Avigdor Eskin | |
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| Born | Victor Valeryevich Eskin April 26, 1960 |
| Nationality | Russian-Israeli |
| Known for | Activism |
Avigdor Eskin (born 26 April 1960) is a Russian-Israeli conservative journalist and political activist. Born in Moscow in the Soviet Union, Eskin emigrated to Israel where he became involved in right-wing politics. He currently resides in Jerusalem.
Avigdor Eskin was born as Victor Valeryevich Eskin in Moscow in 1960. His father was from an assimilated Jewish family. His mother was a Ukrainian who was not considered a Jew under Jewish law, but may have had Jewish roots. [1] [2] [3] When he was 11 years old, he began taking an interest in his Jewish identity after his grandmother told him about the Holocaust, and was further inspired by a religious Catholic friend. He began illicitly listening to Western radio stations such as Voice of America, Kol Israel, and the BBC Russian Service, and attending synagogue. He converted to Judaism soon afterward. He became an Orthodox Jew and committed Zionist.
Despite harassment by the KGB, Eskin participated in Zionist activities. He became the youngest underground Hebrew teacher in the Soviet Union (which was illegal at the time), and translated right-wing radical Meir Kahane's Never Again manifesto into Russian.[ citation needed ] Eskin also became determined to emigrate to Israel, and was granted an exit visa in 1978. He emigrated to Israel in January 1979 at the age of 18. Years later, Eskin's mother and sisters immigrated to Israel. [4] In Israel, Eskin did military service in the Israel Defense Forces as part of the Hesder program, which combines regular military service with religious studies. [3]
Eskin was a founder of Israeli New Right movement together with the former MK Michael Kleiner and was behind the alliance between the Israeli right and American conservatives, led by senator Jesse Helms. Additionally, he organised the arms supply to the anti-communist guerrillas in Nicaragua. The most controversial of his activities was his support of the White regime in South Africa due to its staunch anti-communist politics, until its collapse in the early 1990s.
Eskin lead many demonstrations against Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin in 1995, in response to the Oslo Accords. [5] He was among the most vocal protesters against the Oslo accords.
In May 2005, Eskin won a slander case that he filed against Barry Chamish. [6] He later described Chamish as "heavy drinking person, who sucked his theories from the bottle".
On the 2nd of February, 2017, Eskin put out an article stating that he knew employees of a private intelligence firm Jellyfish formed by former Blackwater employees having had made contact with Michael Flynn. [7]
Eskin was actively involved in public criticism against the leader of Israel Beteynu party and later Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman. [8] This was part of a long-running feud between Avigdor Eskin and Avigdor Lieberman - with Eskin describing Lieberman as a "leftist".
Since 2014 Eskin has actively promulgated the Russian propaganda against the Euromaidan revolution, and attempted to rally Knesset against supporting it. Since the start of the War In Donbass he continued to make false claims of antisemitism in Ukraine. [9]
Eskin frequently lectures in Israel, in Europe and in Russia on political science and theological matters. He is liked within the conservative circles around the world, due to his staunch support of right-wing causes, and pro-life agenda. [1] [10] [11] Eskin has close ties to leading Israeli conservatives such as the Likud's Michael Kleiner and Otzma Yehudit MK Itamar Ben-Gvir. [12]
Eskin has close ties to Russian political analyst Aleksandr Dugin, having previously served on the central committee of Dugin's Eurasia Party. [13]
In May 2018 Ukraine has forbidden entry for three years with blocking of the right to dispose of assets and the belonging property. [14]
Eskin is active in South African politics, frequently visiting the country, and working as an activist for Afrikaner separatists' rights. In this role, he has caused diplomatic incidents, notably when describing Desmond Tutu as a fascist who is oppressing the Afrikaner people. The statement released in this regard was put out jointly with Dan Roodt, who is separately documented as having associations with the Swedish Resistance Movement. [15]
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. Some have described a "renaissance" in the Jewish community inside Russia since the beginning of the 21st century; however, the Russian Jewish population has experienced precipitous decline since the dissolution of the USSR which continues to this day, although it is still among the largest in Europe.
Aliyah is the immigration of Jews from the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel or the Palestine region, which is today chiefly represented by the State of Israel. Traditionally described as "the act of going up", moving to the Land of Israel or "making aliyah" is one of the most basic tenets of Zionism. The opposite action — emigration by Jews from the Land of Israel — is referred to in the Hebrew language as yerida. The Law of Return that was passed by the Israeli parliament in 1950 gives all diaspora Jews, as well as their children and grandchildren, the right to relocate to Israel and acquire Israeli citizenship on the basis of connecting to their Jewish identity.
Aleksandr Gelyevich Dugin is a Russian far-right political philosopher.
Yisrael Beiteinu is a secularist, conservative, nationalist and right-wing political party in Israel. The party's base was originally secular Russian-speaking Israelis, although support from that demographic is in decline. The party describes itself as "a national movement with the clear vision to follow in the bold path of Zev Jabotinsky", the founder of Revisionist Zionism. It has primarily represented immigrants from the former Soviet Union, although it has attempted to expand its appeal to more established Israelis.
Avigdor Lieberman is a Soviet-born Israeli politician who served as Minister of Finance between 2021 and 2022, having previously served twice as Deputy Prime Minister of Israel from 2006 to 2008 and 2009 to 2012.
Nativ, or officially Lishkat Hakesher or The Liaison Bureau, is an Israeli governmental liaison organization that maintained contact with Jews living in the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War and encouraged aliyah, immigration to Israel.
Nehemiah Levanon was an Israeli intelligence agent, diplomat, head of the aliyah program Nativ, and a founder of kibbutz Kfar Blum. Originally a native of Latvia, he immigrated to the Mandatory Palestine in 1938. After Israel's independence in 1948, Levanon served in a variety of roles to encourage the well-being and emigration of Soviet Jewry. Due to the covert nature of his work, Levanon's decades of service were largely unknown until after his retirement, during the last days of the Soviet Union.
The Lieberman Plan, also known in Israel as the "Populated-Area Exchange Plan", was proposed in May 2004 by Avigdor Lieberman, the leader of the Israeli political party Yisrael Beiteinu. The plan suggests an exchange of populated territories – territories populated by both Arabs and Jews – between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
In the years leading up to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and for just over a decade thereafter, a particularly large number of Jews emigrated from the Soviet Union and the post-Soviet countries. The majority of these emigrants made aliyah, while a sizable amount immigrated to various Western countries. This wave of Jewish migration followed the 1970s Soviet aliyah, which began after the Soviet government lifted the ban on the country's refuseniks, most of whom were Jews who had been denied permission to leave the country.
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.
As an organized nationalist movement, Zionism is generally considered to have been founded by Theodor Herzl in 1897. However, the history of Zionism began earlier and is intertwined with Jewish history and Judaism. The organizations of Hovevei Zion, held as the forerunners of modern Zionist ideals, were responsible for the creation of 20 Jewish towns in Palestine between 1870 and 1897.
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Vesty was an Israeli Russian-language daily newspaper. Based in Tel Aviv, the paper was Israel's most widely read Russian-language paper and the last remaining daily paper in Russian. The paper was started in 1992 by Yedioth Ahronoth Group, which remains its owner. It was very widely read in the 1990s. However, its sales had slumped, and in 2017 it was turned into a weekly newspaper, with a Russian-language website built, based on Ynet. In December 2018, the newspaper went out of print. The paper was edited by the refusenik Eduard Kuznetsov from 1992 to 1999.
Dov Schperling ; was a Zionist activist and leader who was amongst the first Jews to immigrate from the Soviet Union to Israel. He began his Zionist advocacy during the reign of the communists in the Soviet Union, when such activity was illegal, and as a consequence was imprisoned in a Russian gulag for two years. After his released, he emigrated to Israel, there he continued his struggle for the freedom of Soviet Jews. He was a member of the Herut right wing party and was a delegate of the Jewish Agency to Austria.
Yulia Malinovsky is an Israeli politician, lawyer, and former local police officer. She is currently a member of the Knesset for Yisrael Beiteinu.
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Avigdor "Avi" Maoz is an Israeli civil servant and politician. The leader of the far-right, religious conservative Noam party, he is currently its sole member in the Knesset.
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Zionist antisemitism or antisemitic Zionism refers to a phenomenon in which antisemites express support for Zionism and the State of Israel. In some cases, this support may be promoted for explicitly antisemitic reasons. Historically, this type of antisemitism has been most notable among Christian Zionists, who may perpetrate religious antisemitism while being outspoken in their support for Jewish sovereignty in Israel due to their interpretation of Christian eschatology. Similarly, people who identify with the political far-right, particularly in Europe and the United States, may support the Zionist movement because they seek to expel Jews from their country and see Zionism as the least complicated method of achieving this goal and satisfying their racial antisemitism.
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