Per Anders Rudling Organized Anti-Semitism in Contemporary Ukraine: Structure, Influence and Ideology* ABSTRACT: In the wake of the Orange Revolution, Ukraine has witnessed a substantial growth in organized anti-Semitism. Central to this development is an organization, known as the Interregional Academy of Human Resources, better known by its Ukrainian acronym MAUP. It operates a well-connected political network that reaches the very top of the Ukrainian society. MAUP is the largest private university in Ukraine, with 57,000 students at 24 regional campuses. MAUP is connected to the KKK; David Duke is teaching courses in history and international relations at the university. Funded by Saudi Arabia, Libya and Iran, MAUP’s printing house publishes about 85% of the anti-Semitic literature in Ukraine. Until very recently, Ukrainian President Yushchenko and Foreign Minister Tarasiuk served on its board; former President Kravchuk still does. This paper is a study of anti-Semitism in Ukraine, of its intellectual roots, influence and strength. It traces the Soviet, Christian, German and racist political traditions and outlines the political ambitions of organized anti-Semitism in post-Orange Revolution Ukraine. On August 28, 2005, a Jewish student in Kyiv was beaten and left for dead after leaving his synagogue to buy food. Thirty-two-year-old Mordechai Molozhanov was long in a coma, before being flown to Tel Aviv for brain surgery. At the time of writing, it is not clear whether he will survive.1 The small Jewish community in Ukraine has been struggling to raise public awareness on the sharp rise in anti-Semitic propaganda and violence in that country.2 Repeatedly, the Jewish community has called on the leaders of Ukraine to disassociate * The author wishes to thank Stephanie Miller, graduate student at Harvard University, Professors John-Paul Himka and David Marples at the University of Alberta for inspiration, suggestions and encouragement. Special thanks also to Ilya Khineyko, Ph.D. candidate, University of Alberta. This article was made possible thanks to a Summer FLAS Scholarship from the U.S. State Department and the generous support of Professor Jane Samson, University of Alberta. 1 “More anti-Semitism,” Editorial, Kyiv Post 31 Aug. 2005; “Yushchenko Condemns Anti-Semitism but calls it No Problem,” Bigotry Monitor: A Weekly Human Rights Newsletter on Antisemitism, Xenophobia, and Religious Persecution in the Former Communist World and Western Europe [published by UCSJ: Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union] 5.37 (23 Sept. 2005). 2 “US Senate Repeals Trade Restrictions Linking Ukraine’s Treatment of Jews—Worries Persist about Anti-Semitism,” European Jewish Congress 18 Nov. 2005. Canadian Slavonic Papers/Revue canadienne des slavistes Vol. XLVIII, Nos. 1-2, March-June 2006 82 PER ANDERS RUDLING themselves from, and crack down on anti-Semitic3 propaganda. Until now, the response from the Ukrainian leadership has often been slow and half-hearted. “Manifestations of anti-Semitism worry the authorities no more than last year’s snow,” according to professor Oleksandr Naiman, who has specialized in anti- Semitism in Ukraine.4 Anti-Semitism has been treated as if it is not a serious problems but rather a marginal phenomenon at the fringes of society. “There is no such problem as antisemitism or other manifestations of xenophobia in Ukraine,” President Yushchenko stated on September 18, 2005, but added that he would “treat the problem of antisemitism attentively and responsibly.”5 The aim here is to shed light on manifestations of contemporary anti- Semitism in Ukraine. Contrary to claims often voiced by diaspora groups and the Ukrainian government, this paper argues that anti-Semitism is more widespread than officially acknowledged. Moreover, I argue that this is a growing problem,6 and that aggressive anti-Semites constitute a well-organized and influential lobby with connections and influences that reaches the very top of society. My approach has been to analyze a number of writers, representative of contemporary anti-Semitism in Ukraine and to give a general idea of the arguments they promote. I will also discuss the centrality of the well-funded and powerful organization to which many of them are connected. One aspect of this anti-Semitic victimization is that it denies almost all Ukrainian agency. If the reader is to believe the selection of anti-Semitic literature offered by the book 3 The word anti-Semitism is an ambiguous and problematic term. It is attributed to the German politician Wilhelm Marr, who in 1878 started to use the term in an attempt to distance himself from the Christian tradition of hostility towards Jews and instead provide a “scientific”-sounding terminology for racial or cultural, often secular, anti- Jewish sentiments. In this sense, even though this term is nonsensical, it has entered the vocabulary as an established term for hostility towards Jews. Hence, it differs little from the equally problematic word “racism.” Some scholars of anti-Semitism have argued that the label anti-Semitism should be reserved for more “pronounced and irrational forms of hostility, especially those that look to concerted legal actions against Jews. Such indeed was the intent of many anti-Semites when the form was first coined.” Henrik Bacher, Återkomsten: Antisemitism i Sverige efter 1945 [The Return: Anti-Semitism in Sweden After 1945] (Stockholm: Natur och Kultur, 2004) 26; and Albert S. Lindemann, Anti- Semitism before the Holocaust (London: Pearson Education Limited, 2000) 10. 4 “Ukrainian Jewish Activist Accuses Government of Doing Little to Combat Anti- Semitism,” Associated Press 7 Dec. 2005. 5 “Yushchenko Condemns Anti-Semitism but calls it No Problem,” Bigotry Monitor: A Weekly Human Rights Newsletter on Antisemitism, Xenophobia, and Religious Persecution in the Former Communist World and Western Europe. 6 In doing so, I share the assessment of the Ukrainian Jewish community. “[L]ocal Jews today seem to agree that Yushchenko’s government has not shown enough political will or ability to implement economic and political reforms and combat anti-Semitism.” Ana Shidler, “Myths and Truths about Ukrainian Anti-Semitism,” Ukraine Now 4 Apr. 2004. http://www.ukrnow.com/content/view/31/2/ (accessed 3 Sept. 2005). ORGANIZED ANTI-SEMITISM IN CONTEMPORARY UKRAINE 83 dealers on Prospekt Svobody in L'viv and Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kyiv, Ukrainians have never been anything but passive victims of Jewish evil. Ukrainian agency would be limited to a few outbursts of anti-Semitic violence under Khmel'nyts'kyi, the Black Hundreds and Petliura. From the perspective of the anti-Semites, Jewish domination of Ukraine began in the Middle Ages and have lasted until today. The Jews have ruled through “Jewish” tsars, Judeo- Communists, Judeo-Nazis and the current, “a-national” Jewish oligarchs and criminals, bent on destroying Ukraine and the Slavic world. The anti-Semites weave together an overall picture where Ukrainian history during the past one hundred years turns into something of a Dolchstoss legend: throughout the 20th century, Ukrainians have been stabbed in the back repeatedly by Jews and/or Zionists. The conclusion from this is that there was—and is—no Ukrainian agency whatsoever. Given the subject of this article—anti-Semitism in Ukraine—it should be emphasized that the purpose of this paper is to shed light on an under-researched topic that deserves more scholarly attention. My goal is to focus on an aspect of territorial history, not to write a national one. Rather than a study of Ukrainians, it is a study of anti-Semitism among the people who share its territory. Needless to say, it is not my purpose to disgrace a culture, community, or ethnic group. One of the central themes in the anti-Semitic literature I have analyzed is the equating of communists, oligarchs, mass murderers and sexual predators with Jews. My intention is to avoid this form of argumentation. The anti-Semites, whose ideas are presented in this paper, are from Ukraine. This is not to say that Ukrainians are anti-Semites. What makes this prevalent public anti-Semitism so remarkable is that there are hardly no Jews left in Ukraine. According to the 2001 Ukrainian census, there are only 103,000 Jews in Ukraine, or 0.2% of the population. Out of 130 registered nationalities in Ukraine, that leaves the Jewish minority numerically behind Bulgarians (204,000), Hungarians (156,000), Romanians (151,000) and Poles (144,000).7 This is a sharp decline from the 1989 and 1996 figures of 487,000 and 180,000, respectively,8 and today this number has declined further by an annual Jewish emigration of some 14,000 to 21,000 people.9 In fact, anti- 7 2001 Ukrainian Census, see <http://www.ukrcensus.Kyiv.ua/eng/results/general/ nationality/> (accessed 2 Sept. 2005). 8 M. Tolts, “Demographic Trends among the Jews in the Three Slavic Republics of the Former USSR: A Comparative Analysis,” in Papers in Jewish Demography 1993, eds. S. Della Pergola and J. Even (Jerusalem: n.p. 1997). 9 U.S. Department of State Annual Report on International Religious Freedom for 2004 Ukraine—September 2004, Released by the U.S. Department of State Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor on September 15, 2004, covers the period from July 1, 2003, to June 30, 2004. See <http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/rsd/print.html ?CATEGORY=RSDC OI&id=416ce9df7> (accessed 16 Oct. 2005). Canadian Slavonic Papers/Revue canadienne des slavistes Vol. XLVIII, Nos. 1-2, March-June 2006 84 PER ANDERS RUDLING Semitic literature is printed in editions, considerably larger than the entire Jewish population of Ukraine.10 According to a 1992 poll, 27 per cent of Ukrainians harbored anti-Semitic views.11 A 2003 study was largely consistent with these findings: it showed that 18.7 per cent harbored strong “modern,” i.e.