NCSEJ WEEKLY TOP 10 Washington, D.C. June 8, 2018

Estonia celebrates 10 years of first Jewish Community Center since WWII By Tamara Zieve Jerusalem Post, May 27, 2017 https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Estonia-celebrates-10-years-of-first-Jewish-Community-Center-since-WWII-494058

TALLINN – “We will be here forever,” a veteran member of the Estonian capital’s tiny Jewish community told The Jerusalem Post during a celebration of the community center’s 10th anniversary on Thursday.

Estonia was the first country to be declared Juden-Frei (Free from Jews) at Germany’s Wannsee Conference 75 years ago. Though thousands returned after the Holocaust, Jewish life was stifled by the Soviet regime and saw another drastic decline in its community after the fall of Communism in 1989, when many Jews emigrated.

“In the Soviet Union, we had a corner, a little synagogue, half hidden,” recalls Peisah Kozlovski, 65. He said life before the establishment of Tallinn’s new synagogue was “gloomy.”

“Life started after Estonia became free, and especially with this synagogue,” he remarked. “The community has changed a lot with the arrival of our [Chief] Rabbi [Shmuel Kot], who united all of us and made this life very interesting. We have a lot of friends, we come together – it’s a point of meeting. We go to shul and then to a cafe next door,” he said, smiling.

The community currently numbers some 2,000 – natives alongside Israelis and other immigrants – but its members are confident in its continuity.

“The numbers don’t matter,” Kozlovski said. “We have a lot of children; it will grow.

It will not be big, but still we are forever, like Israel.”

“Estonia is a good place for the Jewish people,” agreed Eric Kachkovsky, 30. “We don’t feel any antisemitism and we feel treated very warmly.”

Russian native Aaron Raihshtein recalled the synagogue’s early days when it was only possible to convene a minyan once a week. Now they have one every day. He describes Jewish life in the city as “blooming,” and his fiancée, Ester Volskii, discussed her plans to open the first kosher grocery store there.

Given the size of Estonia’s population, 1.3 million, it’s natural that its minorities are small. Foreign Minister Sven Mikser said: “We are so few that everyone counts.”

“I think the Jewish community is one of most active, both politically and culturally,” he told the Post, adding that he doesn’t see any reason it won’t survive. Though he was unable to attend the celebration as it coincided with the NATO summit, other Estonian and European officials did, including Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid, who delivered a speech inside the beautiful, modern synagogue.

“The story of the synagogue of Tallinn tells us about the fate of the Jewish community,” she told the audience. “Estonia is proud of the fact that the country today has a flourishing and happy Jewish life. The history of the local community, as the history of the country itself, has experienced tragedies and revivals, from the years of the Holocaust, which tell us the tragedy and the difficulty of occupation, to the flourishing recent years of free, democratic and independent Estonia.

Today, the synagogue is a beautiful and a clear indication of the importance of freedom.”

Estonia granted the Jews cultural autonomy in 1926. It was renounced in 1940, and restored in 1993 after Estonia regained independence and passed a law granting minorities the right to preserve their national identities.

“Our two nations shared both the joyous and difficult times in which we lived together and on which we have to speak more clearly. Both nations have had to fight for their existence. I must recall with gratitude those 178 Jewish women and men who participated in the Estonian War of Independence. Both of our nations know what it means to keep your identity and freedom even under the pressure of foreign powers, and we can be proud of their achievements,” the president stated.

Other prominent figures at the event included Estonian Parliament Speaker Eiki Nestor and European Commission Vice President Andrus Ansip.

Social Equality Minister Gila Gamliel and Chief Rabbi David Lau flew in from Israel for the occasion.

In addition to the synagogue, the center includes a school, a kosher restaurant and a Jewish museum. The building was named Beit Bella, after the mother of Jewish businessman and philanthropist Alexander Bronstein, who funded the community center. Boris Oks, chairman of the board of the Jewish community, recalled how the local architects had never seen a synagogue before, so they were sent to Israel to get a feel for Jewish houses of prayer.

The guests toured the center and watched a show put on for them by the schoolchildren.

In honor of Jerusalem Day, the youngsters sang Hebrew songs about Jerusalem, with an impressive command of the language, and enacted a play about the city.

Jewish community chairman Alla Jakobson lauded the Israeli officials for their participation, saying that their presence gave support and strength to the children and community.

“After World War II, Tallinn was the only capital in Europe with no rabbi, and we realized we needed a synagogue,” Jakobson said in a speech to the attendees. “Ten years for Jewish history is nothing – our history is long – but for our community, it is life,” she said.

Referencing a 100th anniversary celebration she attended in Helsinki, she wondered whether her community would be able to celebrate the same milestone. “I hope it will,” she added.

Putin talks World War III and World Cup during annual call-in show The Russian president quoted Albert Einstein at one point, stating: "World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." By Elena Holodny and Francis Whittaker NBC News, June 7, 2018 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/vladimir-putin-host-his-annual-call-show-n880811

MOSCOW — Vladimir Putin, in his annual call-in TV show, warned Thursday that any large-scale global conflict would lead to the "end of civilization."

The Russian president fielded questions from members of the public during the marathon event, which ran for four hours, 26 minutes.

After being asked about whether "nonstop" sanctions could trigger World War III, Putin quoted Albert Einstein: "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

He said that any country's interests should not be protected "through confrontation."

Putin added that those who sought to place sanctions on Russia did so because they perceive the country as a competitor.

"The West sees a threat in Russia in regards to its economic development ... and in regards to its success in foreign affairs policies," Putin said.

He later dismissed allegations of Russian meddling during the 2016 White House election as a "joke."

"One of the very well-known publishers in Germany wrote that President [Donald] Trump is pushing Europe into Putin's hands," he said.

"If you put it together with an earlier joke that Russia had influenced the U.S. election, all in all it sounds quite funny: We have allegedly meddled with the presidential election in the U.S. and Trump as a thank you has presented us with Europe. This is a complete nonsense. One can't call this anything else but a joke."

Other topics raised during this year's "Direct Line with Vladimir Putin" ranged from a recent government reshuffle, taxation, rising gas prices, and infrastructure for soccer's looming World Cup, which Russia is hosting this summer.

He also addressed the recent poisoning of onetime double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury, England. Britain has blamed Russia for the attack, which it alleges involved Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent.

Putin's once again denied that Moscow had any involvement in the incident, adding: "If a military agent would have been used against these people, these people would die on the spot within seconds or minutes. Fortunately that did not happen. That means we are dealing with something different."

Other foreign policy issues addressed by Putin included the conflict in Syria. Despite announcing the start of a withdrawal from Syria in December 2017, Russia is not planning to withdraw its troops from the country any time soon, Putin said.

Referring to Russian military installations in Syria, he added, "They are temporary but we will keep them there while it is necessary and is required by our economic interests."

He also said that Russia's presence in Syria has allowed Moscow's military to test some of its more advanced weaponry. Syria "has helped us to adapt them to the needs of the battlefield," Putin said.

Kremlin-funded broadcaster RT said that at least 2.5 million questions had been submitted as the question-and-answer event entered its fourth hour.

Putin scrapped the usual studio audience this year, and was instead taking video questions via monitors.

He also had direct video links to regional governors and government ministers, who had been told to be at their desks for the 5 a.m. ET start of the program.

While some observers have criticized the annual call-in show as staged, Moscow bills it as an opportunity to hear the concerns of regular Russians.

Elena Holodny reported from Moscow, and Francis Whittaker from London.

UN releases first education guide on fighting anti-Semitism Associated Press, June 4, 2018 https://www.yahoo.com/news/un-releases-first-education-guide-fighting-anti-semitism-114413768.html

PARIS — The United Nations has released its first educational guidelines on fighting anti-Semitism.

UNESCO, the U.N.'s cultural body, launched the publication on Monday in Paris in collaboration with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

The guide, designed for young people, teachers and political leaders, was presented by Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO's director general.

UNESCO said the guide provides tools to strengthen the resilience of young people to anti-Semitic ideas and violent extremism, such as how to respond to anti-Semitic acts and words in school settings.

It also familiarizes educators with anti-Semitic stereotypes and conspiracy theories, as well as strategies to develop students' media skills so they can resist manipulation.

The guide was an initiative started under former UNESCO chief Irina Bokova.

Synagogues become nightclubs in Eastern Europe By Cnaan Liphshiz JTA, June 1, 2018 https://www.jta.org/2018/06/01/news-opinion/world/synagogues-become-nightclubs-eastern-europe

TRNAVA, Slovakia (JTA) — Growing up, Robert Sajtlava remembers playing near what used to be his native city’s Orthodox Synagogue.

A rectangular structure with a deceptively unimpressive facade, its ornate ceiling and interior walls suffered extensive damage from the precipitation leaking through the roof and, occasionally, by trespassers who came through the rickety fence.

“It was a ruin,” said Sajtlava, a 28-year-old catering professional, who is not Jewish.

Since 2016, however, Sajtlava comes to that building every day as the manager of Synagoga Cafe — a chic establishment that a local contractor opened that year inside the space of the former synagogue. The launch followed a complicated and costly renovation project that retained and preserved much of what remained of the 187-year-old structure.

In a recent and controversial development in Eastern Europe, former Jewish houses of worship left abandoned after the Holocaust are being renovated for commercial ends by contractors who capitalize on their Jewish history and incorporate it into a brand.

Critics view the businesses as exploitative cultural appropriation in the wake of a tragedy. Advocates argue it reflects respect and nostalgia for Jews in addition to providing a vehicle for at least some preservation of heritage sites.

The trend is especially visible over the past decade with the commercialization of several former synagogues and houses of worship. In 2013, Krakow’s Chewra Thilim was turned into a nightclub and, in 2016, into the Hevre bar, whose interior design highlights its Jewish past.

In 2012, Warsaw saw the opening of Mykwa Bar, a drinking establishment with a translucent floor over what used to be a mikvah, or ritual bath. It occurs also in Western Europe: A 207-year-old synagogue in the city of Deventer, in the eastern Netherlands, is in the process of becoming a restaurant whose design will reference its previous function, according to the new owners.

At the Synagoga Cafe, yuppie patrons sip pricey cappuccino on tables that are aligned with a platform on which worshippers would climb to open the wooden Torah ark.

Flanked by marble columns that the renovators brought in to replace the ones that were plundered decades ago, the ark towers over the customers, with its reliefs of the tablets of the Ten Commandments in Hebrew and the word Jehovah.

Overhead, what used to be the women’s section is now a second bar, complementing the one near the main entrance and facade, with its Star of David locked within a round window. The renovators did away with the separate entrance that once led upstairs in keeping with Orthodox requirements for separation of the sexes. But they kept the original stone stairs, which now lead up from the main entrance of the cafe, which has a capacity for 80 patrons.

Even the collection box, with the Hebrew word for charity emblazoned over its slot, has remained intact.

Europe had some 17,000 synagogues before World War II, according to groundbreaking research published this year by the London-based Foundation for Jewish Heritage. But the foundation has been able to locate throughout the continent only 3,318 structures that have been known to function as synagogues, and just 762 are used as such today.

Some of the structures mapped by the foundation, especially in former communist countries, have been turned into residential homes — one notable example is the Rusne shul in western Lithuania. Others, like the Krośniewice synagogue in central Poland, became funeral parlors. Poznan in the country’s west even has a swimming pool that used to be a synagogue. In many cases, Jewish communities sold the buildings or received compensation for them. In others, Jewish communities still own the former shuls and are renting them to third parties.

But these conversions differ from projects like the Synagoga Cafe and Mykwa Bar in that hardly any of them feature a conscious effort to commemorate the building’s Jewish past, much less capitalize on it.

As with similar establishments in the region, the scene at Synagoga Cafe draws mixed reactions from Jews.

“It’s certainly a jarring experienced with mixed emotions,” reads a Facebook post by Meir Davidson, an Israeli tourist from the Tel Aviv area who chanced upon the cafe on a Friday evening in February. “I mean, the local Jewish community didn’t just pack up and leave.”

Trnava, a city of 65,000 with so many churches that it is sometimes called “the Rome of Slovakia,” counted a Jewish community of some 3,000 before the Holocaust. Some 2,500 were deported to Auschwitz, leaving a congregation of only 100 by the 1960s.

Even the survivors gradually left, leaving the unused Orthodox Synagogue and the neighboring Status Quo Synagogue, which was reopened in 2016 following renovations and now functions as an art gallery and concert hall with a memorial space.

But the congregants’ tragic fate is not mentioned anywhere at Synagoga Cafe.

Davidson’s Hebrew-language post on Facebook triggered a torrent of indignant reactions.

“Disgraceful,” wrote Shani Luvaton of Jerusalem. “They’d never do it to a church or mosque.” Removing the Jewish motifs would have “actually been less confronting. This mix of espresso and cheese cake and the Torah Ark doesn’t work.” Some noted that Israel and the United States have their fair share of deserted or defunct synagogues that have been turned into something else. The former Ansche Chesed Synagogue on New York’s Lower East Side is now an arts center. The Beth Abraham Synagogue in Auburn, Maine, was sold last year to a developer to be turned into apartments.

But Sara Ben Michael of Haifa objected to the comparison.

“Shocking,” she posted on Facebook. “The Jews didn’t leave this synagogue. They were sent to concentration camps and exterminated.”

The Holocaust’s shadow and the absence of complete and informed acknowledgment of the genocide lie at the heart of resistance to the phenomenon, said Richard Schofield, a British artist based in Lithuania. He will publish a book this year titled “Back to Shul” featuring photographs from nearly 100 former synagogues that he toured last August.

“The murder of the people who used to frequent the shul, the destruction of their centuries-old communities, it creates a different attitude and reality,” he said.

In this context, Schofield said, “it’s hard to keep a rational attitude.” And yet he tends to support projects that result in the preservation of disused and decaying synagogues that otherwise would be destroyed, even if it is done for profit.

Of the 2,556 buildings that used to be synagogues in Europe but no longer function as such, at least a third are in a condition ranging from poor to unsalvageable. Among the functioning synagogues, fewer than 10 percent are in those bad conditions.

Sajtlava, the manager of Synagoga Cafe, argues that the decision to renovate the synagogue and retain parts of its Jewish heritage stem from a sense of commitment.

“Listen, it would have been much easier and cheaper for my boss to find a different nice building, which was not ruined and not listed for preservation like this one was, and open a lovely cafe in it,” he said.

But his employer, Simon Stefunko, instead spent millions of dollars on a renovation that took years to complete, “so something would remain from the Jewish community here. I think it’s beautiful.”

Ghosts of Lithuania’s past brought back by a child’s toy An amendment to consumer law sparks a firestorm over Russian propaganda and the Holocaust. By Joanna Plucinska Politico.eu, June 4, 2018 https://www.politico.eu/article/lithuania-holocaust-ghosts-past-brought-back-by-a-childs-toy/

VILNIUS — Lithuania is embroiled in a spat over freedom of speech, Russian propaganda and the Holocaust — all because of a children’s toy.

The Russian-language toy — called “Polite People” and made by a Moscow firm — lets youngsters paint or assemble military figurines (and, for reasons that aren’t clear, a cat) and stage their own occupation. Its innocuous sounding name is a reference to the supposedly “polite” Russian soldiers who annexed Crimea in 2014.

People across Lithuania are none too pleased with the toy and the Lithuanian government said its presence in shops is an act of aggression.

The government’s response has been to push for changes to consumer laws that would ban retail goods that “distort Lithuanian history.” A parliamentary plenary debate on the planned changes is expected in mid-June but there’s already an impassioned discussion underway about how Lithuania deals with its own history: both the post-war Soviet occupation that ended with independence in 1991 and the role of Lithuanians in the Holocaust during German occupation in World War II.

That has put the government in Vilnius at odds not just with the toy’s Russian manufacturer Zvezda (which didn’t respond to requests for information about how many copies were sold in Lithuania, or why it was marketed there in the first place), but also with historians and the country’s Jewish community.

“Russia has been using ‘soft power’ for a long time to target people’s minds, and in this case toys are the means of shaping people’s point of view,” said Rasa Juknevičienė, a Lithuanian MP and member of the committee of national security and defense, who supports the idea of using legislation to tackle such issues.

The big concern among Lithuania’s Jewish community is that the amended law would target books viewed as unfavorable to the country’s national narrative.

In 1939, the city had about 80,000 Jewish residents (there were about 208,000 Jews in the whole country), according to historian and proclaimed Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff. By the end of the war, there were just 8,000 Jews left in all of Lithuania. That clashes with the narrative that Lithuanian involvement in the Holocaust was limited to a handful of “degenerates.”

It’s an argument echoed across Central and Eastern Europe, with Poland also trying to use legislation to block any narrative that puts blame on Poles.

Lithuanian writer Rūta Vanagaitė presents “Our People” — the book she co-authored with Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff (right) | Petras Malukas/AFP via Getty Images

And it adds to the fear that Russia is manipulating information to make it appear as if Lithuanians were complicit in the Holocaust. “If you accuse somebody of [perpetrating] the Holocaust, you immediately accuse them of being fascist,” said Tomas Ceponis, an analyst at Lithuania’s Ministry of Defense.

One book that could be targeted by any changes to the law is “Our People” by Rūta Vanagaitė, which looks at the role of some Lithuanians — and not just Nazis — in the targeting and killing of members of the country’s Jewish community.

Vanagaitė’s book, published in Lithuania in January 2016 — months before the board game caught the attention of concerned shoppers — argues that Lithuanian citizens, including members of her own family, aided the Nazis in the murder of around 200,000 Lithuanian Jews.

“The reaction was very stormy,” she said of the book, co-written with Zuroff. “Politicians were very much against it because they said the book was inspired by Kremlin propaganda.”

Lithuania’s first post-Soviet head of state, Vytautas Landsbergis, even wrote an op-ed saying Vanagaitė should go to a forest, find a tree and pray for her sins after she said a Lithuanian war hero could have been a KGB collaborator.

“It was a direct invitation for me to hang myself,” Vanagaitė said.

Family of refusenik puts on display the world’s only photos of Soviet gulag life By Yaakov Schwartz Times of Israel, May 30, 2018 https://www.timesofisrael.com/family-of-refusenik-puts-on-display-worlds-only-photos-of-soviet-gulag-life/

For the first half of his life, Holocaust survivor, Red Army veteran, and anti-Soviet dissident Joseph Schneider survived on a cocktail of dumb luck and moxie — a recipe which allowed him to become perhaps the only person to successfully photograph the inner workings of the Soviet gulag system.

Now, Schneider’s secret trove of photos documenting daily life in a Mordovian forced labor camp has been gifted to the National Library of Israel by his family.

Schneider spent four years in the gulag from 1957 through 1961 for the crimes of supporting Zionism and disseminating pro-Israel materials from his photography studio, in Riga, Latvia. In truth, the studio was really a cover for his illicit Jewish nationalist activities.

However, his dexterity with a camera quickly became known among the inmates and was brought to the attention of a guard who had been tasked with documenting day-to-day life in the camp. In exchange for the last two frames of each film roll, Schneider taught the guard some photography basics.

When Schneider was freed, he smuggled out a cache of photographic evidence, hidden in the false bottom of a picture frame. The archive was the likes of which the world has never seen.

“The photos are exceptional. I don’t think there are any other images taken by prisoners in the gulag anywhere in the world — it is unprecedented where you have photos like this that survived,” said Dr. Aviad Stollman, head of collections for the National Library.

“It’s stunning how one person was willing to risk his life to do this. What is unique is that most of the other evidence we have comes in the form of documents and writings. Sometimes it’s not even very exciting – but here, you actually have photographs,” Stollman said.

In addition to the gulag, Schneider documented his grassroots efforts to promote Zionism in Latvia. He also took photos of Jewish historical sites and instances of religious observance throughout the former Soviet Union during the Stalinist era. Then, such activity could mean summary execution.

“Any form of nationalism or religion was basically illegal during Stalin’s times, and the Soviets really suppressed any form of Jewish heritage or even learning Hebrew,” Joseph Schneider’s son, Uri Schneider, told The Times of Israel. “You could get arrested and thrown into the gulag just for having a Hebrew book.”

Schneider was sentenced to five years of hard labor for distributing Zionist propaganda, treason, and possessing illegal weapons, and ended up serving four years in the Mordovian gulag, Uri Schneider said.

Born in Riga in 1927, Schneider fled with his family on the last train headed east before the Nazis occupied Latvia in 1941. Ninety percent of the country’s Jews were killed in the Holocaust, said the younger Schneider.

When Schneider returned to Latvia in 1944 after its liberation by the Soviets, he joined the Red Army, where he served until 1951.

After his release from the army, Schneider began to focus on sniper rifle training, and completed a prestigious sniper course. In 1954, he set the world record for distance shooting, said son Uri.

Under the guise of operating a sports shooting club, Schneider gathered about 70 young Latvian Jews and taught them about weaponry and self-defense, as well as about Zionism. According to Uri Schneider, his father was one of the first Soviet Jews in the early 1950s to apply to emigrate to Israel.

“Of course he was rejected,” Uri Schneider said.

Schneider filled out the paperwork knowing full well that the Jews who had naively done the same in 1948 thinking that Israel’s socialist government made it a natural Soviet ally were imprisoned, and many of them were killed. Schneider would repeat the process — and get denied — 16 times.

He was also involved in plots to hijack a boat from Latvia to Sweden, and to assassinate Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser on an official visit to Moscow in 1957 or 1958, said Uri Schneider.

The elder Schneider would be charged, but not convicted, for these crimes.

Both before and after his prison sentence, Schneider continued to document Zionist activity and Jewish ritual observance in Latvia by way of his camera.

“He really had a sense of how important this was historically,” said Stollman. “To light a Hanukkah menorah, for example, and then to extinguish it, is one thing. But Schneider lit the Hanukkah lights in his window and photographed it, despite the risk that this put him at should the photos be discovered later.”

After he was released from prison, Schneider also violated his travel restrictions to tour around the Soviet Union taking photos of Jewish cemeteries. Schneider traveled to Kiev and Odessa in , what was then-Leningrad (today, St. Petersburg) in Russia, and Latvia, amassing photographic records of the historic sites. Shortly thereafter the cemeteries were violated and destroyed by the Soviets.

After the mass destruction of Jewish gravesites, Schneider came back and photographed the devastation, providing a rare before-and-after glimpse at this facet of Jewish history. Many of the tombs he photographed marked the resting places of notable figures, including Jewish author Sholem Yaakov Abramovich, better known by his pen name, Mendele Mocher Sforim.

Changing tactics after the 1967 Six Day War, the Soviet authorities began to approve exit applications by the Jewish activists who were providing them with the most trouble.

Following the 1968 exit of fellow refusenik and activist Dov Schperling — whom Schneider had met and mentored at the Mordovian gulag — Schneider’s request to move to Israel was finally approved in 1969.

The Soviets thought that effectively kicking out the leadership of the resistance would quiet things down. In fact, it only served to further the movement: Jews streamed to Latvia, thinking that it would be easier to receive an exit visa there, Uri Schneider said.

His father and other refuseniks continued involve themselves in global activism, bringing the plight of Soviet Jews to the forefront of the international stage in the hopes of opening up the Soviet Union’s borders.

“My father’s friend Dov Schperling was very active in convincing [then-Israeli prime minister] Golda Meir that she should do something about Soviet Jewry, because she was reluctant to do it,” said Uri Schneider. “So he went to the United States and gave a series of lectures to American students in the early ‘70s, and a whole movement began in universities of Jewish activists demonstrating with the famous slogan, ‘Let my people go.’”

Memorializing the Iron Generation

Today, Uri Schneider, who was born in Israel in 1977 and speaks fluent English, is a founding member of the Iron Generation — a group of second-generation Soviet Jews whose parents demonstrated remarkable courage in fighting Soviet repression.

Uri Schneider says that the group — which has between 40 and 50 members, mostly in Israel but also in the United States — is dedicated to educating Israelis and people from the former Soviet Union about the heroics performed not long ago by those seeking the sort of freedom that is taken for granted today.

“Today’s generation doesn’t know anything about this — the Russians don’t know about it because they didn’t study this in the Soviet Union for obvious reasons, and then they’re not studying it here [in Israel]. So they don’t know their own recent history, which is quite amazing,” Uri Schneider said.

The younger Schneider spent years combing through and digitizing his father’s vast archive, which included troves of documents in addition to the many photos, following his death in 2006.

Uri Schneider says that he did not initially intend to donate the archive, which contains hundreds of photos, to the National Library of Israel. But, he says, it is probably the best place to house the archive while also using it to educate others.

Head of collections Stollman agrees.

“The National Library is not just amassing information. We are very concerned with how the material that we add to our collections can be used in the education system,” Stollman said. “There are over a million people [in Israel] whose parents or grandparents came from the Soviet Union. Some of them have been through those ordeals, and the fact that they can look at a picture — it means something to them. And so this is also why I think it’s so important from a cultural point of view.”

“This is one of the most interesting struggles in the 20th century,” said Stollman. “How a bunch of people, not very well- organized, were able to fight one of the largest forces in the universe, the great Soviet Union. And some even believe that it led to the Soviet Union’s collapse.”

Ukraine Under Threat From Far-Right Extremism, Report Reveals By Cristina Maza Newsweek, June 6, 2018 http://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-under-threat-far-right-extremism-report-reveals-962062

Ukraine has a growing problem with far-right extremists, a new report revealed Wednesday.

Far-right extremist groups have existed on the margins of society since Ukraine’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. But a new report by Washington, D.C.-based think tank Freedom House suggests that these groups have recently become more active and are hurting the country’s fledgling democracy. Far-right extremists still lack the popular support needed to be a meaningful force in organized politics, but law enforcement officials in Ukraine are allowing them to threaten civil society groups and operate with impunity, according to the report.

“In the last few months, extremist groups have become increasingly active. The most disturbing element of their recent show of force is that so far it has gone fully unpunished by the authorities," according to the report, written by Kiev- based historian and political scientist Vyacheslav Likhachev. "Their activities challenge the legitimacy of the state, undermine its democratic institutions, and discredit the country’s law enforcement agencies.”

Russian propaganda often tries to portray these groups as more influential than they actually are. Information out of Russia often suggests that far-right groups in Ukraine run the government and were responsible for the pro-democracy Maidan movement, which erupted in 2014 and led to the ouster of the pro-Russian former President Viktor Yanukovych.

"Russia's overarching narrative about Ukraine is that the post-Maidan government is fascist. [It's] an extremely resonant narrative in the former Soviet Union, particularly in Putin's Russia, which draws on the Soviet victory against Nazi Germany as a galvanizing factor to fuel propaganda at home," Nina Jankowicz, a Global Fellow at the Wilson Center's Kennan Institute and an expert on Russian disinformation, told Newsweek.

"Far-right groups in Ukraine do exist, as they do in many states in the West, but they do not control the government as Russia asserts. However, Russia still uses their appearances and activities as 'proof' that post-Maidan Ukraine is a failed fascist state," Jankowicz continued.

In reality, some of the far-right groups that operate in Ukraine are supported ideologically by Moscow. One example is the National Squad, a nationalist paramilitary group that has pledged to “restore order” in Ukraine. Members of the group have expressed opposition to Ukraine's adherence to the European Union or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a policy position in line with what Russia wants for the region.

Others include groups like the Azov, the Right Sector, Tradition and Order and the Revolutionary Right Forces, among others, which are estimated to have a membership ranging anywhere from dozens to hundreds of people. Some of these groups express vocal opposition to Moscow, but they target left-wing or pro-LGBT rights groups in the same fashion Russian far-right groups do.

"The only way we have to measure the size and particular impact of the groups is by their public actions, in particular, which groups are most active in using violence or threats of violence to intimidate and shut certain parts of society out of public life. We hear about violence and threats most often by C14, groups associated with the National Corps, Azov, Right Sector, and Karpatska Sich," Matthew Schaaf, a project director for Freedom House in Ukraine, told Newsweek, naming some of the other far-right groups active in the country.

"Overall, we see a breakdown in the law enforcement and protection system on a number or levels, from the very beginning, with a lack of political recognition that the problem of violence is real and demands the authorities' attention, to the work of officials to prevent violence, to the absence of effective responses and investigations by the police when violence occurs, to a judicial system unable to hold those responsible for violence accountable," Schaaf continued.

Writing for Freedom House, Likhachev described how members of these groups have used the patriotism inspired by the 2014 Maidan revolution to promote and legitimize the use of radical and nationalist symbolism and messaging. This threat should be taken seriously, he argued.

“Far-right radicals and extremists at present can claim neither significant parliamentary representation nor any plausible path to power in Ukraine. However, their street activities are having a serious impact on everyday life and societal development in the country," Likhachev wrote. "Particularly worrying is their use of violence in an attempt to restrict the expression of views they consider unacceptable in Ukraine...This danger should be soberly assessed.”

Ukraine’s duty to the heirs of Holocaust survivor Magda Mandel By Josh Cohen Post, June 6, 2018 https://www.kyivpost.com/article/opinion/op-ed/josh-cohen-ukraines-duty-to-the-heirs-of-holocaust-survivor-magda- mandel.html

As Ukraine seeks to surmount its Soviet past and join Europe, it’s time for Kyiv to address an important yet heretofore overlooked issue: Holocaust restitution, returning art stolen by the Nazis from Jews destined for the death camps. An ongoing case in the western city of Uzhhorod illustrates why Kyiv has a moral responsibility to address the issue of stolen Holocaust art – as well as how it might do so.

In 2012, Louis Mandel, a New York native, came to the Transcarpathian Art Museum in Uzhhorod to see in person a portrait of his late cousin Magda Mandel (1912-1975). Magda’s daughter, Martha Shapiro, made this journey a few years earlier, when for the first time she came face-to-face with a colorful 1928 painting depicting a teenage girl, entitled “A Portrait of a Young Artist.” The family now firmly believes that the work – by the Hungarian painter Adalbert Erdelyi – was commissioned by the Mandel family and depicts a smiling and carefree 16-year-old Magda.

In 1944 Magda and her parents were deported to Auschwitz by the Nazi-allied Hungarian government of the time. While Magda’s parents perished, Magda herself survived the war and ended up in America. After the post-war Soviet Union annexed the region, the Transcarpathian Art Museum was established in 1948 and Erdelyi deposited Magda’s portrait with the museum. However, substantial evidence exists that after Mandel’s were deported, Erdelyi retrieved his painting from Hungarian thugs assigned to loot the homes of Jews destined for slaughter in the camps.

Over the course of the last several years, both Magda’s daughter and her cousin Louis have been pushing the Ukrainian government to return the stolen family heirloom. To date, Magda’s family – with the assistance of their lawyers – have reached out to the Uzhhorod museum, Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture, and even Prime Minister . Unfortunately, though, despite overwhelming evidence that the painting belongs to Magda’s family – including historical records and eye-witness affidavits – Ukraine continues to ignore their request to find a solution to the problem.

There’s no evidence that Ukraine’s lack of responsiveness to the Mandels is driven by anti-Semitism, but more simply the familiar post-Soviet bugaboos of inertia combined with officials’ unwillingness to take decisions which they fear may generate criticism later. However understandable this might be, though, it doesn’t justify Ukrainian officials’ unwillingness to address the issue in a “fair and just” fashion. First and foremost, the moral imperative for Ukraine to return Holocaust art to its rightful heirs is self-explanatory. Magda’s martyred parents arranged for Magda’s Portrait and kept it in their home for their family’s enjoyment. It is only suitable that their granddaughter and great-grandchildren may be able to enjoy and cherish it, as one of the few concrete memorials of the mother they adored. As Magda’s cousin Louis wrote in a 2016 letter to Groysman, the painting “is of great sentimental value to my cousin’s daughters and of little use to a museum with a large collection of displayed and stored Erdelyi paintings.” Indeed, this isn’t exactly a case involving a Rembrandt or Monet – the painting itself isn’t worth more than $50,000, but for Magda’s family its value is priceless.

2018 marks 20 years after the signing of the Washington Principles underscoring the need for international cooperation in resolving questions about ownership of Nazi-era looted cultural valuables. Ukraine signed multiple international agreements related to the looting of art in wartime, including the 1998 “Washington Principles,” where signatories promised to take fair and reasonable steps to address stolen Holocaust art. In addition, in 1996 Ukraine actually played host to a major conference on how to handle the restitution of art and other valuables stolen by the Nazis.

It’s not difficult to see how Kyiv and Magda’s family could reach a reasonable compromise on how to deal with the painting. One option is for Magda’s family to simply buy the painting back from the museum – something they have already offered to do, or to offer another artwork in exchange. Another option is for Ukraine to restitute the painting to Magda’s family and then the family could loan it back to the museum for a certain number of years. In exchange, the museum could agree to have a plaque next to the painting that describes its full history, including the story of the Mandel family before, during and after the Holocaust.

More broadly the tug-of-war over Magda’s portrait offers Ukraine the opportunity to more formally address the issue of restitution. Many Western countries have created special commissions that review such Holocaust restitution claims and Kyiv should consider passing a law that creates a Ukrainian version of an impartial Holocaust Restitution Commission. This is not only the right thing to do, but would also provide Ukraine with a great opportunity to differentiate itself from Russia. Since 2004 the Russians have refused to entertain any Holocaust restitution claims, offering Ukraine a clear opportunity to do better, not only to morally distinguish itself but to align its values with those of France, the Netherlands and other Western nations.

Establishing a systematic process and a review commission would help Ukraine too. During World War II, many thousands of Ukrainian works of art were stolen by the Nazis, and have ended up all over the world in both museums and private collections. Given the degree to which Ukraine suffered under the Nazi occupation, the nation certainly has a legal and moral claim to retrieve as much of its stolen art as it can. A Ukrainian Holocaust and Nazi-era Art Restitution Commission could, therefore, be structured so that it addresses both Ukraine’s obligation to return art to the families of Holocaust victims as well as creating a formal structure to seek out and reclaim its own tangible cultural heritage.

The alternative to a compromise on the painting is stark. The attorney for Magda’s family indicated that while the family is committed to finding an equitable settlement that allows the heirs to reclaim ownership of their treasured family heirloom, they are also prepared to file suit against Kyiv in federal court in the U.S. This would – inevitably – result in a spate of negative publicity for Ukraine in the Western media. After suffering a spate of negative publicity – including letters from both 57 US Congressmen and the US Holocaust Museum slamming Ukraine for state-sponsored Holocaust distortion – a highly visible American lawsuit is the last thing Kyiv needs right now.

For the sake of the difficult history and tenets of fairness and justice, Ukrainian officials should rethink their approach to claims similar to those of the Mandel family and consider the benefits of returning the Portrait of Magda to her family.

Josh Cohen is a columnist and contributor to Reuters, Foreign Policy, the Washington Post, Atlantic Council and others.

Ukrainian Lawmakers Dismiss Finance Minister, Pass Anticorruption Court RFE/RL, June 7, 2018 https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-lawmakers-pass-legislation-to-create-anticorruption-court/29278202.html

Ukrainian lawmakers have voted to dismiss Finance Minister after a public spat with the country's prime minister, in a move expected to raise concern among the country's foreign backers.

A total of 254 lawmakers in the 450-seat parliament on June 7 supported a motion submitted by Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman to fire Danylyuk, a respected reformer backed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The Interfax news agency reported that Oksana Markarova, the first deputy finance minister since 2015, had been unanimously approved as acting finance minister.

The moves came soon after the parliament passed a bill on a long-awaited anticorruption court, whose creation is a key condition in order for the IMF to distribute more aid to the country.

Hroysman on June 6 accused Danylyuk of spreading "distorted information amid our international partners."

Meanwhile, Danylyuk alleged that he had been asked to support "political corruption" or to quit.

The two officials have been at odds since Hroysman rejected Danylyuk's candidate for deputy minister in charge of tax policy on May 23. Danylyuk then accused Hroysman of favoring candidates chosen by President Petro Poroshenko's inner circle and wrote a letter describing his grievances to the Group of Seven (G7) leading industrialized countries.

Danylyuk, 42, has been known for his anticorruption measures meant to reform Ukraine's fiscal and customs services.

Earlier on June 7, lawmakers stood up and applauded in the after a draft law on the Supreme Anticorruption Court won the support of 315 deputies in its second reading.

The legislation describes the court as a permanent "higher specialized court" to be located in the capital, Kyiv.

The court's jurisdiction would be applicable to the entire territory of Ukraine, it also says.

"Today we have completed the formation of anticorruption infrastructure," President Petro Poroshenko tweeted after the vote. "I want to emphasize the resolve of the Ukrainian authorities to fight corruption."

The draft law, which was presented by Poroshenko in December, was backed by 282 legislators in its first reading on March 1.

Corruption was among top reasons that prompted Ukrainians to take to the streets and oust a Moscow-friendly regime in 2014 but it remains a major problem despite Poroshenko's promises to tackle it.

International financial institutions have provided Ukraine with billions of dollars to support its stricken economy. The IMF has said an anticorruption court will be a "benchmark" of Ukraine's progress toward Western legal standards, and that it would help ease the release of its loans in the future.

The United States has also highlighted the importance of establishing an independent anticorruption court in Ukraine.

In a statement issued on June 5, the U.S. State Department said, "the establishment of a genuinely independent anticorruption court is the most important, immediate step the government can take to meet those demands and roll back corruption that continues to threaten Ukraine's national security, prosperity, and democratic development."

Western officials say Ukraine will be far better equipped to resist interference from Russia -- which seized Ukraine's Crimean region in 2014 and backs separatist militants who hold parts of two eastern provinces -- if it takes serious steps to combat corruption.

With reporting by AFP, Reurters, UNIAN, and Christopher Miller in Kyiv

An Israeli diplomat praised Hungary for fighting anti-Semitism. Was he being cynical? By Cnaan Liphshiz JTA, June 6, 2018 https://www.jta.org/2018/06/06/news-opinion/israeli-diplomat-praised-hungary-fighting-anti-semitism-cynical

In the fight against Europe’s anti-Semitism problem, Hungary’s government is rarely thought of as part of the solution.

Reviled by the European Union for the populist rhetoric and policies of its right-wing prime minister, Viktor Orban, the government is accused by foreign and domestic critics of stoking racism — including against Jews.

That is why some may have thought it odd when Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, thanked Orban for a “zero-tolerance policy against anti-Semitism.” As reported in Haaretz Monday, Dermer made the remark while hosting the Hungarian foreign minister at an event last week in Washington.

Chemi Shalev, a senior columnist for the left-leaning Israeli daily, was blunt on Twitter: “Cynicism goes wild: Israeli ambassador to U.S. praises Hungary for ‘zero tolerance to anti-Semitism’.”

But according to Hungarian Jewry’s watchdog on anti-Semitism, TEV, Hungary does deserve at least some credit for making Jews feel safe — partly because of robust enforcement and legislation against hate crimes.

Orban himself provides ammunition both for Jewish supporters and critics. He is one of Israel’s staunchest allies in the European Union. At the same time, Orban’s rhetoric — in March he spoke about a crafty and stateless “enemy” that “speculates with money” — has seemed to many like anti-Semitic dog whistling. In 2012, 50 members of the U.S. Congress called on Orban to take firmer action against anti-Semitism. The following year, the State Department’s former envoy on the fight against anti-Semitism, Ira Forman, said Orban’s government should “do more” on this front.

Then there’s the state-sponsored campaign against the policies of the Jewish billionaire George Soros, who finances left- wing organizations and causes in Hungary. The government rejects Soros’ calls on the European Union to let in immigrants from the Middle East and Africa. Some Jewish critics of the anti-Soros campaign said it encourages anti- Semitism, though other communal leaders disputed it, saying that Soros has plenty of critics among Jews.

“The campaign against Soros is ugly, it is not quite our taste,” Kalman Szalai, TEV’s secretary-general, said in reference to billboards of the Holocaust survivor smiling, reading: “Don’t let Soros have the last laugh.”

But, Szalai added, “we do not see anti-Semitic motivation behind of it and we don’t see it increasing incidents.”

Notwithstanding, Hungary deserves some credit for tolerance, according to TEV. In Hungary, where some 100,000 Jews live, TEV has recorded only 37 anti-Semitic incidents in 2017, of which 24 were hate speech cases. TEV, which was founded in 2013 and has representatives from Reform and Orthodox Jewish communities, recorded no physical attacks on people in 2017.

Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, where 250,000 Jews live, the Jewish community’s watchdog on anti-Semitism, CST, recorded 1,382 anti-Semitic incidents in 2017, including 145 physical assaults on people.

In other words, Jews in Britain in 2017 were 15 times likelier to experience an incident than a coreligionist in Hungary.

Hungary’s tally of anti-Semitic incidents was dramatically lower than its neighbors. Austria, where only 9,000 Jews live, had 503 documented cases of anti-Semitic attacks last year. In Poland, where about 20,000 Jews live, police recorded 112 anti-Semitic incidents in 2017.

Of course, such statistics only partially reflect reality. Often, they are indicative of victims’ willingness to report incidents rather than their prevalence, as Petra Bárd, a professor at Central European University, noted in a 2017 paper, “What Is Behind the Low Number of Hate Crimes in Hungary?” (Soros founded Central European University but stepped down as its chairman in 2007.)

But Szalai, who wears a kippah and a beard, is among many Hungarian Jews who say that walking the streets with recognizably Jewish symbols is not dangerous.

“Observant Jews in Hungary like me rarely if ever get hostile treatment. I never have,” he said.

In the five years that he has headed TEV, Szalai, 49, says he experienced only one racist incident: During a conference in Brussels, three men whom he described as Arabs asked him why he was wearing “this rag on the head” and whether he had come to “kill Palestinians,” he recalled.

Synagogues in Hungary do not feature armed guards, as in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany. Each year on Hanukkah, hundreds of Jews gather at a Budapest skating rink for a holiday event. And in summer, thousands attend the Judafest Jewish street festival in Budapest under minimal security.

The last known anti-Semitic assault against a person in Hungary was reported over five years ago.

Zoltan Radnoti, a senior leader of the Mazsihisz umbrella group of Hungarian Jews, said last year the anti-Soros campaign was not rooted in anti-Semitism. But he also faulted Orban for not stopping the campaign even after it appeared that the rhetoric “may have a possible anti-Semitic interpretation.”

Orban “should have known that this campaign of hatred and scapegoating would increase anti-Semitic feelings,” Radonoti said.

Separately, the judiciary and police have in recent years overhauled their handling of hate crimes.

In 2014, the Hungarian civil code was amended to allow prosecution for offending “communities or religious minorities,” leading to dozens of hate speech indictments, Szalai said.

“It was a big step forward,” he added, saying it fixed a judicial reality thaty for years had frustrated attempts to prosecute offenders.

A number of cases involving hate speech and racist violence against Jews have been handled in an “expedited procedure.” In 2013, one man was sentenced to three years in jail for verbally abusing Jews, and two accomplices were given suspended sentences. In 2012, a man who punched a rabbi was jailed for two years. Mazsihisz and other groups have sparred with Orban’s government over monuments they feel whitewash Hungary’s complicity in the Holocaust. But it seems to have little impact on the daily lives of Hungarian Jews.

Still, in a 2013 survey of perceptions on anti-Semitism by Jews from nine European countries, Hungary stood out as a trouble spot. Of the 517 respondents from Hungary to the Fundamental Rights Agency’s report, 48 percent said they are considering emigrating due to anti-Semitism – the highest proportion of all countries surveyed.

And in another record, 30 percent of the people surveyed said that they had witnessed an anti-Semitic incident or assault in the 12 months that preceded the poll.

But TEV said the survey in Hungary was flawed because of the relatively small sample. TEV is preparing to publish this month a new survey among 1,800 respondents compiled by the leading sociologist Andras Kovacs — an outspoken critic of Orban’s ruling Fidesz party.

“It’s not that Hungary doesn’t have anti-Semitism,” Szalai said. “It does, and it should be acknowledged. But it also has little to no anti-Semitic violence, and responsive authorities in the judiciary, the police force and also in government. This also needs to be recognized.”

Slovenia Elections Tilt Another European Country to the Right By Barbara Surk New York Times, June 3, 2018 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/03/world/europe/slovenia-election.html

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia — Voters in Slovenia gave victory to a populist party led by a firebrand former prime minister in parliamentary elections on Sunday that tilted another European country to the right.

The Slovenian Democratic Party, led by the two-time former prime minister Janez Jansa, received nearly 25 percent of the vote, according to the country’s National Election Commission.

“Those who cast their ballots for us have elected a party that will put Slovenia first,” Mr. Jansa told supporters at the party’s headquarters in Ljubljana after the result was announced.

With Sunday’s vote, Slovenia, a European Union member since 2004 and a user of the euro since 2007, could line up politically with Hungary, which re-elected the right-wing populist Victor Orban as prime minister in April, and Austria, where a far-right party has emerged as a strong political force. Mr. Jansa has closely allied himself with Mr. Orban.

But Mr. Jansa could struggle to form a government as most party leaders have rejected the possibility of joining a coalition with him, raising the possibility of an extended period of uncertainty and a new election if coalition talks are deadlocked.

On Sunday, he called on parties on the left and right to join him in a new government “to face internal and external challenges together.”

Mr. Jansa, a veteran nationalist politician and a dissident during Communist rule, had maintained a lead throughout a two-month election campaign that was marred by disputes over the country’s turbulent past and allegations of corruption within the established parties.

In keeping with his campaign theme, he said on Sunday that migration was the biggest challenge facing Slovenia and Europe.

“I will say what I have said already before: We are for solidarity, but we are against stupidity,” he said, advocating a policy of discouraging migrants from coming to Europe by improving conditions in their own countries. Since the nation’s independence from Communist Yugoslavia in 1991, politics in Slovenia has had a conservative tinge, but center and leftist parties have largely dominated governing coalitions. The shift to populist parties has taken place since the migration crisis of 2015 and 2016, though the shift has not been as strong as in neighboring Italy, where an anti-establishment government was sworn in last week.

The centrist party of Marjan Sarec, a former actor and the mayor of Kamnik, a small town north of the capital, Ljubljana, came in second with 13 percent of the vote. Mr. Sarec, 40, came close to unseating the incumbent, Borut Pahor, in the presidential election last year.

Mr. Sarec cast himself as an anti-establishment candidate and a leader for a new generation of Slovenians who have come of age in a democratic society and whose top concerns are the economy, jobs and social security, including a robust pension system.

He congratulated Mr. Jansa for the victory on Sunday, but said his party would heed its vow not to form a coalition with the populist party. If Mr. Jansa fails to cobble together a government, Mr. Sarec would get a chance. If he too failed, the president could call new elections.

Finishing third in the poll were the Social Democrats of Dejan Zidan, with 10 percent.

The Modern Center Party, led by the outgoing prime minister, Miro Cerar, finished fourth with 9.5 percent — a crushing defeat considering that Slovenia’s economy grew by 5 percent on his government’s watch in 2017, one of the fastest rates on the continent, according to the European Union.

The election for the 90-seat legislature took place a few weeks earlier than the normal four years because of Mr. Cerar’s abrupt resignation in March after a major infrastructure project he had backed was shelved.

In all, nine parties passed the 4 percent threshold to get into Parliament, including the party of Slovenia’s first female prime minister, Alenka Bratusek, which received just over 5 percent.

With nearly all of the votes counted, voter turnout stood at 51.8 percent.

The popularity of Mr. Cerar, a law professor who won a landslide victory in 2014 after forming a party just weeks before the vote, has been dragged down by a crippling public sector strike in this country of two million people that is the birthplace of the American first lady, Melania Trump.

His handling of a border dispute with Croatia also brought criticism, as much from his coalition partners as from the right-wing opposition, led by Mr. Jansa.

Mr. Jansa made the dispute with Croatia, another European Union member, one of the campaign’s central issues, accusing Mr. Cerar and his predecessors on the left of giving up territory in an international court ruling.

The populist leader also vowed to refuse entry to asylum seekers from the Middle East and Africa. Slovenia has participated in the European Union’s refugee resettlement program, taking in around 200 asylum seekers and Mr. Jansa vehemently opposes Brussels’ imposition of migrant quotas on member states.

An average of 20 people a year are granted international protection in Slovenia.

Echoing Mr. Orban of Hungary, he has called the influx of people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa a threat to European values and a danger to the continent’s stability.

In 2015, hundreds of thousands of migrants entering Europe passed through Slovenia, usually on the way to other countries, often Germany, to seek asylum. “We will never allow this to happen again,” Mr. Jansa has said. Mr. Jansa led the government as prime minister from 2004 to 2008 and then again, briefly, in 2012. During his leadership he cracked down on political rivals and the independent news media that he called remnants of the old Communist regime. He also exerted control over major state-run companies.

During this campaign, Mr. Jansa aimed to cast himself as a uniter, said Miha Kovac, a political analyst and a lecturer at the University of Ljubljana. “It was still Jansa as we know him, blaming others, especially Communists and migrants, for all of the country’s problems that only he can solve,” Mr. Kovac said. “But he’s trying hard to be calmer and not as confrontational.”

Still, Mr. Kovac said, “I think it will be very hard for him to form a coalition, perhaps even impossible in the first attempt,” adding that it was no easy job for Mr. Sarec either, and that it could well be “months if not years of political uncertainty and instability.”

Anti-Semitic incidents drop sharply in Poland and Hungary, watchdogs say By Cnaan Liphshiz JTA, June 8, 2018 https://www.jta.org/2018/06/08/news-opinion/anti-semitic-incidents-drop-sharply-poland-hungary-watchdogs-say

Despite widespread concerns recently of a rise in anti-Semitism in Poland and Hungary, watchdog groups in both countries said the number of incidents recorded there in 2017 dropped sharply from the previous year.

In Hungary, the Jewish community’s watchdog on anti-Semitism, TEV, said this week in its annual report for 2017 that it had recorded 37 anti-Semitic incidents compared to 48 in 2016, constituting a 23 percent decrease. Some 100,000 Jews live in Hungary.

In Poland, which is home to some 20,000 Jews, Deputy National Prosecutor Agata Gałuszka-Górska last month said that the number of anti-Semitic incidents had dropped by 30 percent, to 112 last year from 160 in 2016. Anti-Semitic hate crimes accounted for about 6 percent of all hate crimes recorded, she said.

Poland and Hungary have right-wing governments that clash frequently with the European Union over their refusal to comply with its policy of admitting immigrants from the Middle East.

In November, 60,000 people attended a nationalist march in Poland that featured anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim rhetoric. Some local Jews say the government is tolerating ultranationalism that elevates the risk of anti-Semitic violence. Opposition by Israel and Jewish groups to Poland’s passing in January of a law that criminalizes blaming the Polish nation for Nazi crimes has fueled fresh reports of rising anti-Semitism in Poland.

Meanwhile, Hungary’s government is facing similar criticism for its billboard campaign and propaganda against George Soros, a Jewish billionaire and Holocaust survivor who funds liberal causes and organizations and supports the settling of hundreds of thousands of Middle East immigrants.

But the anti-Soros campaign last year “has not led to any visible increase in anti-Semitic incidents,” Kalman Szalai, TEV’s secretary-general, told JTA. He said Jews in Hungary generally do not fear physical attacks on the street like their coreligionists in France, Belgium, Germany and elsewhere in Western Europe.

Most of the incidents recorded in Hungary last year and in 2016 featured hate speech. The rest were cases of vandalism.

In Poland, Andrzej Pawluszek, the prime minister’s secretary, was quoted by the PAP news agency last month as saying “Official data, both domestic and from EU agencies, do not confirm the thesis about the increase of anti-Semitic attacks in Poland, disseminated by some circles.” Rafal Pankowski, a critic of the government and co-founder of the Polish anti-racism group Never Again, said the data only partially reflect reality on the ground in Poland. He said that following the passing of the law on rhetoric about the Holocaust, “In the space of one month, I have seen more anti-Semitic hate speech than in the previous 10 years combined.”

The reported decrease in incidents, he told JTA, “results largely from the changes in registering them by institutions in the recent period.” It is true, he added, that “there are not many physical attacks on Jews in Poland — and there are not many Jews in Poland anyway — but the level of anti-Semitic hate speech has increased radically in the first months of this year. Despite the existence of anti-hate speech laws, they are rarely used against the perpetrators.”

Separately, the state of Bavaria in Germany also reported a decrease in anti-Semitic attacks last year. The total of 148 incidents recorded in 2017 constituted a 22 percent drop from the previous year.