Antisemitism in Ukraine

Last updated

Cossack Mamay observing Haidamakas hang an Arendator. Ukrainian folk painting, 19th century CossackMamay.jpg
Cossack Mamay observing Haidamakas hang an Arendator. Ukrainian folk painting, 19th century

Antisemitism in Ukraine has been a historical issue in the country, particularly in the twentieth century. The history of the Jewish community of the region dates back to the era when ancient Greek colonies existed in it. A third of the Jews of Europe previously lived in Ukraine between 1791 and 1917, within the Pale of Settlement. The large concentration of Jews in this region historically made them an easy target for anti-Jewish actions and pogroms.

Contents

Before the 20th century

In 1113, there was anti-Jewish violence in Kiev, in the context of a rebellion sparked by the death of the unpopular Sviatopolk II, Grand Prince of Kiev, in which Jews who participated in the prince's economic affairs (particularly the salt trade) were targeted by townspeople. [1] [2] The earliest source of this is not until centuries later, and the event may be apocryphal.[ citation needed ]

Incidents befalling the Jews of Ukraine in the 13th century, such as the Mongol raids which wiped out entire Jewish communities, appear not to be related to antisemitism, according to Kevin Alan Brook. [3]

The pogroms of 1648–49 under Khmelnytsky were marked by brutal anti-Jewish violence.

In 1768, many Jews were massacred by the Haidamak rebels under Ivan Gonta in the Massacre of Uman. Haidamaks were Ukrainian low-noble and peasant Cossack formations active in the Polish-Lithuanian Army. Over three thousand Jews were massacred in the streets and the synagogue with no mercy for age or sex, and their corpses were thrown to pigs and dogs. After this, the Haidamaks went on to slaughter Poles and Ukrainian Uniates, before their leaders were captured and executed for treason against Poland-Lithuania. [4]

The 1821 Odessa pogroms are sometimes considered the first pogroms. After the execution of the Greek Orthodox patriarch, Gregory V, in Constantinople, 14 Jews were killed in response. [5] The initiators of the 1821 pogroms were the local Greeks, who used to have a substantial diaspora in the port cities of what was known as Novorossiya. [6]

A major anti-Jewish riots swept through south-western Imperial Russia (present-day Ukraine and Poland) from 1881 to 1884; when more than 200 anti-Jewish events occurred in the Russian Empire, the most notable of them were pogroms which occurred in Kiev, Warsaw and Odessa. [7] The event which triggered the pogroms was the assassination of Tsar Alexander II on 13 March [1 March, Old Style], 1881, for which some blamed "agents of foreign influence", implying that Jews committed it. [8] [9]

Early 20th century

Pogroms during the Russian Revolution of 1905

Victims of the Ekaterinoslav pogrom, October 1905. Ekaterinoslav1905.jpg
Victims of the Ekaterinoslav pogrom, October 1905.

After the publication of the October Manifesto, which promised citizens of Russia civil rights, many Jews who lived in the cities of the Pale of Settlement, went to the demonstrations against the government. For the local residents acting on the side of the incumbent authorities, this was the pretext to start a new wave of pogroms against Jews.

In February 1905, a pogrom took place in Feodosia, on April 19 of the same year a pogrom occurred in Melitopol. [10] The pogrom in May in Zhytomyr surpassed the rest of the pogroms in terms of the number of victims. The most serious pogrom occurred in Odessa. 300 Jews were killed and thousands injured. Another serious pogrom occurred in Ekaterinoslav, during which 120 Jews were killed. Pogroms occurred in 64 cities (Odessa, Ekaterinoslav, Kiev, Simferopol, Romny, Kremenchug, Nikolaev, Chernigov, Kamenets-Podolsky and Elisavetgrad) and in 626 villages. Approximately 660 pogroms occurred in Ukraine and in Bessarabia. The pogroms lasted several days. Participants in the pogroms were workers of trains, traders of local shops, artisans and industrialists.

The pogroms of 1903–06 marked the beginning of Jewish unification in Europe. They became the motive for the organization of Jewish self-defense, accelerated emigration to Palestine, and initiated the HaShomer organization there.

The activities of the Union of Russian People and of other Black Hundreds organizations nurtured antisemitism in Ukraine in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Russian Civil War

Jewish corpses after a pogrom in Ovruch, February 1919. OvruchPogrom.png
Jewish corpses after a pogrom in Ovruch, February 1919.

In February 1919, a brigade of Ukrainian People's Republic troops killed 1500 Jews in Proskurov. [11] In Tetiev on March 25, 1919, Cossack troops under the command of Colonels Cherkovsky, Kurovsky and Shliatoshenko murdered 4000 Jews. [12] Jews had tried to take refuge in the wooden synagogue but it was set ablaze. The Tetiev pogrom become the prototype of mass murder of Polish Jews, [13] Infants were tossed into the air and their bodies dashed on the pavement, Approximately 4000 of the 6000 Jews of the town had been killed on the single day of March 25, 1919. Tetiev's Jewish quarter was burned in its entirety, including the synagogue and other houses of worship and study, where hundreds of people had sought refuge. Some 23,000 Jews had been recorded as residing in the vicinity, of Tetiev according to the imperial census of 1897; only 242 Jewish residents were documented in 1926. With no Jews found in a town of 10,000 where the Jewish population had previously been estimated at 6,000, a Joint Distribution Committee report sums up the Tetiev situation in this way: "locality ruined." [14] In Dubovo on June 17, 1919, 800 of the town's 900 Jews were murdered in an assembly line fashion, two executioners stood with their sabers on top of the stairs and where they decapitated Jews forced to approach the staircase. [12]

During the Russian Civil War the Jews of Uman in eastern Podolia were subjected to two pogroms in 1919, as the town changed hands several times. The first pogrom, in spring, claimed 170 victims; the second one, in summer, more than 90. in a break with traditional mass murder of Jews in the region, the Christian inhabitants of Uman helped to hide the Jews. The Council for Public Peace, with a Christian majority and a Jewish minority, saved the city from danger several times. In 1920, for example, it stopped the pogrom initiated by the troops of General Denikin. [15]

During the Russian Civil War, between 1918 and 1921, a total of 1,236 violent incidents against Jews occurred in 524 towns in Ukraine. The estimates of the number of killed range between 30,000 and 60,000. [16] [11] Of the recorded 1,236 pogroms and excesses, 493 were carried out by Ukrainian People's Republic soldiers under command of Symon Petliura, 307 by independent Ukrainian warlords, 213 by Denikin's army, 106 by the Red Army and 32 by the Polish Army. [17] During the dictatorship of Pavlo Skoropadsky (29 April 1918 [18] to December 1918 [19] ), no pogroms were recorded. When the Directorate replaced Skoropadsky's government, pogroms once again erupted. [20]

Directorate of Ukraine (1918–1920)

In December 1918 Hetman of the Ukrainian State Hetmanate, Pavlo Skoropadskyi, was deposed and the Directorate (also called the Directoria) was established as the government of the Ukrainian People's Republic (Ukrayins'ka Narodnia Respublika, abbreviated UNR). [18] [19]

This new Ukrainian government immediately reacted to the acts of violence which happened in January 1919 in Zhytomyr and Berdychiv. The Ukrainian government informed the Jewish leaders and the government of Berdychiv on January 10 that the instigators had been shot, and that the army squadron which took part in the action had been disbanded. The head of the government, Volodymyr Vynnychenko, stated that the pogrom actions were initiated by the Black Hundreds. He also stated: "the Ukrainian government will actively fight anti-Semitism and all occurrences of Bolshevism". [20]

The pro-Bolshevik delegate of the Bund, Moisei Rafes, who initially stated that "the special detachment that was sent to Zhytomyr and Berdychev to fight the Soviets initiated a pogrom", later in a speech at the meeting of the Labour Congress of Ukraine on January 16, 1919, changed his mind: "The Directoria states that it is not to blame, that it is not to blame for the pogroms. None of us blames the Directoria for the responsibility of the pogroms." [20]

Symon Petliura made attempts to stop the occurrence of pogroms among Ukrainian detachments. When he discovered from the Minister of Jewish affairs of the UNR that the transiting squadron at the Yareska station had initiated violent acts against the Jewish population, he immediately sent a telegram to the military commandant of Myrhorod: "I command that the matter be investigated and reported back to me, and to use immediate measures so that similar excesses do not have a place and will be punished – 28 January – Head Otaman S. Petliura. [20]

When Petliura took charge of the Directoria in 1919, at his initiative the government investigated the Jewish pogroms in Kamianets-Podilskyi and Proskuriv, demanding that the commanders "use decisive actions to totally liquidate the pogromist anti-Jewish actions, and the perpetrators are to be brought before a military tribunal and punished according to the military laws of war". [20]

A representative of the Jewish party Poale Zion, Drakhler, told Petliura: "We understand, having enough facts, that the Zhytomyr and Berdichev pogroms took place as acts against the (Ukrainian) government. Immediately after the Zhytomyr pogrom the Russian and Polish Black Hundred members boasted 'The planned pogroms had worked extremely well, and will bring an end to Ukrainian aspirations'". Drakhler continued: "I am deeply convinced that not only we, but all Jewish democracy in its activities will take active participation in the struggle to free Ukraine. And in the rows of the army the Jewish Cossack hand in hand will fight, carrying its blood and life onto the altar of national and social freedom in Ukraine". [20]

Petliura replied to the Jewish delegates that he would use "the strength of all my authority to remove the excesses against the Jews, which are obstacles to our work of establishing our statehood".

One document states in reference to the Kiev pogroms of June–October 1919: "When General Dragomirov, known for his liberalism, had to leave Kiev because of the Bolshevik offensive, turned to his officers (recorded in a stenogram) with the following words: 'My friends, you know, as much as I do, the reasons for our temporary failures on the Kievan front. When you, my heroic and never dying eagles, retake Kiev, I grant you the possibility to take revenge on the grubby Jews.'" [20]

When Denikin's Volunteer army occupied Kiev  [ ru ] ( 31 August [ O.S. 18 August]  1919) it inflicted robbery and murder on the civilian population. Over 20,000 people died in two days of violence. After these events, the representative of the Kharkiv Jewish Community, Mr. Suprasskin, spoke to General Shkuro, who stated to him bluntly: "Jews will not receive any mercy because they are all Bolsheviks." [20]

In 1921 Ze'ev (Vladimir) Jabotinsky, the father of Revisionist Zionism, signed an agreement with Maxim Slavinsky, Petliura's representative in Prague, regarding the formation of a Jewish gendarmerie which would accompany Petliura's putative invasion of Ukraine and protect the Jewish population from pogroms. The agreement did not materialize and most Zionist groups heavily criticized Jabotinsky. Nevertheless, he stood by the agreement and took pride in it. [21] [22] [23]

Middle 20th century

World War II

Jews dig their own graves, Zborov, Western Ukraine, 1941 Bundesarchiv Bild 183-A0706-0018-029, Sowjetunion, Storow, Juden vor Exekution.jpg
Jews dig their own graves, Zborov, Western Ukraine, 1941

Operation Barbarossa of 1941 brought together native Ukrainian populations of both, Soviet Ukraine and the territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union, under the German administrative control of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine to the north-east, and the General Government to the south-west. Many historians argue that the destruction of the Jewish population of Ukraine, reduced from 870,000 to 17,000, could not have been accomplished without the aid of the local population, because the Germans lacked the manpower to reach all of the communities that were annihilated, especially in the remote villages. [24]

The nationalist Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists-Stepan Bandera faction of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army "openly advocated violence against Jews", wrote Jeffrey Burds. [25] In April 1941 at its Second Congress in Kraków OUN-B embraced antisemitism. "Twenty so-called 'foreign' nationalities were listed as enemies of Ukraine: Jews were first, Poles were second." The resolution stated: "OUN combats the Jews as the prop of the Muscovite-Bolshevik regime." [24] On September 1, 1941, Ukrainian language newspaper Volhyn wrote: "The element that settled our cities (Jews)... must disappear completely from our cities. The Jewish problem is already in the process of being solved." [26] [ better source needed ] The Lviv pogroms were two massacres of Jews that took place from 30 June to 2 July and 25–29 July 1941 during Operation Barbarossa. According to Yad Vashem six thousand Jews were killed primarily by rioting Ukrainian nationalists and a newly formed Ukrainian militia. The pretext for the pogrom was a rumor that the Jews were responsible for the execution of prisoners by the Soviets before their withdrawal from Lviv. [27] Ukrainian nationalists assisted German Security Police and the Einsatzgruppen . [28] They compiled lists of targets for the branch offices of the KdS and assisted with the roundups (as in Stanisławów, Włodzimierz Wołyński, Łuck), as well as in Zhytomyr, Rivne and Kiev among other locations. [29] [30] [31] In Korosten, the nationalists carried out the killings by themselves, [32] same as inn Sokal. Other locations followed. [33]

Late 20th and early 21st centuries

The inscription "Lenin is a Zhyd (Kike)" and "Death to Moskals" on the Yevhen Konovalets Street in Lviv, 2008 VP Lenin zhid.jpg
The inscription "Lenin is a Zhyd (Kike)" and "Death to Moskals" on the Yevhen Konovalets Street in Lviv, 2008

Some commentators have argued that antisemitism has been resurgent in the post-Soviet period. [34] Jewish groups have attempted to monitor its levels and observed contradictory trends. [35]

There were a number of right-wing nationalist and antisemitic groups in Ukraine in the 1990s. Among the most conspicuous was the MAUP, a private university with extensive financial ties to Islamic regimes. In the March 2006 issue (No. 9/160) of the Personnel Plus magazine by MAUP, an article "Murder Is Unveiled, the Murderer Is Unknown?" revives false accusations from the Beilis Trial, stating that the jury recognized the case as ritual murder by persons unknown, even though it found Beilis himself not guilty. [36]

The incidents of antisemitism declined during mid 1990s. [37] A 2014 report published by Vyacheslav Likhachev of the National Minority Rights Monitoring Group revealed that the antisemitic vandalism and violence peaked in 2005–2006, and declined since then. [38]

In the early 2010s Jewish organizations in and outside of Ukraine have accused the political party All-Ukrainian Union "Svoboda" of open Nazi sympathies and being antisemitic. [39] In May 2013 the World Jewish Congress listed the party as neo-Nazi. [40] Leader of Svoboda, Oleh Tyahnybok has said that a "Muscovite-Jewish mafia" controls Ukraine and has attacked what he says is the "criminal activities of organized Jewry in Ukraine". [41] [42] "Svoboda" itself has denied being antisemitic. [43] In the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary elections "Svoboda" won its first seats in the Ukrainian Parliament, [44] garnering 10.4% of the popular vote and the 4th most seats among national political parties. [45] In the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary elections the party got 6 parliamentary seats (it won 4.7% of the popular vote in this election). [46] In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election other parties joined Svoboda to form a united party list, these were the Governmental Initiative of Yarosh, Right Sector and National Corps. [47] But in the election this combination won 2.2% of the votes, less than half of the 5% election threshold, and thus no parliamentary seats via the national party list. [48] Svoboda itself did win one constituency seat, in Ivano-Frankivsk. [48] [49]

Euromaidan and War in Ukraine

According to the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress Jews supported the 2013–2014 Euromaidan revolution which ousted Viktor Yanukovych from the presidency of Ukraine. The organisation claims few antisemitic incidents were recorded during this period. [50] [51] According to Eduard Dolinsky  [ uk ], executive director of the Kyiv-based Ukrainian Jewish Committee, Ukrainian Jews overwhelmly supported the 2014 Euromaidan, however, its aftermath led to the rise of antisemitism and social acceptance of previously marginal far-right groups, together with government's policy of historical negationism in regard to the WWII ethnic cleansing committed by the Ukrainian nationalist movement against the country's minorities. [52] [53] After the revolution Ukrainian Jews making aliyah from Ukraine reached 142% higher during the first four months of 2014 compared to the previous year. [54] 800 people arrived in Israel over January–April, and over 200 signed up for May 2014. [54] Also at least 100 Jews left the country and went to Israel assisted by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. [55]

In April 2014, a leaflet was handed out to the Jewish community in the city Donetsk as if by the pro-Russian separatists who had taken over control of the city. The leaflet contained an order to every Jew over the age of 16 to register as a Jew, and also to declare all the property they own, or else have their citizenship revoked, face deportation and see their assets confiscated, ostensibly as retribution for being Ukrainian loyalists. [56] Denis Pushilin, head of the pro-Russian separatist Donetsk People's Republic, said it was a fake that was meant to discredit his movement. Donetsk Chief Rabbi Pinchas Vishedski also claims it was a hoax, and said that "Anti-Semitic incidents in the Russian-speaking east were rare, unlike in Kyiv and western Ukraine". [57] An April 2014 listing of anti-Jewish violence in Ukraine in Haaretz no incidents outside this "Russian-speaking east" were mentioned. [58] In February 2015, Alexander Zakharchenko, then leader of the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic" declared that Ukraine would be ruled by "poor representatives" of the Jewish people. [59]

There were also cases of exploitation of antisemitism and "the Jewish question" in propaganda campaigns, such as speculations used by the administration of President Viktor Yanukovych in the first (November 2013) days of the Euromaidan mass protests. [38] The conclusion of the (earlier mentioned) National Minority Rights Monitoring Group report describes a peak of antisemitic incidents in 2014, probably due to the instabilily in Ukraine. [38] In March 2014, Rabbi Yaakov Bleich accused Russian sympathizers and nationalists of staging antisemitic provocations to be blamed on Ukrainians. He claimed that these provocations were used by the Russian Federation to justify its 2014 invasion of Crimea. [60]

According to a 2016 report by Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, there was a significant drop in xenophobic violence in Ukraine, with the exception of the Russian-occupied areas in Eastern Ukraine. [61]

In January 2017, thousands of Ukrainian nationalists marched in Kyiv while celebrating the birthday of Stepan Bandera, of these many participants chanted "Jews out" in German. [62]

A Pew Research Poll which was published on March 27, 2018, found that Ukrainians are far more likely to welcome Jews as fellow citizens than the populations of neighboring countries are, including the populations of all of the other countries in Eastern Europe. Only (5%) of Ukrainians would not accept Jews as fellow citizens, compared to Lithuanians (23%), Romanians (22%), Poles (18%), Russians (14%). [63]

Since 2018, the United Jewish Community of Ukraine  [ uk; ru ] has been systematically monitoring cases of antisemitism in Ukraine. In January 2019, UJCU published its first report, [35] In that report, UJCU recognizes the existence of antisemitism in Ukraine, but notes its household nature. The report refers to an increase of cases of indirect antisemitism and vandalism. At the same time, the organization draws attention to the fact that in 2018 not a single case of physical violence was recorded due to intolerance towards Jews. It is worth noting that, according to the report, the total number of recorded incidents of an antisemitic nature is 107, of which 73 cases were aimed at humiliating Jewish nationality, conveying thoughts about their inferiority, direct insults and threats against them.

Joel Lion, Israel's ambassador to Ukraine, reported increase in antisemitism in Ukraine and added that "If postcards with Nazi symbols are sold near Maidan, you shouldn't need to go and complain". In 2019, Anti-Defamation League found nearly 70 percent of Ukrainians agreeing that "Jews have too much power in the business world." [34]

Historical analysis

The issue of Antisemitism in Ukraine received worldwide attention in 2022, when Vladimir Putin's Russia invaded Ukraine while he was alleging the need to "de-nazify" the country and its government. [64]

Henry Abramson, an expert on Ukrainian-Jewish history, says that many Jews around the world were surprised by the 2019 Ukrainian Presidential election of Volodymyr Zelenskyy because of "the stereotype of prevailing Ukrainian Antisemitism." According to Abramson, Zelensky's "Jewishness has not stood in the way of his being accepted as a symbol of the nation. (...) It is remarkable but not necessarily mind-blowing to see a Jew in the position as leader of Ukraine. It has happened several times before that Jews have been involved in the tight leadership of this country, particularly over the last century." [65]

According to Abramson, "Here in the West, there is a deep-seated stereotype of Ukrainian Antisemitism. It is particularly true of the children of Holocaust Survivors, who grew up in the diaspora, for two reasons. First of all, there was some degree of Ukrainian collaboration with the Nazis. That is, of course, Putin's go-to line which is absolutely absurd and offensive that Ukraine needs to be De-Nazified. That's ridiculous."

"The second reason for this stereotype is that Jews in the diaspora have been separated from the day-to-day of Ukrainian life" says Abramson, and because of the assumption that the historical and present relationship between Jews and Ukrainians over thousands of years can be forever tarnished and defined by the handful of incidents he lists, such as:

Despite these incidents, the number of years in which Jews and Ukrainians had hostile relations, professor Abramson asserts, doesn't negate over a thousand years of friendship. [65]

He notes a long history of cultural interchange, listing a number of Yiddish words with Ukrainian origin that couldn't have formed, and recipe sharing that couldn't have occurred, unless Jews and Ukrainians were intermingling and friendly for most of their history, or as he phrases it "unless Ukrainian and Jewish children were spending time in each other's kitchens."

Related Research Articles

Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against, Jews. This sentiment is a form of racism, and a person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Primarily, antisemitic tendencies may be motivated by negative sentiment towards Jews as a people or by negative sentiment towards Jews with regard to Judaism. In the former case, usually presented as racial antisemitism, a person's hostility is driven by the belief that Jews constitute a distinct race with inherent traits or characteristics that are repulsive or inferior to the preferred traits or characteristics within that person's society. In the latter case, known as religious antisemitism, a person's hostility is driven by their religion's perception of Jews and Judaism, typically encompassing doctrines of supersession that expect or demand Jews to turn away from Judaism and submit to the religion presenting itself as Judaism's successor faith—this is a common theme within the other Abrahamic religions. The development of racial and religious antisemitism has historically been encouraged by the concept of anti-Judaism, which is distinct from antisemitism itself.

Antisemitism has increased greatly in the Arab world since the beginning of the 20th century, for several reasons: the dissolution and breakdown of the Ottoman Empire and traditional Islamic society; European influence, brought about by Western imperialism and Arab Christians; Nazi propaganda and relations between Nazi Germany and the Arab world; resentment over Jewish nationalism; the rise of Arab nationalism; and the widespread proliferation of anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist conspiracy theories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pogrom</span> Violent attack on an ethnic or religious group, usually Jews

A pogrom is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russian Empire. Retrospectively, similar attacks against Jews which occurred in other times and places also became known as pogroms. Sometimes the word is used to describe publicly sanctioned purgative attacks against non-Jewish groups. The characteristics of a pogrom vary widely, depending on the specific incident, at times leading to, or culminating in, massacres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Jews in Russia</span> Ethnic group

The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest population of Jews in the world. Within these territories, the primarily Ashkenazi Jewish communities of many different areas flourished and developed many of modern Judaism's most distinctive theological and cultural traditions, while also facing periods of antisemitic discriminatory policies and persecution, including violent pogroms.

The Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists was a Ukrainian nationalist organization established in 1929 in Vienna, uniting the Ukrainian Military Organization with smaller, mainly youth, radical nationalist right-wing groups. The OUN was the largest and one of the most important far-right Ukrainian organizations operating in the interwar period on the territory of the Second Polish Republic. The OUN was mostly active preceding, during, and immediately after the Second World War. Its ideology has been described as having been influenced by the writings of Dmytro Dontsov, from 1929 by Italian fascism, and from 1930 by German Nazism. The OUN pursued a strategy of violence, terrorism, and assassinations with the goal of creating an ethnically homogenous and totalitarian Ukrainian state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Jews in Ukraine</span> Ethnic group

The history of the Jews in Ukraine dates back over a thousand years; Jewish communities have existed in the modern territory of Ukraine from the time of the Kievan Rus'. Important Jewish religious and cultural movements, from Hasidism to Zionism, arose there. According to the World Jewish Congress, the Jewish community in Ukraine constitutes Europe's third-largest and the world's fifth-largest.

This is a list of countries where antisemitic sentiment has been experienced.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Svoboda (political party)</span> Political party in Ukraine

The All-Ukrainian Union "Freedom", commonly known as V.O. Svoboda or simply Svoboda, is an ultranationalist political party in Ukraine. It has been led by Oleh Tyahnybok since 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lviv pogroms (1941)</span> Genocidal massacres of Jews in 1941 Ukraine

The Lviv pogroms were the consecutive pogroms and massacres of Jews in June and July 1941 in the city of Lwów in German-occupied Eastern Poland/Western Ukraine. The massacres were perpetrated by Ukrainian nationalists, German death squads (Einsatzgruppen), and urban population from 30 June to 2 July, and from 25 to 29 July, during the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Thousands of Jews were killed both in the pogroms and in the Einsatzgruppen killings.

Antisemitism, the prejudice or discrimination against Jews, has had a long history since the ancient times. While antisemitism had already been prevalent in ancient Greece and Roman Empire, its institutionalization in European Christianity after the destruction of the ancient Jewish cultural center in Jerusalem caused two millennia of segregation, expulsions, persecutions, pogroms, genocides of Jews, which culminated in the 20th-century Holocaust in Nazi German-occupied European states, where 67% European Jews were murdered.

The anti-Jewish violence in Central and Eastern Europe following the retreat of Nazi German occupational forces and the arrival of the Soviet Red Army – during the latter stages of World War II – was linked in part to postwar anarchy and economic chaos exacerbated by the Stalinist policies imposed across the territories of expanded Soviet republics and new satellite countries. The anti-semitic attacks had become frequent in Soviet towns ravaged by war; at the marketplaces, in depleted stores, in schools, and even at state enterprises. Protest letters were sent to Moscow from numerous Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian towns by the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee involved in documenting the Holocaust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Holocaust in Ukraine</span>

The Holocaust in Ukraine was the systematic mass murder of Jews in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine, the General Government, the Crimean General Government and some areas which were located to the East of Reichskommissariat Ukraine, in the Transnistria Governorate and Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and the Hertsa region and Carpathian Ruthenia during World War II. The listed areas are currently parts of Ukraine.

The February Revolution in Russia officially ended a centuries-old regime of antisemitism in the Russian Empire, legally abolishing the Pale of Settlement. However, the previous legacy of antisemitism was continued and furthered by the Soviet state, especially under Joseph Stalin. After 1948, antisemitism reached new heights in the Soviet Union, especially during the anti-cosmopolitan campaign, in which numerous Yiddish-writing poets, writers, painters and sculptors were arrested or killed. This campaign culminated in the so-called Doctors' plot, in which a group of doctors were subjected to a show trial for supposedly having plotted to assassinate Stalin. Although repression eased after Stalin's death, persecution of Jews would continue until the late 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish–Ukrainian relations in Eastern Galicia</span> Interethnic relations in western Ukraine during 1795–1944

Eastern Galicia was the heartland of the medieval Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, currently spread over the provinces of Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Ternopil in modern western Ukraine. Along with Poles and Ukrainians, Jews were one of the three largest ethnic groups in Eastern Galicia with almost 900,000 people by 1910. From the late 18th century until the early 20th century, eastern Galicia had the largest concentration of Jews of any region in Europe.

Antisemitism in Russia is expressed in acts of hostility against Jews in Russia and the promotion of antisemitic views in the Russian Federation. This article covers the events since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Previous time periods are covered in the articles Antisemitism in the Russian Empire and Antisemitism in the Soviet Union.

Anti-Jewish boycotts are organized boycotts directed against Jewish people to exclude them economical, political or cultural life. Antisemitic boycotts are often regarded as a manifestation of popular antisemitism.

British Jews have experienced antisemitism - discrimination and persecution as Jews - since a Jewish community was first established in England in 1070. They experienced a series of massacres in the Medieval period, which culminated in their expulsion from England in 1290. They were readmitted by Oliver Cromwell in 1655. By the 1800s, an increasing toleration of religious minorities gradually helped to eliminate legal restrictions on public employment and political representation. However, Jewish financiers were seen by some as holding disproportionate influence on British government policy, particularly concerning the British Empire and foreign affairs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Proskurov pogrom</span> Massacre of Jews at the town of Proskurov (present-day Khmelnytskyi) in Ukraine on 15 February 1919

The Proskurov pogrom took place on February 15, 1919, in the town of Proskurov during the Ukrainian War of Independence, which was taken from Bolshevik control by militants claiming to be Haidamacks. In mere three and a half hours at least 1,500 Jews were murdered, up to 1,700 by other estimates, and more than 1,000 wounded including women, children and the elderly. The massacre was carried out by Ukrainian People's Republic soldiers of Ivan Semesenko. They were ordered to save the ammunition in the process and use only lances and bayonets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1934 Constantine riots</span>

The 1934 Constantine riots were an incident of antisemitic violence in the Algerian city of Constantine, targeting the local Jewish population. A mob of around 300 local Algerians attacked the Jewish quarter and targeted Jewish businesses and homes over a period of several hours, with the violence spreading to nearby towns. The French colonial authorities did little to rein in the violence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pogroms during the Russian Civil War</span> Wave of antisemitic attacks 1918–1920

The pogroms during the Russian Civil War were a wave of mass murders of Jews, primarily in Ukraine, during the Russian Civil War. In the years 1918–1920, there were 1,500 pogroms in over 1,300 localities, in which up to 250,000 were murdered. All armed forces operating in Ukraine were involved in the killings, in particular the anti-Communist Ukrainian People's Army and Armed Forces of South Russia. It is estimated that more than a million people were affected by material losses, 50,000 to 300,000 children were orphaned, and half a million were driven out from or fled their homes.

References

  1. Pogroms: Anti-Jewish Violence in Modern Russian History, edited by John Doyle Klier, Shlomo Lambroza, pp. 13 & 35 (footnotes). John Klier: "upon the death of the Grand Prince of Kiev Sviatopolk, rioting broke out in Kiev against his agents and the town administration. The disorders were not specifically directed against Jews and they are best characterized as a social revolution. This fact has not prevented historians of medieval Russia from describing them as a pogrom." Klier also writes that Alexander Pereswetoff-Morath has advanced a strong argument against considering the Kiev riots of 1113 an anti-Jewish pogrom. Pereswetoff-Morath writes in A Grin without a Cat (2002) that "I feel that Birnbaum's use of the term 'anti-Semitism' as well as, for example, his use of 'pogrom' in references to medieval Rus are not warranted by the evidence he presents. He is, of course, aware that it may be controversial."
  2. George Vernadsky: "Incidentally, one should not suppose that the movement was anti-Semitic. There was no general Jewish pogrom. Wealthy Jewish merchants suffered because of their association with Sviatopolk's speculations, especially his hated monopoly on salt." George Vernadsky, Kievan Russia , Yale University Press, 1973, p. 94
  3. Brook, Kevin Alan (2018). The Jews of Khazaria (3rd ed.). Lanham. pp. 187–189. ISBN   9781538103432 . Retrieved 7 March 2022.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. Herman Rosenthal; J. G. Lipman. "Haidamacks – JewishEncyclopedia.com". www.jewishencyclopedia.com. Jewish Encyclopedia. Retrieved 7 March 2022. There was no able leader to command them, however. Mladanovitch endeavored to negotiate terms of peace with the Cossacks. The latter promised that they would not touch the Poles, while they assured the Jews that their attack was directed only against the Poles. Gonta and Zhelyeznyak with their Haidamacks entered the city and began a most terrible slaughter. Heeding neither age nor sex, they killed the Jews in the streets, threw them from the roofs of tall buildings, speared them, and rode them down with their horses. When the streets were so filled with corpses that it was difficult to pass, Gonta ordered them collected into heaps and thrown outside the city gates to the dogs and pigs. Three thousand Jews fled to the synagogue and made a stand there. Armed with knives, a number of them attacked the Cossacks. Gonta blew in the door of the synagogue with a cannon; the Haidamacks rushed into the building and showed no mercy. Having finished with the Jews, the Haidamacks turned on the Poles. When Mladanovitch in chains reproached Gonta for his treachery, the latter answered, "You treacherously sold the Jews to me, and I by perjury sold you to the devil." It is estimated that about twenty thousand Jews and Poles were killed in Uman alone. Throughout the district the Jews were hunted from place to place. Many succumbed to hunger and thirst; many were drowned in the Dniester; and those who reached Bendery were seized by the Tatars and sold into slavery. Smaller Haidamack bands massacred the Jews in other places. Hundreds were killed in Tetiub, Golta, Balta, Tulchin, Paulovich, Rashkov, Lizyanka, Fastov, Zhivotov, and Granov. The determined efforts of the Jews of Brody in behalf of their brethren, and the lawlessness of Gonta, led to an energetic campaign against him. Soon after the Uman massacre Gonta and Zhelyeznyak were taken by the order of the Russian general Krechetnikov and handed over to the Polish government. Gonta was executed in a most cruel manner. His skin was torn off in strips, and a red-hot iron crown placed on his head. The remaining Haidamack bands were captured and destroyed by the Polish commander Stempkovski.
  5. Odessa pogroms Archived January 21, 2007, at the Wayback Machine at the Center of Jewish Self-Education "Moria".
  6. Pogrom (Virtual Jewish Encyclopedia) (in Russian)
  7. (in Polish) Pogrom Archived February 6, 2010, at the Wayback Machine , based on Alina Cała, Hanna Węgrzynek, Gabriela Zalewska, Historia i kultura Żydów polskich. Słownik, WSiP.
  8. The Jewish Chronicle , May 6, 1881, cited in Benjamin Blech, Eyewitness to Jewish History
  9. Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti newspaper №65, March 8 (20), 1881
  10. "Melitopol | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com.
  11. 1 2 D. Vital. Zionism: the crucial phase. Oxford University Press. 1987. p. 359
  12. 1 2 M. I. Midlarsky. The killing trap: genocide in the seventeenth century. Cambridge University Press. 2005. p. 46.
  13. M. I. Midlarsky. The killing trap: genocide in the seventeenth century. Cambridge University Press. 2005. p. 46.
  14. Chopard, Thomas (August 2019). "Ukrainian Neighbors: Pogroms and Extermination in Ukraine 1919–1920 – Quest. Issues in Contemporary Jewish History". Quest-cdecjournal.it. Retrieved 2022-05-08.
  15. Encyclopaedia Judaica, second edition, vol. 20, p. 244
  16. "History and Culture of Jews in Ukraine ("«Нариси з історії та культури євреїв України»)«Дух і літера» publ., Kyiv, 2008, с. 128 – 135
  17. R. Pipes. A Concise History of the Russian Revolution. Vintage Books. 1996. p. 262.
  18. 1 2 Orest Subtelny, Ukraine: A History, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988, ISBN   0-8020-5808-6
  19. 1 2 Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States: 1999, Routledge, ISBN   1857430581 (p. 849)
  20. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Сергійчук, Володимир. Симон Петлюра і єврейство . Київ: національний університет імені Тараса Шевченка; Центр українознавства, 2006. 152 стор.: стор.90-97. 2-ге вид.[ Volodymyr Serhiychuk. Suymon Petliura & Jews. Kyiv: Tarash Shevchenko National University; 2006. 152 pp: pp. 90–97] ISBN   966-2911-02-2 (in Ukrainian)
  21. Shmuel Katz, Lone Wolf, Barricade Books, New York, 1996, Vol. 1.
  22. Israel Kleiner, From Nationalism to Universalism: Vladimir (Ze'ev) Jabotinsky and the Ukrainian Question, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Study Press, 2000.
  23. Joseph B. Schechtman, The Jabotinsky-Slavinsky Agreement, Jewish Social Studies, XVII (1955), 289–306.
  24. 1 2 Alfred J. Rieber (Winter 2003). "Civil Wars in the Soviet Union". Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History. New series. 4 (1): 145–147. doi:10.1353/kri.2003.0012. S2CID   159755578.
  25. Jeffrey Burds (2013). Holocaust in Rovno: The Massacre at Sosenki Forest, November 1941. Springer. pp. 24–25. ISBN   978-1137388407.
  26. "NAAF Holocaust Project Timeline 1941". January 24, 2012. Archived from the original on 24 January 2012.
  27. The Lemberg Mosaic, Jakob Weiss, Alderbrook Press, New York (2011)
  28. Symposium Presentations (September 2005). "The Holocaust and [German] Colonialism in Ukraine: A Case Study" (PDF). The Holocaust in the Soviet Union. The Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. pp. 15, 18–19, 20 in current document of 1/154. Archived from the original (PDF file, direct download 1.63 MB) on 16 August 2012. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  29. PWL. "Mord w Czarnym Lesie (Murder in the Black Forest)". Województwo Stanisławowskie. Historia. PWL-Społeczna organizacja kresowa. Archived from the original on 27 November 2014. Retrieved 14 July 2015.
  30. I.K. Patrylyak (2004), Військова діяльність ОУН(Б) у 1940–1942 роках (The Military Activities of the OUN (B), 1940–1942). Shevchenko University; Institute of History of Ukraine, Kiev, pp. 522–524 (4–6/45 in PDF).
  31. Іван Качановський (30 March 2013). "Сучасна політика пам'яті на Волині щодо ОУН(б) та нацистських масових вбивств" [Contemporary politics of memory about OUN (b) in Volhynia and the Nazi massacres]. Україна модерна. Retrieved 14 July 2015.
  32. Ronald Headland (1992), Messages of Murder: A Study of the Reports of the Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and the Security Service, 1941–1943. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. Press, pp. 125–126. ISBN   0838634184.
  33. Dr. Frank Grelka (2005). Ukrainischen Miliz. Die ukrainische Nationalbewegung unter deutscher Besatzungsherrschaft 1918 und 1941/42. Viadrina European University: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. pp. 283–284. ISBN   3447052597 . Retrieved 17 July 2015. RSHA von einer begrüßenswerten Aktivitat der ukrainischen Bevolkerung in den ersten Stunden nach dem Abzug der Sowjettruppen.
  34. 1 2 "Jews and conspiracy theories: Antisemitism enters academia in Ukraine". 16 October 2020.
  35. 1 2 United Jewish Community of Ukraine  [ uk; ru ], "Anti-Semitism in Ukraine–2018." (in Russian)
  36. "То есть изуверское убийство было совершено с ритуальной целью, но не Бейлисом, а кем-то другим. Кем?" ВБИВСТВО РОЗКРИТО. ВБИВЦЯ НЕ ВІДОМИЙ?, Yaroslav Oros
  37. Anti-Semitism Worldwide, 1999/2000 by Stephen Roth Institute, University of Nebraska Press, 2002, ISBN   0-8032-5945-X
  38. 1 2 3 Likhachev, Vyacheslav. "Anti-Semitism in Ukraine – 2014: report based on monitoring data". The National Minority Rights Monitoring Group. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  39. Rise of Ukrainian Svoboda party. Also in:
    Ukraine election: President Yanukovych party claims win, BBC News (29 October 2012).
    Svoboda plays nationalist card.
    2012 Top Ten Anti-Israel/Anti-Semitic Slurs: Mainstream Anti-Semitism Archived 2013-12-21 at the Wayback Machine , Simon Wiesenthal Center (27 December 2012).
    – Winer, Stuart. Ukraine okays 'zhyd' slur for Jews, The Times of Israel, December 19, 2012.
    Svoboda: The rise of Ukraine's ultra-nationalists, BBC News (26 December 2012).
    Svoboda: The Rising Spectre Of Neo-Nazism in the Ukraine. International Business Times, 27 December 2012.
    Svoboda promoting hatred.
  40. World Jewish Congress calls Svoboda a neo-Nazi party, Ukrinform (14 May 2013)
  41. "Ukraine's Far Right Candidate Reflects Mainstream Nationalist Views". VOA. 16 May 2014.
  42. Svoboda: The rise of Ukraine's ultra-nationalists, BBC News (26 December 2012)
  43. http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/extreme-choices-svoboda-plays-nationalist-card-314617.html
    Oleh Tyahnybok: "The three opposition parties should not be required to act completely in sync", The Ukrainian Week (31 March 2013)
    "Ukrainian nationalists protest over Jewish pilgrims". Kyiv Post . Reuters. 25 September 2011. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 25 September 2011.
    "Ukrainian party picks xenophobic candidate". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 25 May 2009. Archived from the original on 9 June 2012.
    Tiahnybok denies anti-Semitism in Svoboda, Kyiv Post (27 December 2012)
    Ukraine's Ultranationalists Show Surprising Strength at Polls, Nytimes.com (8 November 2012)
    Ukraine party attempts to lose anti-Semitic image, The Jerusalem Post (21 January 2013)
  44. Ukraine election:President Yanukovych party claims win, BBC News (29 October 2012).
    http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/extreme-choices-svoboda-plays-nationalist-card-314617.html
    2012 Top Ten Anti-Israel/Anti-Semitic Slurs:Mainstream Anti-Semitism Threatens World Peace Archived 2013-12-21 at the Wayback Machine , Simon Wiesenthal Center (27 December 2012)
    Winer, Stuart. Ukraine okays 'zhyd' slur for Jews, The Times of Israel, December 19, 2012.
    Svoboda: The rise of Ukraine's ultra-nationalists, BBC News (26 December 2012)
    International Business Times, Svoboda: The Rising Spectre Of Neo-Nazism In The Ukraine, 27 December 2012.
  45. http://www.kyivpost.com/content/politics/results-of-the-vote-count-continuously-updated-315153.html
    Party of Regions gets 185 seats in Ukrainian parliament, Batkivschyna 101 – CEC, Interfax-Ukraine (12 November 2012)
  46. Poroshenko Bloc to have greatest number of seats in parliament Archived 2014-11-10 at the Wayback Machine , Ukrainian Television and Radio (8 November 2014)
    People's Front 0.3% ahead of Poroshenko Bloc with all ballots counted in Ukraine elections – CEC, Interfax-Ukraine (8 November 2014)
    Poroshenko Bloc to get 132 seats in parliament – CEC, Interfax-Ukraine (8 November 2014)
    After the parliamentary elections in Ukraine: a tough victory for the Party of Regions Archived 2013-03-17 at the Wayback Machine , Centre for Eastern Studies (7 November 2012)
  47. "Ярош, Тягнибок та Білецький таки сформували єдиний список на вибори" [Yarosh, Tyagnibok and Biletsky have all formed a single list for the elections]. glavcom.au. 9 June 2019.
  48. 1 2 CEC counts 100 percent of vote in Ukraine's parliamentary elections, Ukrinform (26 July 2019)
    (in Russian) Results of the extraordinary elections of the People's Deputies of Ukraine 2019, Ukrayinska Pravda (21 July 2019)
  49. "Електоральна пам'ять". ukr.vote.
  50. "Евреи возмущены антисемитской пропагандой "Беркута"". Archived from the original on 2014-04-29. Retrieved 2014-04-28.
  51. "Открытое обращение к евреям всего мира". Archived from the original on 2014-04-29. Retrieved 2014-04-28.
  52. Dolinsky, Eduard (April 11, 2017). "Opinion | What Ukraine's Jews Fear". The New York Times via NYTimes.com.
  53. "JerusalemPost: Ukrainian Jewish Leader Says Community In Danger Of Extinction". Archived from the original on 2016-11-26. Retrieved 2017-04-22.
  54. 1 2 "Ukrainian Jews immigrate to Israel amid growing unrest". Times of Israel. 4 May 2014. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
  55. Apfel, Alexander J. (March 4, 2016). "Ukrainian Jews flee to Israel amid anti-Semitism in war torn country". Ynetnews via www.ynetnews.com.
  56. "Vandals deface grave of Lubavitcher Rebbe's brother". CFCA. Retrieved 29 April 2014.
  57. "Ukraine rabbi calls anti-Semitic leaflet a political hoax". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com.
  58. "Ukrainian Jews Look to Israel as anti-Semitism Escalates". Haaretz.
  59. "Ukraine run by 'miserable Jews,' says rebel chief" via Times of Israel.
  60. "Ukraine chief rabbi accuses Russians of staging anti-Semitic 'provocations'". JTA. 3 March 2014. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  61. "Ukraine sees drop in xenophobic violence everywhere but Russian-occupied Crimea". Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group.
  62. "Ukrainian marchers in Kiev chant 'Jews out'". Jewish Telegraphic Agency . 3 January 2017. Retrieved 21 September 2017.
  63. "In some countries in Central and Eastern Europe, roughly one-in-five adults or more say they would not accept Jews as fellow citizens". Pew Research Center. Archived from the original on 14 April 2023. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
  64. Spritzer, Dinah (4 March 2022). "Jewish Ukrainians gear up for fierce Russia fight, alongside the 'neo-Nazis' they say Putin is lying about". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. JTA. Retrieved 7 March 2022. (JTA) – It might seem perplexing to observers in the United States and beyond that Jews would embrace Ukrainian nationalism, which some of its opponents – including Putin – say is tinged with antisemitism. "There was definitely a Jewish memory of anti-Jewish pogroms conducted by Ukrainians," said Sergiy Petukhov, Ukraine's former deputy minister of European Integration whose mother and grandfather live in Israel. Also a native of Donetsk, Petukhov describes himself as a Ukrainian with Jewish ancestry, "like our current president," he said, referring to Volodymyr Zelensky. Ukraine's history of antisemitism goes far beyond pogroms. In their efforts to exterminate Jews, the Nazis were significantly aided by Ukrainians during World War II, according to several historians. More recently, some of the initial paramilitary fighters against the Russian-backed takeover in Ukraine's east, such as the Azov Battalion, were extremists and ultranationalists who displayed Nazi symbols. (...) "I know it's hard for Jews abroad to understand, but these actions were intended to be anti-Russian, not anti-Jewish," Petukov said. "And when it comes to those supporting Ukrainian sovereignty and culture, this is really a tiny element." Now part of the national guard, the battalion of 900 to 1,500 members publicly claims to eschew all Nazi ideology. Batozsky said he worked closely with the Azov Battalion during the 2014–15 conflict behind the scenes as a political consultant in Donetsk. It is this work, and his outspoken defense of Ukrainian efforts to defeat the separatists, that he says put him on the Russian hit list – and also that makes him confident that Russian charges of neo-Nazis in Ukraine are inaccurate. "They were soccer hooligans and wanted attention, so yeah, I was shocked when I saw guys with swastika tattoos," he said about the Azov members who he got to know. "But I talked with them all the time about being Jewish and they had nothing negative to say. They had no anti-Jewish ideology." He insists that the image of Ukraine as a hotbed of antisemitism is absurd. "I don't practice Judaism, but still everyone knows I am Jewish – I have such a Jewish face! And I never experienced antisemitism from Ukrainians," he insisted. "The military guys I am working with now really don't care that I am a Jew."
  65. 1 2 Abramson, Henry (4 March 2022). Volodymyr Zelensky: His Presidency in the Context of Ukrainian-Jewish History (Speech). Retrieved 7 March 2022 via YouTube.

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Antisemitism in Ukraine at Wikimedia Commons