DURING THIS PURIM HOLIDAY—LET US REMEMBER ALL THOSE WHO CONTINUE TO FIGHT AMALEK…

Purim 5774: Baruch Cohen, Mar. 14, 2014— The festival of Purim derives from the Biblical story of Esther, one of the most dramatic and best told stories in all literature.

Putin, Ukraine and the Jews: Isi Leibler, Jerusalem Post, Mar. 16, 2014 — The international crisis created by Putin’s military incursion into Crimea has also served to highlight, again, Russia’s relationship to the Jews.

Reading Megillah in Tehran: How Iranian Jews Celebrate Purim: Shai Secunda, Tablet, Mar. 13, 2014 — The Iranian city of Hamadan is composed of a series of concentric circles punctuated by spokes that spin traffic out across town.

Purim 1953: Jews in the Communist Empire: Yosef Begun & Larry Pfeffer , Jerusalem Post, Mar, 16 2014 — Jews in the Former Soviet Union are generally well aware that the Russian-dominated part of the Communist empire was getting increasingly anti-Semitic after 1948, when it became clear Israel would not turn “red.” What might have been had Stalin stayed in power?
 

On Topic Links

Ukraine Communities Feel ‘Abandoned’ by World Jewry: Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel, Mar. 13, 2014

Ahead of Referendum, Nothing Is Normal In Crimea: Batya Ungar-Sargon, Tablet, Mar. 14, 2014

Purim – the World’s Conscience: Shmuel Rabinowitz, Jerusalem Post, Mar. 16, 2014
Christians Have Fallen in Love With Queen Esther, Purim’s Jewish Heroine: Rebecca Phillips, Tablet, Mar. 12, 2014

PURIM 5774

Baruch Cohen                                

Mar. 14, 2014

In memory of Malka – zl

No other book of the Hebrew Testament has received such mixed reviews by good, God-fearing men as the Book of Esther. It has had the unique, but clear distinction of frequently being praised by many Jews and ignored or disliked by even more Christians. So appreciative of the book was the great Jewish scholar Moses Mendelsohn (1729-1786) that he ranked it after the Pentateuch. However, Martin Luther voiced the sentiment of many Christians in declaring: “I am so hostile to this book (II Maccabees) and to Esther that I would wish they did not exist at all, for they Judaize too greatly and have much pagan impropriety.” – Moore, Carey A.. Esther, The Anchor Bible. Garden City, N.Y. Doubleday, 1971.

The festival of Purim derives from the Biblical story of Esther, one of the most dramatic and best told stories in all literature. History itself has re-enacted it time and time again, for many Hamans have risen against the Jews and many Mordechais have appeared to save them, in many countries throughout the past two millennia.

The feast of Purim dates from the second century BCE. This time element is important: Judah the Maccabee won his great victory over the Syrian-Greek ruler Nicanor on the 13^th of Adar in the year 161 BCE and that day, declared a holiday, became Purim.

The festival grew more important with every passing generation. It is clear that Purim was generally observed in Judea sometime before the destruction of the Second Temple. Thereafter, the frequent bitterness of life in the unfriendly diaspora lands made Purim increasingly meaningful to the Jewish People. By resisting and destroying all kinds of Amaleks, the cowardly and evil persecutors, we, the Jewish people survived – along with preserving our observance of the holiday of Purim. The traditional Purim observance, enjoying a festive meal, and giving to the poor, was also applied to special Purims commemorating specific persecutions.

Am Israel chai v’kayam The Jewish people lives and exists despite all the Amaleks throughout history who have sought to destroy us.

Hod AVINU CHAI

Hag Purim Sameach!

Happy Purim Holiday!

                         (Baruch Cohen is CIJR’s Research Chairman)

Contents
                                        

PUTIN, UKRAINE AND THE JEWS                                                          

Isi Leibler

Jerusalem Post, Mar. 16, 2014

The international crisis created by Putin’s military incursion into Crimea has also served to highlight, again, Russia’s relationship to the Jews. The Russian president has included radical nationalism and anti-Semitism in the Ukraine as major justifications for his intervention. I have personal experience of the feral anti-Semitism which pervaded the region from my direct dealings with senior Soviet authorities in the campaign to free Soviet Jewry, which was the central focus of my public life for many years. I have no doubt that both in the Ukraine and Russia, a substantial proportion of the population continues to hate and fear Jews.

Yet today it is almost surreal, particularly when recalling the major contribution of Soviet Jewish dissidents toward the downfall of the Evil Empire, to observe President Vladimir Putin, the authoritarian former KGB official, displaying overt friendship toward Jews and Israel. We are under no misapprehensions. Neither Russia nor Ukraine are democracies. But on a relative scale, the corruption and xenophobia currently dominating Ukraine is more extreme than in Russia, where Putin has suppressed anti-Semites and repeatedly made friendly gestures to the Jewish community. For example, he provided $50 million of state funding for a Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow, in addition to which he symbolically personally donated a month’s salary. In this he displayed total indifference to the powerful anti-Semitic elements in Russian society.

Putin is a nationalist and his primary motivation is to restore Russia as a global power. This is what propelled him to intervene in Georgia and now in Ukraine in reaction to what he regards as a threatening NATO intrusion in his sphere of influence and on his borders. Russians compare this reaction to Kennedy’s 1962 response to Khrushchev’s effort to introduce missiles into Cuba. Ukraine, like Russia, has a long history of violent anti-Semitism, that dates back to the 1648 Khmelnitsky pogroms and continues through the Beiliss blood libel – still an issue of contention among many Ukrainians – and the Russian Civil War, when tens of thousands of Jews were butchered.

The existing Ukrainian Jewish community, estimated to be around 200,000, has good reason to be fearful. Since gaining independence in 1991, Ukraine has spawned thriving xenophobic rightwing parties which are alleged to have spearheaded the revolt against the corrupt President Viktor Yanukovich. Although only gaining 10 percent electoral support, these are genuine neo-Nazis who employ swastika symbols and are openly anti-Semitic. Successive Ukrainian governments have ignored or condoned their extremist activities and made no effort to prosecute them.

Oleh Tyahnybok, leader of Svoboda, the largest right-wing extremist nationalist faction, which holds 37 seats in the government, has called for the liberation of Ukraine from the “Muscovite-Jewish Mafia” and refers to his opponents as “Zhids.” His deputy, Yuri Mykhalchyshyn, founded a think tank initially called “The Joseph Goebbels Political Research Center.” The party activists have circulated translations of Mein Kampf and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. They revere Stepan Bandera, a onetime ally of Nazi Germany whose troops murdered tens of thousands of Jews. Their anti-Semitism is overt and has led to the desecration of synagogues and brutal acts of violence against Jews.

In an attempt to portray himself as a moderate, Dmitry Yarosh, leader of the ultra-nationalist leader “Right Sector,” currently deputy director of Ukraine’s Security Council and a candidate for president, has sought to dissociate himself from anti-Semitism. He even opened up a hotline with Israel’s ambassador in Kiev. But Yarosh, a renowned expert on firebombs, made it clear that he has no intention of disbanding his black-garbed paramilitary units.

Not surprisingly, President Putin is exploiting these Ukrainian fascist and anti-Semitic groups in order to discredit the new government. However, a number of Ukrainian Jewish oligarchs and the Jewish umbrella body known as the Vaad insisted that anti-Semitism posed no threat and called Putin a liar. One of the “chief rabbis”, Rabbi Yaacov Bleich, a Karliner-Stoliner Hassid from New York, even accused the Russians of dressing up as Ukrainian nationalists and engaging in anti-Semitic provocations. In what may come back to haunt him, Bleich also downplayed the influence of the anti-Semitic parties in the new government, saying that he had received assurances that the safety of Jews will be protected.

Jews who engage in the politics of an unstable country in which successive governments condoned or ignored nationalist anti-Semitic groups are playing with fire. Chabad Chief Rabbi Reuven Azman gave sound advice when he urged his community to leave the country, although after subsequent pressure he was obliged to tell the media that he was “unaware of any new anti-Semitic acts since the downfall of Yanukovich.”

Despite pressure from the Obama administration to condemn Russia, Israel has acted in its own interests and avoided taking any position. Long before the confrontations with the US, Putin indicated that he respected Jews and made great efforts to display friendship to Israel. He has already paid two state visits to Jerusalem, the most recent immediately after his reelection in June 2012. He repeatedly expressed pride that former Russians make up Israel’s largest immigrant group. He visited the Kotel – the Western Wall, even donning a yarmulke, which would have made his Bolshevik predecessors turn in their graves. He seemed utterly indifferent to the fact that this outraged Islamic groups in Israel and abroad. This does not mean that Putin is a philo-Semite. He is above all, a Russian nationalist. Nor is Putin an ally. He has provided lethal weapons to those seeking our destruction and is considered an ally of both Iran and Syria. Yet he is also far more of a realist than US President Barack Obama and must be under no illusions about the threat Islamic fundamentalism represents to his country. He must also be concerned about the repercussions facing Russia should Iran become a nuclear power.

As a result of his disastrous foreign policy, President Obama has now paved the way for Russia to reassert itself into a possibly more dominant position in the Middle East than at the height of the Cold War. US support for the Muslim Brotherhood even alienated Egypt, which now seems to have also joined the Russian camp. Unlike Obama, whose partners no longer feel he can be relied upon, Putin has demonstrated his ability to stand up and deliver on behalf of his allies. Yet, despite Russia’s current support for Iran and Syria, our leaders communicate with Putin on a regular basis and seek to convince him that radical Islamic countries also pose a threat to Russia.

Thirty years ago, I would never have visualized myself supporting closer relations between Israel and Russia. We remain overwhelmingly dependent on the support of the United States and above all cherish our alliance and shared democratic values with the American people. Yet we are also obliged to develop relations with authoritarian, undemocratic countries like China. It is thus clearly in our national interest, without being under any idealistic illusions, to nurture ties with a Russia whose leader seems to have dramatically broken with centuries of Tsarist and Bolshevik anti-Semitism and now displays friendship towards the Jewish people.

Contents
                                  

READING MEGILLAH IN TEHRAN:

HOW IRANIAN JEWS CELEBRATE PURIM                                      

Shai Secunda                                                                               

Tablet, Mar. 13, 2014

The Iranian city of Hamadan is composed of a series of concentric circles punctuated by spokes that spin traffic out across town. The peculiar urban planning gives the impression of a shimmering pinwheel. Almost at the very center of the innermost circle lies the Tomb of Esther and Mordecai—a mausoleum traditionally thought to be the resting place of the Book of Esther’s two heroes—where Muslims, Christians, and Jews regularly pray. In late 2010, when tensions between the Islamic Republic and the Jewish state were particularly high, hundreds of Islamists protested outside the tomb on a small street fittingly called Esther Lane. Old World War II-era propaganda about Purim being a celebration of a Persian massacre reappeared in the Iranian media, and Western observers started talking seriously about Iran’s “War on Purim.” Meanwhile, the Simon Wiesenthal Center mobilized, lobbying UNESCO to protect the historic tomb. As it turned out, the threats to Jewish religious practice never materialized, and fears for the safety of Iran’s Jewish monuments, while well-intentioned, were largely misplaced. In all, it would seem that apart from creating unique traffic problems, Hamadan’s layout may have had the effect of unduly magnifying the relatively minor disturbances that took place in its center.

Iran’s Jewish community, the largest in the Middle East outside Israel, is currently preparing to celebrate Purim, as it does every year. The Book of Esther will be read aloud in synagogues small and large, gifts will be exchanged, charity will be distributed, and even in the officially “dry” Islamic Republic, wine will be imbibed. Barring traffic jams, the traditional seasonal pilgrimage from cities like Tehran to the mausoleum in Hamadan should run as scheduled. And yet, the events of a few years ago still raise interesting questions about what it means to observe a holiday that celebrates Jewish survival in the face of a Persian decree while still living in modern-day Persia—Iran.

The establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979 and the subsequent Iran-Iraq war had the effect of quartering Iran’s Jewish population in short order; while there were some 80,000 to 90,000 Jews in Iran before 1979, today there are estimated to be around 25,000. A further consequence was that while prior to the revolution significant Jewish communities could be found across the country in places like Mashhad and Yazd, Jews are now mainly concentrated in Tehran, with smaller numbers in Shiraz and Isfahan. Many Iranian Jews—particularly those who left Iran immediately following the revolution—look back at the reign of the shah as the final, golden gasp of Iranian Jewry. And yet, many thousands of Jews continue to freely make their lives in the Islamic Republic, much to the bewilderment of Jews in the West and the government of Israel. Recent fieldwork done in Tehran’s Jewish community shows Jews publicly practicing their religion and living relatively full lives. Occasional anti-Semitic flare-ups notwithstanding, based on conversations I’ve had with people from the community, the Iranian Jewish experience, including Persian Purim celebrations, looks much the same as it did four decades ago under the shah.

I spoke with an Iranian rabbi who recently emigrated from Iran for economic reasons and for whom last Purim was the first he celebrated outside the Islamic Republic. After recounting his initial shock at the unbridled levity and even racy costumes that have become the norm in Purim celebrations in places like Israel and the United States (the custom to dress up on Purim is not native to Iranian Jewry, and Iran, which is a rather conservative place to begin with, has official modesty laws), the pious rabbi proceeded to tell me about the festive but relatively reserved atmosphere of Purim as it is celebrated in Iran today. Even Jews not generally punctilious about synagogue attendance make great efforts to attend Megillah readings. And for reasons of decorum, the booing at Haman’s name is limited as much as possible to the climactic section naming Haman’s 10 sons. When asked about disturbances and anti-Jewish propaganda in reaction to the holiday, the rabbi was entirely dismissive, claiming that this was the inconsequential chatter of a small minority of misinformed fanatics. Purim in Iran, he stressed, was celebrated with pride, dignity, and not a hint of shame…                                                  

[To Read the Full Article Click the Following Link –ed.]                                  

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PURIM 1953: JEWS IN THE COMMUNIST EMPIRE                        

Yosef Begun & Larry Pfeffer                                                                    Jerusalem Post, Mar. 16, 2014

Jews in the Former Soviet Union are generally well aware that the Russian-dominated part of the Communist empire was getting increasingly anti-Semitic after 1948, when it became clear Israel would not turn “red.” What might have been had Stalin stayed in power? Two years after the end of World War II in 1945, I was 15 and started my studies in a technical high-school attached to the aviation industry. I was lucky since a year later, in 1948, “the years of late Stalinism” began, with all kinds of discrimination and persecution of Jews. Jewish students were not accepted at our school. 1948 began tragically. I remember well a cold day in January. I was coming home late, frozen, looking forward to a hot supper. Right away I see that Mama is very upset; she is silent, with her hands resting in her lap. “What happened?” I ask. “Mikhoels is dead. It was an automobile accident.” she replied.

I must confess that at that time I didn’t feel anything special. People were perishing every day. During that period I didn’t know who was this famous Yiddish actor, director of the State Jewish Theater and chairman of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, which was very helpful in the fight against Hitler. In my youth there was no place either for the Yiddish theater or for its great actor Solomon Mikhoels. I was very assimilated, like many others of my generation whom the Soviet regime deprived of Jewish education and Jewish identity. Mama and some relatives went for the last farewell.

Before the Bolshevik Revolution Mama had had a “classical” Jewish girl’s education in the cheder of her shtetl and respected everything Jewish. I was brought up as Soviet citizen who studied to be aviation engineer and literally did not know the difference between Mordechai and Haman. As a 15-year-old boy I had something “more important” to do that day. Still today I feel ashamed of this. At the time we still could not imagine what difficult times were beginning for us. Soon rumors began to circulate, each more terrifying than the one before. For example, at the great automobile factory in the name of Stalin in Moscow they said that “a group of saboteurs” had been uncovered, consisting of top engineers, all of whom were Jews. The newspapers wrote about “cosmopolitans” who did not love the Soviet homeland and Russian people and were “kowtowing” before the West. Almost all of the names of such people were Jewish.

There were rumors about closing down the Yiddish Theater… at that time we knew nothing about the arrests, torture, trials and execution of Jewish cultural and public figures. There were hints, rumors and much uncertainty which contributed to our sense of fear of what was to come.

Then came January 1953, when there were announcements about the “murderers in white coats.” Once again the Jews. Anti-Semitic articles appeared in the central newspapers Pravda, Izvestiya, Komsomolskaya Pravda. There were caricatures in Krokodil, with exaggerated Jewish noses and sinister faces. The newspapers printed letters from workers demanding that the “Zionist agents” be rooted out and punished. No one knew who these “Zionist agents” were, but the papers explained that American Jewish organizations were recruiting Soviet Jews in order to harm Soviet people. Every Jew was, therefore, suspect. Many Jewish specialists were fired and rumors also circulated about the imminent deportation of Jews from Moscow.

It was said that Jews themselves asked to be sent to distant regions to be saved from the “people’s anger.” As many others I thought that the newspapers could not lie; I hated those “Zionists” who were planning to harm our country. Because of them it would be bad for all Jews! Only one hope remained: our great leader, Comrade Stalin, wouldn’t allow this! He saved us from the fascists and he knows that we love this country. He would determine who were the enemies and saboteurs. And our enemies, not just the Jewish ones, always got what they deserved…                                                                       

[To Read the Full Article Click the Following Link –ed.]         

(Yosef Begun, a CIJR International Board member, spent nine years in a gulag for defending the rights of Soviet Jews)

Ukraine Communities Feel ‘Abandoned’ by World Jewry: Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel, Mar. 13, 2014 —The Jewish communities of Ukraine feel abandoned by world Jewry, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, founder and president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, told The Times of Israel Thursday from Odessa.

Ahead of Referendum, Nothing Is Normal In Crimea: Batya Ungar-Sargon, Tablet, Mar. 14, 2014—On Sunday, Crimeans will vote in a referendum about whether to join the Russian Federation, or remain part of Ukraine.

Purim – the World’s Conscience: Shmuel Rabinowitz, Jerusalem Post, Mar. 16, 2014 —On Purim, we celebrate the miracle of the Jewish nation being saved from a planned genocide approximately 2,300 years ago.
Christians Have Fallen in Love With Queen Esther, Purim’s Jewish Heroine: Rebecca Phillips, Tablet, Mar. 12, 2014 —In Hadassah: One Night With the King, a popular 2004 novelization of the Book of Esther, the queen describes her first night alone with the king of Persia.