NCSEJ WEEKLY TOP 10 Washington, D.C. October 4, 2019

Zelensky can’t have ‘favorite’ oligarchs By Timothy Ash Post, October 3 https://www.kyivpost.com/article/opinion/op-ed/timothy-ash-zelensky-cant-have-favorite- oligarchs.html?cn-reloaded=1

The National Bank of said there are “no fundamental reasons” for the hryvnia’s recent decline, from roughly 24 to the dollar to close to 25 on Oct. 3. I hate it when central banks come out with this kind of defense. It is a market. There are buyers and sellers. Currencies go where they go.

Ukraine has a current account deficit, the basic balance is still negative, and its recent appreciation has been driven by a weight of hot money inflows, and amid concern around the stalled International Monetary Fund lending program, some of those are now leaving. So the currency weakens, that is fundamental.

It’s good that the NBU is smoothing the outflows, which will help reassure portfolio investors over the longer-term. So they can still manage this, and they are incredibly capable. I have total faith in them on this one – that is unless we see more cock-ups on the PrivatBank and rule of law front by their political masters in the presidency.

But, given the growth story, the hryvnia appreciation had probably gone a bit too far. It’s better for the hryvnia to be a bit weaker. The NBU’s ability to defend the hryvnia is not unlimited, so they want to take the froth off the depreciation but would not want to stand in the way of the trend. I think it is important to get a resolution in terms of the PrivatBank issue and hence the relationship with the IMF. That is out of the NBU hands at this point in time, in the courts and the presidency.

Let’s not beat around the bush. The hryvnia is weakening because of concerns around PrivatBank, which cost the taxpayers $5.5 billion allegedly because of bank fraud, the role of former co-owner, billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky, and what all this means for the relationship with the IMF. Investors are nervous. So far President and Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk have fallen well short in terms of their re-assurance.

Now are concerns over PrivatBank, Kolomoisky and the relationship with the IMF “fundamental” reasons? I tend to think they are. This is pretty fundamental in my mind to the Ukraine story. It needs sorting or I think we will see more portfolio outflows, more pressure on the hryvnia, loss of reserves, and less scope for the NBU to cut policy rates to stimulate the economy and get growth going. The NBU might have to hike policy rates, if this all is not resolved.

Zelensky and Honcharuk need to wake up to the risks posed by the PrivatVank issue to macroeconomic financial stability.

Just to recap, never has a Ukrainian leader had such a wonderful opportunity to bring positive transformational change to Ukraine. If he cocks up, he will have to bear that cross for a very long time. Unforgivable, in my mind, if he cannot get all this, and understand that he needs to put proper distance between himself and all oligarchs. He cannot have “favorite” or “Special K” oligarchs.

Will Ukraine make a deal with Kolomoisky? Three things to watch By Oksana Bedratenko Atlantic Council, October 2 https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/will-ukraine-make-a-deal-with-kolomoisky-three- things-to-watch/

The IMF mission left Kyiv last week empty handed. Most had expected it to finalize a $6 billion program. This week Oleksandr Danylyuk, the reformed-minded head of the National Security and Defense Council, resigned. The two events are tied together by oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky. Danylyuk pointed to an increased risk that the nationalization of Ukraine’s largest bank PrivatBank will be reversed. In December 2016, the state took Kolomoisky’s bank, after a $5.5 billion hole was revealed. Kolomoisky’s increased influence is also a concern for the IMF. In a tweet, Ukraine’s central bank governor said IMF talks will resume this month in Washington and will center around “ending the pressure on reformers and preserving financial stability.” (The governor is referring to recent attacks on previous governor Valeria Gontareva who nationalized Kolomoisky’s bank.) Smolii also mentioned “court cases in Ukraine and beyond” in an apparent reference to PrivatBank cases, where important developments are expected this month. The no-news IMF visit and Danylyuk’s resignation shocked Ukraine’s eurobond market, putting pressure on the local currency exchange rate and gave a lot of investors indigestion.

It’s difficult to find a more controversial figure in Ukraine than Kolomoisky. A ruthless businessman during the 90s who is often blamed for raider attacks and hijacking companies, Kolomoisky underwent a radical and patriotic remake in 2014. In response to the call from then head of administration for influential people in eastern Ukraine to assist the country at a moment of crisis, Kolomoisky stepped up and became the governor of Dnipropetrovsk oblast. A person connected to him headed Odesa oblast. They were able to mobilize resources, consolidate public support for Ukraine, and provide help to the military, thereby playing a huge role in thwarting Putin’s Novorossiya project.

Kolomoisky fell out with the former president and his bank was nationalized at the end of 2016. He went abroad, living in Switzerland and Israel.

Herbst joins NPR to discuss why Ukraine is strategically important to America’s foreign policy By John E. Herbst Atlantic Council, September 30 https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/insight-impact/in-the-news/top-coverage/herbst-joins-npr-to-discuss- why-ukraine-is-strategically-important-to-americas-foreign-policy/

“We have a vital interest in stopping Putin, and the place to do it is Ukraine, where the Ukrainians are fighting. All we need to do is maintain and strengthen sanctions on the Kremlin and provide military assistance and economic assistance to Ukraine.”

Ukraine, Georgia, Baltic States form PACE alliance against Russia By Jack Laurenson Kyiv Post, October 2 https://www.kyivpost.com/world/ukraine-georgia-baltic-states-form-pace-alliance-against- russia.html

The delegations of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine and Georgia to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) announced on Oct. 2 that they had formed a bloc at the Council in opposition to Russia’s unconditional return to the Assembly.

The five delegations are from countries that are affected by Russian aggression, occupation or interference in one way or another. They stated that they would continue opposing the reinstatement of the Russian delegation’s voting rights at the Council.

PACE, located in Strasbourg, France, is separate from the European Union but acts as the main human rights watchdog for its 28 members, and 19 more countries that are close to the EU.

Delegates from the Baltic states, plus Ukraine and Georgia, also announced their intention to stage a boycott of celebrations that are currently taking place for the 70th anniversary of the formation of PACE.

Russian diplomats were granted unconditional readmission to PACE on June 25. This sparked a walkout by the five nations — as well as Slovakia and Poland at the time — that have now formed the bloc in opposition to Russia called Baltic+. British delegates have also attended meetings with the new Baltic+ group, including at its formation in Riga, Latvia, and they have reiterated their support for the five countries.

In June, PACE delegates overwhelmingly voted – 118 in favor, 62 against and with 10 abstentions – to unconditionally restore Russia’s voting rights. Moscow had been sanctioned by PACE five years ago, losing its voice in the Assembly after its illegal invasion and occupation of Ukrainian Crimea. Since then, it has continued waging war against Ukraine, claiming 13,000 lives in the process.

On June 25, Ukrainian lawmakers and diplomats called Russia’s return a “moral capitulation” and said it had discredited the Council, which oversees the European Court of Human Rights and enforces the European Convention on Human Rights.

Blame for Russia’s unconditional readmission to PACE largely fell on Germany, France, Italy and Spain whose delegations overwhelmingly backed the Kremlin delegation in returning to the Assembly.

“The unconditional return of Russia to PACE undermines the credibility of the organization, and therefore, dissenting national delegations have the right to protest,” said Lisa Yasko, the new head of the Ukrainian delegation to PACE on Oct. 1, as reported by Ukrinform. “That’s why we created this group.”

PACE has become a key battleground for European countries affected by Russian aggression or interference, but the Council has also faced allegations of abandoning its principles and losing its moral authority for allowing Russia’s return.

U.K. lawmakers and diplomats were vocal in their support for the Baltic+ countries: “I strongly welcome this grouping of countries, all of which escaped the authoritarian dictatorship of the and are now independent and free,” said John Whittingdale, a British lawmaker who chairs the parliamentary committee on Ukraine.

“They are on the front line in the hybrid warfare being waged by Russia and I hope that the U.K. will stand alongside them in opposing Russian aggression. As a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE I also hope that a similar initiative can be organized there,” Whittingdale added.

Roger Gale, a veteran member of the U.K. parliament who leads the 18-member British delegation to PACE, told the Kyiv Post that his team were active behind the scenes in support of the Baltic+ countries, and that he had joined the new group as an associate member.

“Our friends within the Baltic Plus Group should be in no doubt of our continued and staunch support… for a full and fair resolution to the many issues generated by the behavior of Russia,” he said, adding that the U.K. delegation had secured another PACE debate about Russia on Oct. 3. “I respect and understand the position taken by the signatories of the (Baltic+) letter but… we believe that we have to fight this battle… from within, rather than leaving the field open,” Gale added, in reference to talk of further boycotts and walkouts at PACE.

Albania’s endangered Jewish museum celebrates ‘rebirth’ By AFP Times of Israel, September 29 https://www.timesofisrael.com/albanias-endangered-jewish-museum-celebrates-rebirth/

Solomon Museum, which recounts how Muslim and Christian Albanians sheltered hundreds of Jews during the Holocaust, reopens thanks to generosity of businessman BERAT, Albania — The sole Jewish history museum in Albania reopened in the southern city of Berat on Sunday, thanks to a businessman who rescued it from the brink of closure.

The small “Solomon Museum,” which tells the story of how Muslim and Christian Albanians sheltered hundreds of Jews during the Holocaust, was the passion project of a local professor, Simon Vrusho.

Vrusho opened the museum in 2018 and funded it with small donations left in a box by the door — and his own pension.

When the 75-year-old died in February of this year, the future of the exhibit was thrown into limbo. After reading an AFP report about its uncertain fate, French-Albanian businessman Gazmend Toska decided to finance the museum and move it to a larger site in the city, where scores of people gathered Sunday for its opening.

“It was deeply moving to see the response to AFP’s coverage of this museum,” Gazmend Toska told a crowd at the ceremony. France’s ambassador to Albania, Christina Vasak, praised “a beautiful story of rebirth” for the museum that rewards Vrusho’s dedication.

Vrusho, himself an Orthodox Christian, spent years collecting documents, photos and memories bearing witness to a Jewish community that first arrived in Berat in the 16th century from Spain.

At the heart of the exhibit are stories of Muslim and Christian Albanians who hid Jews in their homes during the Holocaust — a chapter of history that has only recently become more widely known. Thanks to their quiet acts of bravery, the Balkan state is the only Nazi-occupied territory whose Jewish population increased during World War II, from several hundred before the conflict to more than 2,000 afterwards.

The history is a growing source of pride in Albania, where the government holds annual events on Holocaust Remembrance Day and devotes an exhibit to the history in Tirana’s national museum.

But Vrusho’s museum was the only standalone center dedicated to the sweep of Jewish history in that corner of Southeastern Europe.

This museum is “a tree of memory watered with the love of all those who have contributed to its survival,” said Vrusho’s widow Angjlina, 65, who will be the museum’s director.

At the ceremony, historian Yzedim Hima said the modest museum has a special message to convey: “not the atrocities of a war, but people’s love for other people.”

‘HOLOCAUST BY BULLETS’ TO BE MEMORIALIZED IN EASTERN EUROPE By Heddy Breuer Abramowitz The Jerusalem Post, October 2 https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Holocaust-by-bullets-to-be-memorialized-in-Eastern-Europe- 603452

Upon the 78th anniversary of Babi Yar: It was a poet’s pen rather than a soldier’s bayonet that first punctured the Iron Curtain.

Yevgeny Yevtushenko, a gentile, was 28 when he wrote and published his 1961 poem Babi Yar. It rattled many and, most importantly, brought into the public discourse a hushed-up massacre considered to be the largest to have taken place in a single location in the history of World War II at that time.

When a human atrocity takes place in your figurative backyard, it is hard – if not impossible – to let go of that memory. The events which took place at Babi Yar were first obliterated physically, with cremation pyres manned by adjacent concentration camp prisoners – Jews and non-Jews – followed by other attempts to hide and disguise the site, including construction there during the Soviet era.

Yevtushenko was acquainted with the Russian-language writer Anatoly Kuznetsov, who would later write Babi Yar: A Document in the Form of a Novel, and Yevtushenko asked him to take him to the site. Yevtushenko recalled to the BBC World Service on the 70th anniversary of the massacre: “What I saw was absolutely terrible – there were lots of trucks and they were unloading stinking garbage on the tens of thousands of people who were killed. I did not expect that.” He went back to his hotel and wrote the poem in under five hours.

Babi Yar – ‘grandmother’s gully’ in Ukrainian – is, surprisingly, not a remote location. It is a natural ravine in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, then the city’s outskirts near the medieval monastery of St. Cyril.

The Babi Yar atrocities followed Germany’s surprise invasion of its ally, the Soviet Union, in June 1941. Some 160,000 Jews resided in Kiev, comprising around 20% of the city’s population. German forces entered Kiev on September 19, 1941.

DURING THE first week of the German occupation, on September 24, two major explosions occurred, thought to be set off by Soviet military engineers, blasting the German headquarters. The sabotage was deemed by the Nazi commandant to be the responsibility of the Jews, and this became the pretext for retribution to murder the remaining Jews of Kiev. It also roused enormous animosity on the part of Ukrainians towards their Jewish neighbors.

According to Yad Vashem, there were still about 60,000-70,000 Jews living in the city, mostly those who could not flee: women, children, the elderly and the sick. Within seven days of entering the city, the Nazis published notices ordering the Jews to assemble, ostensibly packed for travel to a resettlement site. Rumors flew through the city; Kiev was crowded, they would be moved to a more rural place; or, some thought, they were being sent to Palestine. They were to bring warm clothing, cash, valuables and documents; their homes were to be secured.

On September 29, Jews were directed to the city’s outskirts, where they were efficiently forced to hand over their possessions at designated stations, one type at a time: first luggage, then coats, followed by shoes, outerwear and also underwear, each item separately, with another spot for valuables. The hesitant or resistant were beaten by Ukrainian helpers. Once naked, they were lead into the deep ravine where they were ordered to lay on top of the just-killed Jewish bodies. A marksman walking across the dead with a submachine gun would shoot each newly arrived Jew, adding another layer to the pile. This is how a truck driver named Hofer described it, as related by historian Michael Berenbaum in his 1997 book, Witness to the Holocaust.

In a letter dated May 17, 1965, Kuznetsov wrote to Israeli journalist and translator Shlomo Even- Shoshan, describing what he saw through his 14-year-old eyes: “They published an order for all the Jews in the city to gather in the vicinity of the freight yard with their belongings and valuables. Then they surrounded them and began shooting them. Countless Russians, Ukrainians and other people, who had come to see their relatives and friends ‘off to the train,’ died in the swarm. They didn’t shoot children but buried them alive, and didn’t finish off the wounded. The fresh earth over the mass graves was alive with movement.” Kuznetsov defected to England in 1969.

Dr. Arkadi Zeltser, director of the Moshe Mirilashvili Center for Research of the Holocaust in the Soviet Union: International Institute for Holocaust Research, says there were slight arbitrary variations in methodology that took place in these massacres across Eastern Europe. He points out that, like the one in Kiev, they occurred in the populated areas where Jews lived, not in remote areas. “The neighbors saw what happened; the knowledge of what occurred was high,” he confirmed.

By nightfall of the 30th of September, some 33,771 Jews had been shot and killed at Babi Yar. That evening was the 9th of the Hebrew month of Tishrei: Kol Nidre night of Yom Kippur.

The Nazis would choose significant dates for their actions, though they were unlikely aware of the significance from a Jewish religious perspective.

THE JEWS of Kiev, assigned blame for sabotage, were placed in the classic position of scapegoats – defined as those who bear the blame for others, and the object of irrational hostility.

The primary usage of scapegoat is recalled in the Talmudic story of ancient Judaism’s ceremony on Yom Kippur, performed by the High Priest in preparation for his annual entry into the Holy of Holies. After ritually confessing the sins of the people of Israel, he would take a pair of goats and, by lots, designate them: one to be sacrificed to God in the Temple, the other – the Azazel scapegoat – to have the people’s sins symbolically placed on its head. It would “take their sins” out to the wilderness as a symbol of relieving the people of their burdens. The unfortunate goat was thrown off of a high cliff to its death.

Perhaps this was a mystical divine message to be gleaned as a foil to the added layer of sadistic timing for the massacre. The shootings continued and subsequently included more Jews, who were turned in or tracked down, as well as other enemies of the Nazis, who were added to the ravine of corpses over two years: Soviet POWs, partisans, resistance members, communists, Roma-gypsies and – in a turn- around – 600 Ukrainian nationalists, until the pits of Babi Yar were estimated to contain 70,000 to 100,000 corpses, according to Yad Vashem.

Kiev was liberated by the Red Army on November 6, 1943.

Zeltser says that, “it is impossible to be precise about the numbers, since the Nazis tried to cover their crimes by cremating the corpses, and other factors.”

He adds that he doubts any special significance to the timing of the massacre, since it extended to September 30. It was only due to technical reasons that the Nazis were prevented from completing the task in one day. “Nonetheless, there is a strong association between Yom Kippur and Babi Yar in the collective memory of the Jews,” he says. Soviet Jews, many of whom had relatives who were murdered in Babi Yar, gathered there in the hundreds for the first yahrzeit in 1944 – while the war was still being fought. The tradition to do so continued over the years.

THOUGH YEVTUSHENKO’S Babi Yar poem was the best known, there were other writers and authors who wrote about the massacre. Early literature included a long poem by Ilya Selvinsky, a Jewish-Soviet writer who penned I Saw It! She didn’t mention Babi Yar outright, but it was widely understood as the subject. Due to Soviet oppression, early writings could only obliquely describe the events in coded language.

Possibly the earliest known poem called Babi Yar was written the same year it happened by an eye witness, Liudmila Titova, a Ukrainian poet from Kiev. That poem, written at age 17, was discovered in the 1990s. She continued to write sporadically on a minor level and, according to Zeltser, she disappeared into literary obscurity.

Soviet-Ukrainian writer Mykola Bazhan penned a poem called Babi Yar in 1943, explicitly depicting the massacres in the ravine. He was a highly prominent and decorated public figure in the Soviet Union. Bazhan was nominated for the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature, but was forced by the Communists to decline his candidacy.

A number of other poems on Babi Yar were written in Ukrainian, Russian and Yiddish.

The massacre was officially suppressed by Soviet ideology, which would not permit distinguishing the Jewish nature of the persecution and deaths from others who fell in the war, but saw them all as Soviets who had died in The Great Patriotic War. Nor would Soviet policy allow any implication of the Ukrainians or local police in the events.

The tragedy at Babi Yar became a symbol of anti-Jewish policy by the Nazi regime and the extermination of the Ukrainian Jews – but more widely, it was a symbol for all Soviet Jews who lived under the oppressive regime.

After became premier of the Soviet Union following the extreme Stalin years, there was a “thawing” of attitudes regarding some freedoms. Natan Sharansky, a refusenik, human rights activist and former chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, recalls that intellectuals were “testing” the limits of freedom, to see just where the new boundaries lay. It was during this time that Yetvtushenko’s poem was published. Sharansky observed: “How could he have dared? Khrushchev pushed back. After a few short weeks, the window on free speech to discuss Babi Yar was again shut. After that, talking about Babi Yar went back underground.”

Sharansky, born in 1948 in Donetsk (then called Stalino), Ukraine, recalls his childhood as “living in the killing fields of the Holocaust. We played in areas where horrors took place. There was a 363-meter-deep coal mine filled with the bodies of 75,000 Jews. And we couldn’t talk about it.” He says, “The Soviet Union erased the truth of the historical memory of the Shoah – as if we were underground.” His personal family losses in those years were largely in Odessa and Donetsk.

Yevtushenko’s poem clearly identified the overwhelmingly Jewish victims as being doubly victimized: by the Nazis and by the Soviet government. His poem came to the fore at the height of the Cold War and in the middle of the short Camelot years of the Kennedy presidency. He was wildly popular as a poetry reader, filling huge halls with audiences.

In the 1960s, small groups of Jewish activists began gathering without permission at the ravine site to keep the memory of the atrocity alive.

What confirmed and widened the awareness of Yevtushenko and Babi Yar was the request from Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich to put his poem to music, composing his 13th Symphony in 1962 as a commemoration to Babi Yar.

Yevtushenko credits this with being the second punch to officialdom. This act built such wide recognition of the Babi Yar atrocity that it forced the Ukrainian party bureaucracy to build a memorial. He “was the moral architect of this memorial,” he said to the BBC. In 1976, a memorial commemorating all victims of the Nazi regime at Babi Yar was erected, without making specific mention of Jewish victims. The central figure of the monument is a Soviet soldier.

It was only after the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991, that the Ukrainian government permitted the erection of a memorial at Babi Yar recognizing Jewish victims. It was built in the shape of a menorah, fifty years after the massacre.

ABOUT THREE-AND-A-HALF years ago, at the time of the 75th anniversary of Babi Yar, Sharansky was approached by prominent figures in the Jewish world, who met with him at his Jewish Agency office in Jerusalem. They sought his support to build an international team to devise a comprehensive plan to achieve a memorial center at Babi Yar, which would combine commemoration, education and also be a research center. With the backing of Kiev’s mayor Vitali Klitschko and other well-known figures, Sharansky agreed to take on the role of chairman of the Supervisory Board for the commemoration of a Babi Yar memorial.

This group took on overcoming multi-pronged obstacles to achieve their goal. They first needed a consortium of political support on an international level; financial backing from both public and private sources; the search for an appropriate real estate property to house the center; the agreement of rabbinical figures as to religious questions regarding permissible locations to construct such a site; an architectural plan on an international standard; and consensus as to what the content of the future museum might be.

This led to creating the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center foundation to address all of these significant elements. Sharansky said that no small part of the task would be dialog with the Ukrainian public. He said that he went to the Ukrainian Parliament to respond to questions as to what was planned for the museum. The foundation built a coalition of university heads to assess how the history would be written, facing the competing narratives straight on.

An international conference is planned for May 2020 in Tel Aviv, with speakers expected to discuss many aspects of the planned center.

In an international competition, BYHMC recently selected the Austrian architectural firm Querkraft Architekten to design and build the new center. The firm won the blind submission competition, which originally received 165 applications submitted from 36 countries. Sharansky looks forward to restoring the collective memory of what he calls “the Holocaust by bullets which very nearly disappeared.” He said that, “it is important for the future. There is nothing to hide and we must speak the truth. The subject of Ukrainian helpers is still hard to talk about. Why did it happen? This is a big step for the Ukrainian people… this will be the first such memorial and, more importantly, [the first] Holocaust education center in Eastern Europe.”

Looking intensely through his pale blue eyes, he concluded: “This will return the historical memory of the Jewish people – and also give a chance for Ukraine to join the community of nations with respect.”

AMERICAN JEWISH ORGS, PRAISING ROMANIA FOR PART IN COMBATING ANTISEMITISM By Corneliu- Aurelian Colceriu/Agepres/ TNS The Jerusalem Post, September 29 https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/American-Jewish-orgs-praising-Romania-for-part-in- combating-antisemitism-603265

"All the representatives for the organizations in attendance voiced their commendation of the friendship with Romania, of the partnership between Romania and the State of Israel." BUCHAREST - Romania's Foreign Minister Ramona Manescu, had a series of meetings in the US with the main American Jewish organisations, where their leaders commended Romania for the leading part it has taken up in the fight against antisemitism Romania, according to a press statement released by Romania's Foreign Ministry (MAE).

According to MAE, attending the meeting at the Permanent Mission of Romania to the UN on Friday were leaders of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), B'nai B'rith, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jews (NCSEJ), Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and the World Jewish Restitution Organization.

"All the representatives for the organizations in attendance voiced their commendation of the friendship with Romania, of the partnership between Romania and the State of Israel, and especially of the leading part in the combat against antisemitism that Romania has taken up and successfully played. Romania's efforts in support of the Jewish community, including for legislation matters, its contribution to a working definition of antisemitism being adopted, as well as Romania's support for Israel at key moments, are well known and have led to a very close relationship between the two parties."

The discussion is said to have been open and substantive, with political issues, such as the situation in the Middle East, including developments in relation to Iran, especially after the United States left the JCPOA, declaring Hezbollah in its entirety a terrorist organization, the combat against antisemitism, as well as measures to compensate Holocaust survivors and restore property featuring on the agenda.

MAE added that Foreign Minister Ramona Manescu responded to the topics raised by the interlocutors and introduced them to Romania's priorities. The parties agreed to continue their dialogue and mutual support on issues of shared interest.

Slovenia: complex of Ljubljana’s synagogue, Jewish museum & culture center closes indefinitely due to dangerous condition of building Posted in: Cultural institutions (general), Damage / Threats / Vandalism, Mikvehs / other buildings, Museums, Synagogues Jewish Heritage Europe, October 1 https://jewish-heritage-europe.eu/2019/10/01/slovenia-ljubljana/?fbclid=IwAR1- yfnzuNw8c4Q5bKfCerKhHIBSKNVqbWksZOpV64ZGQXSKJelxMTSMEzI

The Jewish museum, cultural center, and synagogue in Ljubljana is being forced to close indefinitely because of the perilous state of the building hosting the complex.

An announcement on the center’s Facebook page just before Rosh HaShana by the Center’s director, Robert Walti, said the facilities “will close immediately after the celebration of Yom Kippur on October 10, when the urgent restoration of the roof and façade will start.”

It said the complex — which includes the only functioning synagogue in Slovenia — will be closed “for a certain period of time and all ongoing activities are to be discontinued.” This was due to the “potential hazards” derived from the “dilapidated building (particularly the roof and windows).”

Walti said funds needed for the full renovation could total €1 million, and so far only enough funding to cover the urgent work on the roof and windows had been obtained. Because of this, he said, it was impossible to say when the center would reopen.

The Center was opened in 2013 in an old building located in (or near) the part of the picturesque historic center of Ljubljana believed to have been the Jewish quarter. It includes a library and museum, as well as the tiny synagogue, which has been active there for four years. Rabbi Ariel Haddad, commutes from the nearby Italian city of Trieste, for the holidays and sometimes Shabbat.

Its activities focus on culture, education, and commemoration, including promoting awareness and education about the Holocaust.

Walti has been active in promoting the placing of stolpersteine — stumbling stones — monuments shaped like brass cobblestones set in the pavement outside the homes of people who were deported.

On September 18, 21 stolpersteines were placed in Ljubljana (after 23 were placed last year) and stolpersteines were placed in the towns of Lendava and Murska Sobota commemorating 11 people in each town.

Ljubljana had a thriving Jewish community in medieval times, but the Jews were expelled in 1515, and after that few Jews have ever settled in the city; a small number returned in the 19th century, but the community never reached any appreciable size.

Two narrow streets still bear names that recall the medieval Jewish quarter — Židovska Ulica (Jewish Street) and Židovska Steza (Jewish Path). The medieval synagogue is believed to have been located at #4 Židovska Steza, but the site is occupied by a later building and nothing remains visible of the original structure.

Explainer: What Is The Steinmeier Formula -- And Did Zelenskiy Just Capitulate To Moscow? By Christopher Miller Radio Free Europe, October 2 https://www.rferl.org/a/what-is-the-steinmeier-formula-and-did-zelenskiy-just-capitulate-to-moscow- /30195593.html

KYIV -- In the United States, Ukraine is in the spotlight over what some call "Ukrainegate" -- the developments that have led to an impeachment probe involving a phone conversation between the presidents of the two countries in July. In Kyiv, there's been a bigger buzz about a different catchphrase -- the Steinmeier Formula.

That term has been splashed across front pages, led television news programs, and been debated at hipster cafes and family dinner tables since early September. That's when it emerged that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was seriously considering supporting it -- the Steinmeier Formula, that is -- as a potential way to reinvigorate negotiations with Russia over the war that has killed more than 13,000 people in eastern Ukraine since 2014.

Late on October 1, Zelenskiy called an urgent press conference -- only the second one he has held since his inauguration in May -- to say that he had taken the controversial step of officially signing up Ukraine to the Steinmeier Formula.

Here's what you need to know about the move and its implications.

What Even Is The Steinmeier Formula?

Ukraine and Russia, overseen by France, Germany and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), signed two agreements in the Belarusian capital, Minsk -- in September 2014 and February 2015 -- to establish a cease-fire and a road map to a lasting peace in eastern Ukraine, where Kyiv's forces are fighting the Russia-backed separatists who hold parts of two provinces in what is known as the Donbas.

Those pacts are known as the Minsk agreements, and they include such steps as the pullback of forces and military equipment by both sides, Kyiv granting amnesty to combatants who have not committed grave crimes; and Ukraine holding local elections and granting special status to the areas now held by separatists. They also include the withdrawal of "all foreign armed formations, military equipment, as well as mercenaries" from Ukrainian territory and the restoration of Kyiv's control over its border with Russia in that area, across which ample evidence shows that Moscow has sent troops and weapons during the continuing conflict.

While the Minsk agreements have helped to deescalate the fighting, they have not stopped it. One reason is that deals were hammered out quickly during hot phases of the war and were vaguely worded, allowing each signatory to interpret details -- such as the sequence of steps toward peace -- in its own way.

Enter Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

In 2016, looking for a way to break the deadlock, Steinmeier -- then Germany's foreign minister, now its president -- proposed a slimmer, simplified version of the Minsk agreements. Basically, it was a way to get Ukraine and Russia to agree on the sequence of events outlined in Minsk.

Specifically, Steinmeier's formula calls for elections to be held in the separatist-held territories under Ukrainian legislation and the supervision of the OSCE. If the OSCE judges the balloting to be free and fair, then a special self-governing status for the territories will be initiated and Ukraine will be returned control of its easternmost border.

The formula was vocalized and had not been put to paper until it was signed on October 1 by representatives of Ukraine, Russia, the separatist territories of Luhansk and Donetsk, and the OSCE in Minsk.

What Did Zelenskiy Say About It?

Acknowledging that the Steinmeier Formula had become a highly charged issue for the Ukrainian public, Zelenskiy said he wanted to clarify what it meant.

Yes, he said, by signing on, Ukraine agreed to hold local elections in the Donbas -- but only under Ukrainian law, and only after Russian forces are withdrawn and Ukraine regains control of the state border -- wording that suggests there may still be ample room for disagreement on the sequence of steps each side must take.

"There won't be any elections under the barrel of a gun," Zelenskiy said, apparently trying to bat away assertions that he had conceded to Russia's demands. "There won't be any elections there if the troops are still there."

He said a new law on special self-governing status for the Donbas would be addressed by parliament soon and that the language included in it would not cross any "red lines," adding that "there will be no capitulation."

Zelenskiy said that mutual agreement to the Steinmeier Formula meant that "the final obstacles" to a proposed and highly anticipated summit bringing him together with Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and French President Emmanuel Macron that is seen as a potential key step to peace "have been eliminated." He said a date for the summit, which would be his first meeting with Putin, could be announced soon.

Is Moscow On Board? Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on October 2 that Kyiv's approval of the Steinmeier Formula was a "positive" development, adding, "There is no doubt that this is an important step toward implementing the earlier agreements."

"Hopefully, the implementation of the Minsk agreements will continue, since this is the only way to resolve the Ukrainian conflict in the country's east," he added. Russia has repeatedly drawn criticism from Kyiv and the West for referring to the war, which Ukraine and NATO say Moscow helped ignite and has stoked by sending active military and financial support for the separatists, as an internal Ukrainian conflict.

Moscow's approval was no surprise, as it has long seemed to see the Steinmeier Formula as more beneficial to Russia than to Ukraine. What the Kremlin especially likes about it, analysts say, is the outline of local elections in the Donbas followed immediately by the special self-governing status for the region kicking in.

Putin previously declined to meet with Zelenskiy unless Ukraine signed an agreement on holding local elections.

Peskov made no direct comment on Zelenskiy's remarks about the sequence of steps, the withdrawal of Russian forces, and the return of control over the border to Kyiv.

Peace Or Surrender?

Opinions about the Steinmeier Formula have been mixed in Ukraine, and events immediately following Zelenskiy's announcement indicated the issue will continue to be hotly debated, a potential factor in the success or failure of future negotiations to end the war.

Surveys show a vast majority of Ukrainians want to see an end to the war in the Donbas. A big part of the allure of Zelenskiy, a comic actor who entered Ukraine's presidential election campaign with no political experience, was his promise to bring peace.

The public has continued to back him while he has engaged with Putin on the war issue – they have spoken by phone twice -- and he scored a major victory in securing the return last month of 35 Ukrainians who were being held by Russia in its jails and prisons.

But supporting the Steinmeier Formula could be risky for Zelenskiy. A recent poll by the Kyiv- based Rating Group said two-thirds of respondents were unable to rate the Steinmeier Formula, while 23 percent opposed the idea and 18 percent supported it.

Some Ukrainian veterans and opposition political parties, as well as some civil-society groups and Ukrainian ultranationalists, have stood against the Steinmeier Formula or any peace deal that may benefit Russia. On September 17, some of them published an appeal to Zelenskiy that set out "red lines" that they argued must not be crossed in negotiations with Russia on the war.

Many of those critics side with former President , who has suggested even the smallest concession to Russia would mean capitulation.

Poroshenko's former foreign-policy adviser, Kostyantyn Yeliseyev, wrote on Twitter on October 1 that for Ukraine, to sign onto the Steinmeier Formula "is to stop fighting and surrender."

Following Zelenskiy's press conference, a group of far-right nationalists protested his decision with signs that read "no capitulation," some accusing him of treason, and a group of civil-society members gathered on Kyiv's central Independence Square, the Maidan, to decry the move.

'Steinmeier formula' to be put into law on special status for Donbass, says Zelensky TASS, October 1 https://mail.yahoo.com/d/folders/1/messages/AM1g0HEnYnuVXZdRRA57CL8qQ5c

The law is to be approved by the parliament before the year-end after being discussed with the public, the Ukrainian president informed

KIEV, October 1. /TASS/. Ukraine has coordinated the ‘Steinmeier formula’ with the other participants in the negotiations on the Donbass settlement, and now it has to be added to a new law on a special status for the region, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky told a briefing on Tuesday.

"We have replied to a letter from Mr. [Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in- Office Martin] Sajdik, saying that we are coordinating the text of the ‘Steinmeier formula’," he said. "The Steinmeier formula must be implemented into a new law on a special status," he reported.

The law is to be approved by the parliament before the year-end after being discussed with the public, Zelensky added. "We will have a new law, that will be drafted by the parliament in close cooperation with the pubic after a public discussion," the president stressed. "No red lines will be crossed in it, and that is why there will be no capitulation," he pledged.

All members of the Contact Group for the settlement in eastern Ukraine approved the ‘Steinmeier formula’ at the Tuesday’s session, Russian envoy to the group Boris Gryzlov said after the meeting.

"The sides have approved the order of implementing the law on special status for areas in the Donetsk and Lugansk Regions. We have managed to overcome the resistance of the Ukrainian delegation, which stalled the signing of this formula during the previous session of the Contact Group," he said. Sources close to the Minsk talks have told TASS that "all parties signed letters to the OSCE with a notification that each party supported the formula and its implementation." They specified that Ukraine’s envoy to the Contact Group had put his signature.

Steinmeier formula

In late 2015, the then German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier put forward a plan that later became known as the "Steinmeier formula." This roadmap stipulates that a special status be granted to Donbass in accordance with the Minsk deal. In particular, the document envisages that Ukraine’s special law on local self-governance will take effect in certain areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions on a temporary basis on the day of local elections, becoming permanent after the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) issues a report on the vote’s results.

Ukraine conflict: Anger as Zelensky agrees vote deal in east By Jonah Fisher BBC, October 2 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49903996

Hundreds of Ukrainians have protested after President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had backed an agreement that would bring elections to territory controlled by Russian-backed separatists.

Mr Zelensky came to power promising to end the five-year conflict in the east which has left 13,000 people dead.

Any vote would be under international standards and would not be held "under the barrel of a gun", he said.

Nationalists rallied in Kiev with banners demanding "no capitulation".

Large parts of Luhansk and Donetsk, in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, were seized by Russian-backed separatists in 2014 after Russia captured and annexed Ukraine's Crimea region.

Conflict broke out as Ukraine's army tried to recapture rebel-held areas and at least 40,000 people have been wounded. An estimated 1.5 million people have been internally displaced in the past five years. . 'It was a shooting range' - Ukraine's deadliest day

Violence is now at a lower level but Ukrainian military officials say separatists violated an existing ceasefire 13 times on Tuesday by firing on army positions.

What has Ukraine agreed? The proposed vote is part of a plan known as the "Steinmeier formula" to bring special status in the separatist-held east. It aimed to break the impasse over a 2015 peace deal between Ukraine and the Russian-backed separatists and decide who should do what and in what order.

Proposed in 2016 by Germany's then-foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the plan details free and fair elections in the east under Ukrainian law, verification by the OSCE international security organisation, and then self-governing status in return.

Mr Zelensky told a news conference that the elections would be held under Ukraine's constitution, and only when no "troops" remained in the separatist areas. This has been taken to mean Russian troops, although Russia denies that its soldiers are present in the east.

A gamble for Ukraine's president

President Zelensky made bringing peace to eastern Ukraine his number one election promise. And he's certainly trying.

Last month there was a significant prisoner swap with Russia and now the former comedian has publicly agreed to the Steinmeier formula. That should pave the way for talks with Russia, Germany and France in what's known as the Normandy Format.

The most sensitive aspect of the Steinmeier formula is that it allows local elections to take place in the occupied parts of Ukraine before Russian-backed forces have withdrawn, and Kiev has control of the border.

Though elections in Donetsk and Luhansk would be monitored by observers from the OSCE and would in theory be under Ukrainian law, it's hard to see how they would be fairly contested.

Most people with strongly pro-Ukrainian views have long ago left the occupied areas for their own safety. So it seems almost inevitable that the elections would consolidate the position of the Russia-aligned leaders who are currently in place, granting them the recognition Moscow has long craved.

With Ukraine having allowed the election to go ahead, and then granting the region's special status, it would then be up to Russia to honour its part of the deal, withdraw its weapons and hand over control of the Ukrainian side of the common border.

It's not hard to see why President Zelensky's critics see this as a major concession, if not a capitulation.

What reaction has there been?

Russia has backed the Ukrainian move and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he expected a summit to take place soon. Mr Zelensky's predecessor as president, Petro Poroshenko, was damning of the deal, referring to it as "Putin's formula", while ex-Foreign Minister was dubious about the chances of free and fair elections.

"Society will be demanding answers, and these answers should not be solving the issue of Donbas occupation at Ukraine's expense," he said.

One former Ukrainian negotiator warned it was a "path to war, not to peace", while rock singer Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, who leads the Voice party in Ukraine, called on the president to explain the concessions he was ready to make.