Swastika Painted On Statue Of Prominent Jewish Writer In Kyiv

[rpannier]

Vandals have painted large swastikas on a monument of the prominent Jewish author and playwright Sholem Aleichem in Kyiv just days ahead of a summit of regional Jewish leaders in Ukraine.

Worshippers at the Brodskiy Synagogue in central Kyiv found the sculpture in the morning on November 25 vandalized with a large red swastika painted on the body of the monument, which depicts Aleichem standing with a cane in one hand while doffing his hat with the other.

snip

Sholem Aleichem, born as Solomon Naumoych Rabynovych in Ukraine in 1859, wrote his works in Yiddish.

His most known and popular book was a series of short stories about Tevye the Dairyman, a pious Jewish milkman living in Tsarist Russia, upon which the musical Fiddler on the Roof was based.

https://www.rferl.org/a/swastikas-painted-on-prominent-jewish-writer-sholem-aleichem-s-statue-in-kyiv/30291292.html

cross post Jewish Group

[Behind the Aegis]

1. Just a reminder

[Iterate]

2. Please, don't anyone automatically blame Ukrainians.

Ukraine actually has a very low rate of anti-semitism, especially for the region.

Russian propaganda has been pushing the opposite idea, especially since 2013. This would be the simplest thing for them.

[Igel]

3. Ukraine does have anti-Semites.

However, it pays to note that they also have a monument in a public space to a Jewish writer who wrote not in Ukrainian, but in Yiddish.

[Behind the Aegis]

4. What?!

Ukraine has a HIGH rate of anti-Semitism, even for the region. Why would you even introduce the idea that this incident was somehow Russian derived?

[Iterate]

5. Two points. I was refering to this:

Russian Disinformation Distorted Reality in Ukraine. Americans Should Take Note.

As the 2020 U.S. presidential election approaches, pundits in the United States are naturally looking back to 2016 in an effort to predict just what form Russian interference will take this time around—especially after former special counsel Robert Mueller’s testimony on Capitol Hill last month, during which he warned, “They’re doing it as we sit here.” To understand the threat, Americans would do well to look at previous Russian disinformation campaigns. To gain a fuller picture of just what Russian interference could look like in 2020, it is necessary to look back at the Kremlin’s hybrid war in Ukraine

Following the 2014 Euromaidan revolution, which saw Ukraine’s pro-Russian president deposed and the former Soviet republic beginning to tilt toward the West, Russia initiated a concerted effort—consisting of outright military aggression, proxy war, and disinformation—to delegitimize the new government in Kiev.

Branding the post-revolutionary government a “fascist junta,” the Russians took every opportunity to portray it and the Ukrainian state as purveyors of xenophobia, racism, and, especially, anti-Semitism. While the Jewish issue wasn’t one of particular concern to most Russians or Ukrainians, by identifying his enemies as Jew haters, Russian President Vladimir Putin was able to portray Ukrainian leaders as German-style fascists. In the post-Soviet sphere, where the memory of World War II is still a potent political force, this was a savvy, if immoral, move.

...

https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/08/02/russian-disinformation-distorted-reality-in-ukraine-americans-should-take-note-putin-mueller-elections-antisemitism/

The whole article is worthwhile. The end is most pertinent.

My second caution comes from various polls and studies which show a lower than might be expected level of anti-semitism in Ukraine. This one of them:



https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/03/28/most-poles-accept-jews-as-fellow-citizens-and-neighbors-but-a-minority-do-not/

For our newly found political enemies, facts have no truth value, only utility. For the vandal, this was a cheap, five-minute attack that struck at Jews, Ukraine, and the US. I'm just advocating caution in trying to understand what happened.

[Behind the Aegis]

6. Two couterpoints.

First, I doubt anyone here is repeating Russian counterintelligence in regards to anti-Semitism; most don't give a shit, as I have already mentioned.

Second, the graph (article) (Thanks, BTW, hadn't seen it before), is not wholly relevant to Ukraine being anti-Semitic. That is ONE, very particular point. Just because someone voted for Obama, doesn't mean they aren't racist or harbor racist ideas. Just because a group is supportive of marriage equality doesn't mean they are supportive of gay people as gay people. Ukraine, like much of that region is rife with anti-Semitism. I suggest you peruse: https://global100.adl.org/map/eeurope

Finally, the point is the act was meant as a warning to Jews. I really don't care if it was the Russians, Ukrainians, or neo-Nazis, it was anti-Semitic and the target were the Jews, and we are the "victims", not the Ukrainians.