to eternity, his name is associated for us, first of all, with the complete eradication of state anti-Semitism - so let the earth rest in peace to him.
In Gorbachev's times, after the fall of the Iron Curtain, hundreds of thousands of Jews left the country. At that time it seemed to many that the last page of Jewish history on one sixth of the land was being closed. However, over the past years, the unforeseen happened, and powerful Jewish life began to rise from the ashes in the countries of the former USSR. One of the characteristic features of this revival was that the objects and subjects of the activities of the communities often began to be people who seemed to be infinitely far from the Jews - children from mixed marriages. Various aspects of this phenomenon were discussed by Afanasy Mammadov (p. 75) with four famous "halves".
A few days after the events around the “Bronze Soldier” in Tallinn, we received information that “in Moscow, on the territory of the Church of All Saints near the Sokol metro station, a memorial plate was destroyed, installed in honor of several generals who fought in the White Army, and later commanded the Cossack units that were part of the Nazi Wehrmacht. These and similar news are lined up in one row, because they are the product of the same disease. The disease that Europe had had in the first decades after the end of the war. An open, impartial analysis of the then recent past helped to a large extent recover from the consequences of many military ulcers - mass collaborationism, mass spitting on the terrible fate of Jewish neighbors, and even before that - on the fate of entire countries, shared between Stalin and Hitler ... All these topics were tightly closed for us, and now we are reaping the fruits of this closeness. Questions, half a century ago removed by old Europe, suddenly reappeared in the most ugly forms. This dangerous process can only be stopped by a calm, opportunistic public discussion and the opening of military archives - until this happens, politicians will discuss with marauders. Lechaim tries to regularly publish materials about the little-known pages of World War II. One of the episodes of that terrible war was "The Saga of the Rescue of Jewish Children in England" (p. 67). public discussion devoid of opportunism and the opening of military archives - until this happens, politicians will discuss with marauders. Lechaim tries to regularly publish materials about the little-known pages of World War II. One of the episodes of that terrible war was "The Saga of the Rescue of Jewish Children in England" (p. 67). public discussion devoid of opportunism and the opening of military archives - until this happens, politicians will discuss with marauders. Lechaim tries to regularly publish materials about the little-known pages of World War II. One of the episodes of that terrible war was "The Saga of the Rescue of Jewish Children in England" (p. 67).
And an uncured disease tends to relapse. Leonid Katsis writes about this in "Two words about the lessons of history" (p. 53). Give us all, Lord, the mind to prevent relapses.
Your Borukh Gorin