Jewish Russian Telegraph

Jewish Farmers of South Central Utah

The Salt Lake Tribune:

Three miles west of Gunnison in south central Utah, where tumbleweeds roll across several thousand acres of rocky and barren land, 200 unlikely families once arrived to plant dreams. They were new Jewish immigrants from Russia and Poland, people who, in most cases, had been in America for less than five years. Leaving crowded city tenements and East Coast sweatshops, factory and peddling jobs behind, they signed up in 1911 to be part of a global experiment.

The back-to-the-soil movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries saw 40 Jewish agricultural colonies sprout up across America. This happened just as similar projects took root in Canada, Argentina and Ottoman-ruled Palestine, now Israel -- the genesis of the kibbutz movement, communal settlements that flourished in Israel's early years and still exist today. The man who led the charge for those who journeyed to Utah was Benjamin Brown (nee Lipshitz), a Russian-born ideologue living in Philadelphia who believed this effort would save his people by getting them out of congested environments, diversifying their skills and instilling in them greater self-sufficiency and confidence.

"My father was sort of the little Moses, leading Jews to a new world," Lillian Brown Vogel, 99, said by phone from her Ukiah, Calif., home earlier this week. "In the beginning, everyone was very enthusiastic."

But the enthusiasm that created the Clarion colony -- the name a reference to Brown's clarion call to beckon Jews there -- was quickly tempered, if not killed, by the struggles the Jewish farmers faced, explained Bob Goldberg, a University of Utah history professor who wrote a book about the experiment. Four years of irrigation woes, a flood, an early frost, broken-down equipment, bad weather, financial troubles, poor soil and abysmal crops took a toll, causing most everyone to hop trains to cities. Along the way, three had died, including Aaron Binder, a strapping member of the community who was crushed in a logging accident.

While in most respects the Utah settlement was a failure, it remains a story rich in lessons.

"They took a major risk with their lives, not to benefit themselves but to change a people," Goldberg said.

On a recent stormy Sunday, the historian led his own pack of Jews -- in this case high school seniors affiliated with Congregation Kol Ami, Utah's largest synagogue -- to the area, where only remnants of the colony remain: a couple of cemetery headstones (including Binder's) inscribed in Hebrew, a scattering of foundations and the broken walls of a water cistern that burst and fell apart the first day colonists used it.

Goldberg, who discovered Clarion in 1982 when he was flipping through a book about Utah ghost towns, wanted the students to see an often overlooked chapter in Jewish and Utah history. He also hoped to impress upon them that the idea of Jews working the land isn't as far-fetched as it seems (see sidebar for more information).

"We forget how agricultural and pastoral we were, going back to Abraham," he said. "We were shepherds, gatherers and farmers."

The Clarion colony was part of a final push for these agrarian developments in America. It was the largest in land area, as well as population, and lasted longer than any other settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains, Goldberg said. Brown and his scouting partner, Isaac Herbst, had settled on Utah because the land was cheap, the state was hyping the promise of the new Piute Canal, and it was situated near railroad tracks. But, perhaps as important as anything else, Goldberg added that it was also far enough away from the East that it would make giving up and leaving more difficult for farmers.

Brown's daughter, Lillian, was 2 when she arrived at Clarion. She doesn't remember much about day-to-day life, although she does recall that everyone spoke Yiddish -- it was her first language -- and that her mother used to bathe her in the muddy stream behind their home.

"The kind of food we got, I can't remember. But apparently it was good enough for me to get where I am," the 99-year-old woman said with a laugh.

Most families left in 1915, thanks to train tickets donated by Jews living in Salt Lake City. Some went on to farm elsewhere, but the bulk were city-bound. The Jewish community in Salt Lake had tried to help the Clarion Jews as best they could, and they weren't alone in doing this. Mormon farmers reached out to offer assistance and knowledge. And The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints even donated $500 to help the Clarion community survive its last winter, Goldberg said.

A few families stayed on into the late-1920s, but left when they worried that their teenagers, attending high school in Gunnison, would marry Mormons. Brown, the colony leader whose marriage ended, stuck around Sanpete County and was one of the founders of Utah Poultry Association, which became the Intermountain Farmers Association. He also helped create, with a Mormon partner, the company that became Norbest Turkey. In later years, during the Great Depression and under the New Deal, Brown tried his hand at another farm cooperative, this time in what's now Roosevelt, N.J. [link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

Putin's Russia and Stalin's Crimes: "We Don't Want To Talk about It"

IHT:

Portraits of some of the estimated 23,000 people killed in Tomsk, Russia, in the purges of the 1930s at a museum there. Below, Boris Trenin, a historian, at the Kashtak site in Tomsk, where, he believes, more than 15,000 people were executed and lie buried.

(James Hill for The New York Times)

Purging history of Stalin's terror

By Clifford J. Levy

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

TOMSK, Russia: For years, the earth in this Siberian city had been giving up clues: a scrap of clothing, a fragment of bone, a skull with a bullet hole.

And so a historian named Boris Trenin made a plea to officials. Would they let him examine secret archives to confirm that there was a mass grave here from Stalin's purges? Would they help him tell the story of the thousands of innocent people who were said to have been carted from a prison to a ravine, shot in the head and tossed over?

The answer was no, and Trenin understood what many historians in Russia have come to realize: Under Vladimir Putin, the attitude toward the past has changed. The archives that Trenin was seeking, stored on the fourth floor of a building in Tomsk, in boxes stamped "KGB of the U.S.S.R.," would remain sealed.

The Kremlin in the Putin era has often sought to maintain as much sway over the portrayal of history as over the governance of the country. In seeking to restore Russia's standing, Putin and other officials have stoked a nationalism that glorifies Soviet triumphs while playing down or even whitewashing the system's horrors.

As a result, throughout Russia, many archives detailing killings, persecution and other such acts committed by the Soviet authorities have become increasingly off-limits. The role of the security services seems especially delicate, perhaps because Putin is a former KGB agent who headed the agency's successor, the FSB, in the late 1990s.

To historians like Trenin, the closing of these archives reflects a larger truth. The country, they say, has never fully grappled with and exposed the sins of communism, never embarked on the kind of truth and reconciliation process pursued by other countries, like South Africa, after regimes were overthrown.

There are undoubtedly many reasons for this. For one, after the Soviet Union fell, Russia underwent a tremendous economic upheaval, and people were focused on just surviving. Still, now that the country is more stable, the Kremlin, if anything, is moving toward more secrecy. It tends to be hostile toward those who want to study the grimmest aspects of Soviet rule, as if attempts to diminish the Soviet image will discredit the current leadership.

"They say Russia has gotten up off its knees, and this is why we should be proud of our past," Trenin said. "The theme of Stalin's repressions is harsh and gloomy and far from heroic. So they say that this is why it should be gradually pushed aside. They say the less we know about it, the better we will live."

His comments were echoed in interviews with more than a dozen historians across Russia, all of whom said they had had far greater access in the 1990s to archives of the KGB and other security services. They spoke of the years immediately after the fall of the Soviet Union as a time when scholarship flowered, saying that they had a chance to delve into historical episodes that had long been concealed.

"There was a period when we could go to the archives as if we were going to our workplace," Trenin said.

Under Putin, the historians said, these records have usually been out of reach. Putin, who served two terms as president, is now prime minister, after installing his protégé Dmitri Medvedev as his successor in May.

Officials at the security archives, which are now mostly controlled by the FSB and the Interior Ministry, typically reject requests for access by citing a need to protect state secrets and personal privacy. (Though a vast majority of people mentioned in records from Stalin's time are obviously dead.)

The head of the FSB archives in Moscow, Vasili Khristoforov, has said all records related to "ways and methods of operational investigative activity" will never be declassified.

The chill over the Soviet security archives has not only thwarted inquiries into events of the 1930s, when millions were executed or died in prison camps. It also has prevented historians from gaining a better understanding of other aspects of Soviet persecution, like the hounding and the deportation of dissidents through the 1980s.

It also has aggravated tensions between Russia and its neighbors. The Kremlin, for example, has recently rebuffed requests from Poland to release documents related to the World War II massacre of 22,000 Polish officers and others at the Katyn Forest and elsewhere in Russia. For decades, the Soviets blamed the Nazis for the killings; Mikhail Gorbachev was the first leader to admit that Soviet security services had carried them out.

The restrictions have also frustrated Russians who are seeking the truth about their families and want future generations to be aware of what once happened here. [link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

Mumbai: Rabbi Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg Killed

Rabbi Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg of Chabad of Mumbai were killed. May Hashem avenge their blood.


Chabad.org:

By Joshua Runyan and Motti Seligson
Nov 28, 2008 11:00 AM

Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, the beloved directors of Chabad-Lubavitch of Mumbai, were killed during one of the worst terrorist attacks to strike India in recent memory.

Jewish communities around the world reacted with shock to the loss of the couple, who were killed Thursday at their Chabad House during an apparent standoff between Indian military forces and terrorists.

Their toddler son, Moshe, managed to escape with his nanny some hours before Indian commandos stormed their building, known as the Nariman House, in the popular touristy neighborhood of Colaba. The Associated Press reported that the boy was unharmed, but was wearing blood-soaked pants.

"Gabi and Rivky Holtzberg made the ultimate sacrifice," said Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, vice chairman of Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, the educational arm of Chabad-Lubavitch. "As emissaries to Mumbai, Gabi and Rivky gave up the comforts of the West in order to spread Jewish pride in a corner of the world that was a frequent stop for throngs of Israeli tourists. Their Chabad House was popular among the local community, as well as with visiting businesspeople.

"For five years, they ran a synagogue and Torah classes, and helped people dealing with drug addiction and poverty," continued the statement. "Their selfless love will live on with all the people they touched. We will continue the work they started."

Arutz 7:

by Hana Levi Julian

(IsraelNN.com) After more than 40 hours and a day-long siege by Indian commandos against Islamist terrorists holed up in the Mumbai Chabad House, the operation ended with the discovery that five of the Jewish hostages had been murdered by their captors, including Chabad-Lubavitch emissary, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka.

Foreign Ministry sources told Israel National News just minutes before the start of the Sabbath in Israel that the victims also included two women who had been trapped on the top floor with the Holtzbergs, as well as a fifth unnamed person. [link]

Chabad.org:

Indian commandos fortify their positions on the top two floors of the Chabad House in Mumbai. (Photo: IBNlive.com)

By Joshua Runyan
Nov 28, 2008

As the day wore on Friday in Mumbai, with no resolution at hand to what is now called by local news outlets as India’s worst terrorist attack in history, people worldwide anxiously awaited word on the fate of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg and others held hostage in their Chabad-Lubavitch center. Prayers continued around the clock, and a fund was established to help relief efforts in Mumbai at www.ChabadIndia.org.

Counterterrorism Blog:

Mayhem in Mumbai: India Reels Under Another Terror Attack

By Frank Hyland & Animesh Roul

This column is another in the ongoing series on the terrorist threat to India and the surrounding region by Frank Hyland and Animesh Roul.

Almost a day after Mumbai was struck by multiple terrorist attacks, a warlike situation still prevails on the ground, as security forces continue evacuating hostages. The Ministry of Home Affairs has confirmed 125 deaths and 327 injuries in the country's biggest and now the longest-ever terror seige. At least 14 police personnel are known have been killed in the attacks, including, reportedly, two of the nation’s highest ranking anti-terror policemen. The dead also included six foreigners. Five suspected terrorists have been captured thus far; five others were killed, while three reportedly have escaped. The terrorists, who came probably from Pakistan via the sea route, dodging the coast guard, and struck targets such as the Leopold Cafe, Hotel Oberoi and Taj International, Colaba Wadi, the BMC office, Cama Hospital, GT Hospital, Nariman House, Vidhan Bhavan. Hundreds of people were held hostage in the Taj hotel, the Trident hotel and Nariman house. Hundreds of those hostages were evacuated from the Hotels and from the Nariman house, a Jewish Center run by Chabad Lubavitch group. At the Trident Oberoi, security forces had evacuated 60 hostages and some 400 stranded guests as of Thursday evening. Terrorists holed up inside the Taj hotel with hostages demanded earlier in the day the release of all terrorists (Mujahedeen) held in Indian prisons. One of those was identified as a member of Deccan Mujahedeen group, which was born out of a desperate attempt to give more of a homegrown Indian flavor to this ongoing Jihadi-type terrorism.

Deadly Cargo:

Sometime ago, proposalss from Pakistan were put forth to make Mumbai and Karachi sister cities for their shared common features and geographical proximity. There was also a plan for regular ferry service between the two cities. The idea, perhaps born out of good intentions, turned out to be the route used by Pakistan-based terrorists who used the sea routes to reach the Mumbai coast on November 26th, then wreaking havoc.

As pointed out earlier, the latest Mumbai terror events have been perpetrated by the Lashkar e Toiba-affiliated (LeT) Kashmir-centric Islamist group. Some accounts point the finger at Al-Qa’ida as instigators and supporter. Even though the Pakistan-based militant group denied any hand in the Mumbai Mayhem, its footprints are quite evident. One Abdullah Gaznavai, LeT chief spokesman denied any involvement or association with these attacks. At least 10 of the terrorists affiliated with the Lashkar-e-Toiba and reached south Mumbai had arrived in inflatable speed boats, landing near Sasson Dock, very near to the Taj Continental Hotel. Two Pakistani ships -- MV Al Kabir and MV Alpaha -- are suspected to have transported terrorists, playing the role of 'Mother Ship', and have been detained after a joint operation by the Border Security Force and Navy Coast guards.

Intelligence Failure, Again!

The Mumbai attacks were a well-planned and coordinated series of terrorist attacks, as AK47-wielding terrorists with grenades in their backpacks targeted a number of high-profile locations frequented by Westerners and wealthy Indians. It appears to have been a massive intelligence failure as Indian security agencies were caught napping, this despite reports that Indian Authorities had been aware for some time of rumors of an impending attack, including even mention of the Taj Mahal Hotel. Interrogation of at least one perpetrator reportedly confirmed to Indian Authorities suspicions of the Pakistan-related origin of the plot. Despite the repeated failure of the Intelligence the administration’s public response thus far appears to be curiously complacent. The Country's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Intelligence officials pointed fingers very cautiously at an 'outside force', an obvious reference to Pakistan-centric terrorist groups. Manmohan Singh promised tough measures to take on the terrorists, including that of setting up a federal investigating agency.  [link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

Dovid Margolin: Toldos, Tne Secret of Jewish Strength

Dovid Margolin:

In this week's Torah portion, Toldos, the portion begins by saying "These are the generations of Yitzchak the son of Avraham; Avraham begat Yitzchak." The Lubavitcher Rebbe asks the obvious question, why the repetition? We know that Avraham was the father of Yitzchak, so why does the Torah continue and tell us that Avraham fathered Yitzchak?

The Rebbe explains that when the Torah describes the "generations" of a holy person, it means his lifetime of good deeds (Mitzvos) and his Torah learning. How did Yitzchak reach such levels of good deeds? He reached them, because he was the son of Avraham.

We previously learned that Avraham was the first person to sign a covenent with G-d when he circumcised himself at the age of 99. After a lifetime of searching and learning, he had reached the level where he could finally connect himself to G-d, through the covenant of the circumcision.

One year later when his son Yitzchak was born, Avraham circumcised Yitzchak, when Yitzchak was eight days old. Yitzchak was only eight days old, therefore he could not have understood the implications of being brought into this covenant with G-d, nevertheless Avraham circumcised him. Yitzchak was therefore born into this covenant and by being circumcised at eight days, his connection to G-d came from a place that was higher than human intellect, a level higher then our own comprehension. The circumcision created an unbreakable bond between Yitzchak and G-d, and subsequently between Yitzchak's children (the Jewish People) and G-d. Yet Yitzchak's lofty connection with G-d came as a result of all that Avraham had accomplished within his own life.

At the circumcision of Yitzchak, Avraham arranged a great feast for all of the kings and great leaders of the area. Amongst the guests was a king named Og, King of Bashan. Og was a giant man and when he saw the baby Yitzchak he exclaimed "for this you make a party? I can crush this child with one finger!" The Midrash explains, that when G-d heard this He said "you [Og] will live for may years and see many of your progeny, but you will end up falling into his [Yitzchak's] hands."

Avraham had been the only Jew, but then he raised Yitzchak and successfully instilled within him the ideals of Torah and Mitzvos, so that they would be everlasting within Yitzchak and within all later generations. Additionally, when obstacles like Og would come up, it would be Yitzchak who outlasted them. This was the spiritual inheritance, and guarantee that Avraham passed on to Yitzchak.

The Rebbe finishes off by explaining that this idea is extremely pertinent in relation to us, Avraham and Yitzchak's descendants. A person can sit and ponder the surrounding world. He can think about the fact that life is hard, and that the world is a lowly, physical place. Thinking such thoughts will eventually depress him. And then when he finally does go out and do a good deed (a Mitzva), or when he does learn Torah, the metaphorical Og, will come to him and say "why try? I will crush you with my finger."

The Rebbe says, that at such times a Jew must always remember from where he receives his strength. His spiritual strength is an inheritance from his forefather Avraham, who instilled it in an everlasting way within Yitzchak. Avraham was the person who traveled through the pagan world and without embarrassment exclaimed the unity of G-d. A Jew thus must never worry and must always remember that the strength is not his own, the strength is G-d's which he channels through his eternal covenant with G-d Almighty, a covenant made possible by Avraham.

By drawing this strength wherever we are, and with regard to whatever we are doing, we will be able to win the spiritual battle, and rebuild our eternal capital of Jerusalem, with the coming of Moshiach.

posted by: jrtelegraph

Sergei Magnitsky, Russian Lawyer for UK Investment Firm, Arrested in Moscow

AP:

UK investor: Russian lawyer it employed arrested

The Associated Press

Thursday, November 27, 2008

MOSCOW: A London-based investment company said Thursday that police have arrested an employee of a law firm in Moscow in apparent connection with his work for the investment firm.

Sergei Magnitsky, a legal and accounting adviser for Moscow-based law firm Firestone Duncan, was detained Monday after a raid on his home and police issued a formal warrant for his arrest two days later, said Bill Browder, chief executive officer of Hermitage Capital Management. The law firm was also raided, the third time in the past year, Browder said in a telephone call with The Associated Press.

An Interior Ministry spokesman could not be reached for immediate comment late Thursday.

Browder, a crusader for shareholders' rights, has been barred from Russia since November 2005. He said the law firm was involved in defending his company and its partner, HSBC, from what he alleges was a 2006 takeover of assets through forgery and fraud. He says the individuals behind the alleged scheme then fraudulently reclaimed $230 million in taxes from the state.

Browder said Magnitsky's arrest was in connection with tax evasion claims.

In a separate statement, Hermitage said Magnitsky "was apparently targeted for providing accounting advice to two Hermitage Fund entities in 2001 that police claimed underpaid taxes in that year."

Hermitage has twice been cleared of the tax evasion charges, but the case was reopened earlier this year.

Hermitage was once one of Russia's largest investment advisers, and now has investments in a number of other countries, since Browder was barred from entering Russia. [link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

Once Largest Muslim Charity in the U.S. Convicted on 108 Charges

AP:

DALLAS (AP) - After 15 years and two trials, the government has finally brought down the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, once the largest Muslim charity in the U.S.

The charity and five of its former leaders were convicted Monday on some 108 charges of funneling millions of dollars to the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

"United States citizens have spoken in this case, and said with a resounding verdict of guilty that we will not tolerate those who choose to finance terrorism," U.S. Attorney Richard Roper said.

Holy Land became the government's signature victory in the tough-to-convict pursuit of terrorism financing cases. Lengthy prison sentences may await Holy Land's five convicted leaders, and some could be locked away for life.

Counting the collapse of last year's original Holy Land trial, the government has stumbled in terrorism-financing cases. Two other high-profile trials in Chicago and Florida ended without convictions on the major counts.

Holy Land has been suspected since the 1990s of bankrolling social programs run by Hamas, which the U.S. designated a terrorist organization in 1995. Prosecutors accused Holy Land of routing more than $12 million overseas to help Hamas spread its ideology and boost its ranks.

Before being taken into federal custody, the five men waved and flashed peace signs to sobbing family members. Their sentencing date has not been set.

The convictions range from supporting a terrorist organization to money laundering, which carry sentences up to 15 or 20 years on each count. [link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

Yury Trushyekin: I Shot Down McCain; I'm Glad I Did

RIA Novosti:

17/11/2008 18:54 MOSCOW, November 17 (RIA Novosti) - An ex-Soviet officer who claims to have shot down U.S. Senator John McCain's plane over Vietnam in 1967 has said he is happy the ex-navy pilot lost his bid for the White House, a Russian paper said on Monday.

McCain was shot down over Hanoi while on a bombing mission on October 26, 1967, and taken captive by the North Vietnamese. He spent five and a half years in a POW camp, and claims that he was tortured. His time in captivity left him unable to raise his hands above his head.

Although McCain's former Vietnamese prison guards have said that they have forgiven him for his bombing raids, and that they even rooted for him in the U.S. presidential elections, 70-year-old Yury Trushyekin has no such warm feelings.

"It's good that he didn't become president. Even in the camp they said how he really hated Russians, as he knew it was our missile that shot him down," Trushyekin told the MK v Pitere paper. "Russian-American relations would have suffered, that's for sure."

There has never been any official acknowledgement that Soviet soldiers served in Vietnam on the side of the communist North Vietnamese in the 1960s and 1970s. However, Trushyekin, currently in a hospital in Russia's second city of St. Petersburg, had no qualms about speaking about his time in the jungles of Southeast Asia.

"I got to Vietnam at the time when there were mixed units with Vietnamese," he said, adding that he had served as an officer in a missile unit.

On the fateful day that McCain was shot down, Trushyekin recalled that his squad was getting ready to leave their post defending a local bridge when two U.S. planes came into view.

"We were preparing to leave when the sirens sounded again," he said. "Two American F-4 Phantoms flew in. We had two missiles out of six left. The Vietnamese fired first. Their rocket missed, it fell into the jungle. One plane went round the hill, the other came over the bridge. We fired at this one."

After McCain's plane was downed, the North Vietnamese quickly discovered him in a nearby lake.

"His hands were covered in blood and he was in a state of shock," said the former Soviet officer. "It's lucky that he was able to put his pistol into the air, or they would have shot him straight away."

McCain, as the son of a top U.S. admiral, was a major catch for the North Vietnamese. Trushyekin recovered McCain's identity card, and even brought it back with him to the Soviet Union. However, he has since mislaid it.

The ex-Soviet officer says he did not hear or think about McCain again until he became the senator of Arizona in 1986.

"They were showing archive pictures, of how he was sitting in his plane, looking so young. And I thought, 'he looks awfully familiar,'" said Trushyekin. [link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

Who is Going to Bury Whom, Dmitry?

Russian analyst professor Igor Panarin predicts disintegration of the USA and that Alaska would revert back to Russia. Wow, professor must know what he is talking about. After all, he has authored books on information warfare. In the old days, we called it "disukha" -- disinformation. Russian warships visit Venezuela. Meanwhile, Dmitry Medvedev increases cold war rhetoric.
All good and well. But here are some stats. Russians are spending around 9% of their family budget on hard liquor. Life expectancy for men is less than 59. During war in Georgia many soldiers did not have boots, they were fighting in tennis shoes, on their way out they were stealing toilets.
So, there is really no question who is going to bury whom. We know, Dmitry, that you want to bury us. Unfortunately, we'll HAVE TO bury you. Too bad, we could have been friends.

Weekly Standard:

Tennis Shoes and Stolen Toilets
Russia's military 'renaissance.'
by Reuben F. Johnson
11/24/2008, Volume 014, Issue 10


In 1976, when Soviet fighter pilot Viktor Belenko defected to the West in his MiG-25, his U.S. debriefers discovered (along with a trove of Soviet secrets) a military man with a life's accumulation of grievances against the Soviet system. Even at the height of Moscow's power, Belenko told them, the political leadership could not properly provide for its soldiers, sailors, and airmen, who often lived in squalid conditions with almost no means of entertainment or diversion.

The central obsession of the higher-ranking officers at the aerodrome where he was based was inventing ways to steal the highly purified grain alcohol that was used for cooling the MiG-25's avionics and deicing the wings. This often required that several tons of jet fuel be dumped on the ground and a nonexistent flight of the MiG-25 entered into the logbook in order to make it seem as though the alcohol had been consumed in service of the aircraft rather than at some drunken late-night dinner. A senseless waste, as he saw it, to soak hundreds of gallons of fuel into the soil and then later say there was not enough funding for proper base housing or an officers' club.

But the main source of Belenko's alienation was what he described as the Communist party's penchant for "trying to repeal the laws of nature by decree." In the case of his MiG‑25, this translated into the impossible task of being ready to take on the latest U.S. military aircraft in an airplane that still used vacuum-tube technology.

One wonders if there is a similar divorce from reality inside the Kremlin today with regard to the Russian armed forces. The past few months have seen a number of grandiose promises for restoring the might and modernity of Moscow's men at arms, but even the most optimistic projections for the Russian economy fall well short of what would be needed to pay for major military initiatives.

In July, a Russian admiral, Vladimir Vysotsky, announced on the Naval Fleet Day holiday that the Russian navy would add six carriers to its force--plus all of the cruisers, destroyers, supply ships, minesweepers, etc., that form a complete carrier battle group. Russia has never had even one proper carrier battle group, has only one aircraft carrier in operation, and has demonstrated that its shipyards are not up to the task even of refitting an old Soviet-era carrier for the Indian Navy. (The shipyards where the current Russian carrier was built during the Soviet period are in Nikolaev, Ukraine, and there are no comparable facilities in Russia.)

More recently, the Russian president, Dmitri Medvedev, made a speech calling for a massive military modernization program and a substantial increase in defense spending. According to his statements, by 2020 Russia will have built substantial numbers of new naval vessels, will have developed a combined air defense and missile defense system with both land and space-based elements, and will have upgraded the nation's conventional forces to a "permanent state of combat readiness."

This is all just so much chest-thumping. The immense sums required to support these lavish promises will not materialize. You can't get there from here, as the old aphorism goes. The price of oil (which Russia depends on for a great deal of its state revenues) has dropped to less than half its value from this past summer, the Russian stock market is in free fall, and foreign investment has fled Russia.

President Medvedev has announced an increase in military spending, but total outlays are still far less than the U.S. defense budget, and much of what has been allocated will have to go towards undoing the years of neglect and decay during the Boris Yeltsin presidency.

The performance of the Russian armed forces during the invasion of Georgia in August showed the dismal state of Moscow's military machine. Some Russian soldiers went into battle wearing athletic shoes because there were not enough boots to go around. Russian troops stole everything they could lay hands on--particularly from the Georgian army facilities they overran. Uniforms, beds, U.S.-supplied Humvees, and toilets were even pulled off the walls by Russian forces. "They had everything; the most amazing f--ing beds, amazing f--ing barracks with sealed windows," one Russian soldier was recorded saying in a short mobile phone video that was later broadcast--awestruck like Goldilocks when she stumbled upon Baby Bear's boudoir. Apparently living conditions for soldiers have improved little in the decades since Belenko's defection.

Russian forces were able to overcome Georgian forces because of sheer numbers, but in air operations the Russians had their proverbial head handed to them. A total of 12 Russian aircraft were lost to Georgian air defense units, including one Tupolev Tu-22M Backfire bomber. By the time hostilities ceased Russian pilots were being offered lavish bonus payments if they were willing to fly missions over Georgia, and still some of them turned the offers down, preferring to stay on the ground where it was safe. [link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

The Plight of Subbotniks

Pictures from Russian village of Vysoky.
Credit: Courtesy of Michael Freund.

Jerusalem Post:

Nov. 25, 2008
Michael Freund , THE JERUSALEM POST

Tomorrow may prove to be a fateful day for thousands of Russian Jews being prevented from moving to Israel by a cold-hearted bureaucracy.

After months of delay, the Supreme Court is at last due to hear a petition regarding the 20,000 Subbotnik Jews of Russia, many of whom have found it increasingly difficult in recent years to get permission to make aliya.

Families have been divided, and loved ones forced to put their plans on hold, as a rather uncivil civil service has placed numerous obstacles in their way, often applying inconsistent, and even contradictory, criteria to their applications.But unlike three decades ago, it is not Soviet officials in Moscow or Leningrad who are the cause of this painful problem.Incredibly, it is none other than Israel's government which is blocking their aliya, making the Subbotnik Jews the last remaining Refuseniks still stuck in the former Soviet Union.

It is time for this injustice to be corrected, and for Israel to open the gates to the remnants of this unique community.

THE STORY of the Subbotniks began more than two centuries ago, when a number of Judaizing sects developed among farmers and peasants in southern Russia.While remaining Christian, many adopted various Jewish practices, particularly the observance of the Subbot, or Jewish Sabbath, hence the name Subbotniks.

But among them was a group which went a step further, leaving behind the Russian Orthodox faith entirely and formally converting to Judaism. They referred to themselves as "the Gerim," using the Hebrew word for converts, and practiced Judaism openly.These Subbotnik Jews observed Torah law, married Russian Jews, and some even sent their children to learn in the great yeshivot of Lithuania and the Ukraine.

Becoming a Jew in Czarist Russia was a noble act of faith, but it obviously carried great risks too. And soon enough, the Subbotniks were forced to pay a heavy price for embracing Judaism.According to the late Simon Dubnow, the great historian of Russian and Polish Jewry, Czar Alexander I learned of the existence of the Subbotnik Jews in 1817, when they petitioned him to complain about the anti-Semitism they were suffering "on account of their confessing the law of Moses.'The Czar became enraged. Not at the fact that some of his subjects were persecuting Jews, of course, but rather because some of them had chosen to become Jews. So he issued a series of cruel decrees against the Subbotniks, which culminated in their deportation and expulsion to the far reaches of the empire.

DESPITE ONGOING Czarist persecution and subsequent Soviet oppression, the Subbotnik Jews stubbornly clung to their Jewishness. Many were murdered by the Germans after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941.Communism also took a heavy toll, and in recent decades, a growing number of the Subbotnik Jews have succumbed to assimilation and intermarriage, posing a threat to their future as Jews.That is why it so essential that Israel act quickly to allow the remaining Subbotnik Jews to make aliya - before they assimilate completely and disappear.In the past decade alone, hundreds of Subbotnik Jews from the village of Vysoky in southern Russia have moved to Israel, while thousands of other Subbotniks came during the great wave of aliya from Russia which took place during the 1990s.

Prominent figures in our nation's modern history, such as the late IDF Chief of Staff Rafael (Raful) Eitan, and the legendary Alexander Zaid, a pioneer of the Second Aliya who founded the "Hashomer" Jewish self-defense group a century ago, were of Subbotnik descent.

BUT IN recent years, Israel's Interior Ministry and the Liaison Bureau, an arm of the Prime Minister's Office which oversees immigration from the former Soviet Union, have inexplicably all but halted the Subbotnik aliya.The result is that hundreds of Subbotnik Jews in Vysoky, and thousands more in other communities throughout Russia, now find themselves left behind.They include Lubov Gonchareva, a 48-year old resident of Vysoky and the mother of three children. Lubov's parents made aliya several years ago, were recognized as Jews by the Interior Ministry, and her mother even obtained a ruling from the Jerusalem Rabbinical Court attesting to her Jewishness.

But when Lubov herself submitted an application to make aliya four years ago, her request was turned down on the grounds that her husband was not Jewish. Hence, she was told, she had "lost" the right to move to Israel, even though her parents were living as Jews and Israelis in Beit Shemesh, outside Jerusalem."I was born a Jew and I live as a Jew, as do my children," Lubov told me, as tears welled up in her eyes. 'The State recognized my parents as Jews, so how can it now do this to me and to my children?"That question will come before the Supreme Court tomorrow, when the justices will hear a petition filed on Lubov's behalf by Shavei Israel, the organization that I chair.

I hope that the court will see right through the callousness of our clerks, and allow Lubov and her children, and others like them, to make aliya.

The Subbotniks are Russia's forgotten Jews. After everything that they have gone through over the past two centuries, we cannot and dare not turn our backs on them.

They have struggled valiantly to survive, and the vestiges of this community wish to come home.

Now is the time to enable them to do so, before it is too late. [link]

posted by: jrtelegraph

Shock! 37 Percent of Boston JCRC Action Alerts Have Nothing To Do With Jews or Israel

Solomonia:

If you are among that core minority of people who support Jewish causes but refuse to confuse those values with Leftist ones, you may occasionally find yourself becoming frustrated with some of the priorities of the Jewish establishment groups. You don't have to be a conservative or a Republican to feel that way. You may just be one of those intellectually honest people who's uncomfortable with money collected ostensibly to help Jews and Israel being diverted into some bureaucrat's pet 'save the [rest of the] world' project. (Not to be confused with real Tikkun Olam.)

It's usually pretty difficult to quantify these things, but fortunately, the local JCRC (Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston - an agency of Combined Jewish Philanthropies) has provided me with one convenient metric -- my email inbox.

I have gone through all the emails I have received from the JCRC (NB: that I thought to save and which I managed to find in my email pile) over a one year period. That period runs from November 1, 2007 through October 31, 2008. After isolating those emails, I have applied a number of filters using my best judgment and placed the messages into categories. If I have missed any emails I welcome corrections and additions to the data.

The focus here is on those emails which call the recipient to take some form of action. JCRC does send out emails labeled specifically as "Action Alert"s, but I have broadened the criteria to include all calls for some sort of performance, i.e., call a legislator, send an email, make a phone call, send some money, or even attend an event. I then examine what percentage of those emails have something directly to do with Jews or Israel, and compare them to the number of messages which are purely political that could just as easily be sent out by a non-religious group.

The results of this examination follows.

On a personal note I want to mention that I do not mean this posting as a personal attack on any of the individuals at JCRC or CJP, none of whom I have any reason to believe is less than well meaning and hard working. I do mean it as an examination of their priorities, their judgment calls and as advice that those considering donating their dollars to Jewish charities may want to take into account before writing those checks.

A few notes on the methodology and terminology:

Positive items: Relate to Jews or Israel. These are to JCRC's credit.
Negative items: Do NOT relate to Jews or Israel, particularly those items having to do with controversial subjects that tend to divide the community unnecessarily (taxes, illegal immigration, etc...)

If a number of emails were all invitations to the same event, I put them all in the appropriate column. Multiple email reminders are an indicator of priorities after all and deserve to weight the score. If an email announced a non-controversial but important (to the Jewish Community) item, such as a non-partisan Presidential forum, I counted it as neutral. If an email contained both neutral and positive or negative items (i.e., invitations to multiple events) I put it in the column that had an effect on the count (I moved it out of the neutral). For (I hope obvious) reasons outside the scope of this posting, I have counted Sudan-oriented messages in the Positive column.

Positive (Total Items: 49):

1. 11-13-07: Israel Update ('Updates' which also include event reminders are included in the count.)
2. 11-29-07: Read the November eNews
3. 11-30-07: Israel Update
4. 1-4-08: Israel Update
5. 1-9-08: Read the January eNews
6. 1-16-8: Please join us for these special events!
7. 1-31-08: Israel Update
8. 2-21-08: Thank you for Supporting Sderot - Tell your friends!
9. 2-22-08: Essay Contest
10. 2-28-08: Please Join Us on March 13th (Darfur awareness at the Bruins)
11. 2-29-08: Israel Update
12. 3-3-08: Investors Against Genocide
13. 3-7-08: Read the March eNews
14. 3-20-08: Israel Update
15. 3-20-08: Please join us for these special events!
16. 3-26-08: Support Arab Jewish Refugees (HR 185 and SR 85)
17. 3-28-08: Don't Forget Innovation in Israel @ 60 This Sunday!
18. 4-1-08: Holocaust Essay Contest Reminder
19. 4-4-08: Join us June 11 for JCRC's 64th Annual Meeting
20. 4-4-08: JCRC Israel Update
21. 4-7-08: Come to the State House! Help Stop Iran's Nuclear Program
22. 4-17-08: Remember Israel's Captive Soldiers This Passover
23. 4-18-08: Action Alert: Two actions for Darfur
24. 4-24-08: JCRC Israel Update
25. 4-24-08: Yom Hashoah Holocaust Commemoration 2008
26. 4-29-08: Watch Tzipi Livni Address the MA Legislature
27. 5-1-08: Bring your family to this year's Yom Hashoah Commemorah at Faneuil Hall
28. 5-2-08: Please Join Us - Community Screening of Refusenik
29. 5-6-08: JCRC Events: GBIO 10 Year Anniversary || JCRC Annual Meeting
30. 5-28-08: Join JCRC at our 64th Annual Meeting || Celebrate Israel's 60th Birthday!
31. 6-6-08: Brandeis spotlight: Jewish State or State of the Jews?
32. 6-13-08: Join us for an art exhibit, a film premiere and a talk on Israel!
33. 7-17-08: help comfort the Regev and Goldwasser Families
34. 8-4-08: Community Vigil for Victims of Terror
35. 8-6-08: Take Action for Darfur
36. 9-10-08: Rally to Stop Iran. Now!
37. 9-12-08: join us Monday for an insider briefing on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
38. 9-17-08: Register Now to Join the Rally to Stop Iran!
39. 9-19-08: Update: NYC Rally Against Iran!
40. 9-23-08: Please join us for a Brown Bag Lunch with Mara Rudman
41. 9-26-08: JCRC Upcoming Events
42. 10-2-08: Please read about Holocaust-related events in the Boston area
43. 10-2-08: Please join us on Tuesday for a Brown Bag Lunch with Mara Rudman
44. 10-30-08: Please read about Holocaust-related events in the Boston area

Negative (Total Items: 29):

1. 11-16-07: Contact Your Legislators (Comprehensive Energy Legislation)
2. 12-4-07: Ask Your Congressmen to Vote in Favor of the Energy Bill
3. 1-8-08: Join us at the State House (Massachusetts Interfaith Climate Action Network)
4. 1-24-08: CARE for Youth: Action Needed on the Health Education Bill
5. 1-28-08: Reminder to Join us at the State House (Interfaith Pledge for Climate Action: A Day of Prayer and Advocacy)
6. 3-5-08: Global Warming Solutions Act to be voted on tomorrow
7. 3-17-08: Write to Governor Patrick (Tuition discounts for illegals)
8. 3-20-08: Call Governor Patrick Today (Same)
9. 4-18-08: Earth Day Action!
10. 4-22-08: Act Now for house amendments - Help yourself or others in need! (Tsedaka is what you do with your own money, not taxes.)
11. 4-23-08: Act Now for house amendments - Immigrants need your help
12. 4-23-08: Support is needed for Elder Services
13. 4-24-08: Support is needed for Affordable Housing
14. 4-25-08: Support is needed for Workforce Development
15. 4-28-08: Join us and support immigrants (Event with MIRA!)
16. 5-15-08: Action Alert for individuals with disabilities
17. 5-15-08: The Immigrant Community Needs Your Help
18. 5-16-08: Action Alert for housing programs
19. 5-28-08: Act Now to support the Global Warming Solutions Act!
20. 6-4-08: Support the Climate Security Act!
21. 6-13-08: Help defeat the ballot initiative to eliminate the income tax
22. 6-25-08: Join Us on July 2nd (Global Warming Rally)
23. 6-30-08: Please Join Us (Welcoming MA Kickoff Event)
24. 7-21-08: Please Join us for a Press Conference (Global Warming Solutions Act)
25. 7-31-08: Global Warming Solutions Act News!
26. 8-12-08: Action Alert (ADA Amendments Act)
27. 9-18-08: Vote NO on Ballot Question No. 1
28. 10-10-08: Join us at these exciting events! (includes 'defeat the Question One')
29. 10-24-08: please join JCRC in opposing Question 1

Neutral (Total Items: 7):

1. 11-27-08: JCRC Statement on Annapolis (Not an action item, though generally a 'plus')
2. 12-14-07: Israel Update (no events)
3. 7-3-08: Our hearts go out to the victims of yesterday's attack (not an action item)
4. 7-8-08: State Budget Update (no action items, though generally a negative)
5. 7-16-08: JCRC Statement on Israel's Exchange of Prisoners for the Remains of its Fallen Soldiers (Not an action item, though generally a 'plus')
6. 10-7-08: Spotlight Forum: Blacks, Jews and Obama (A plus topic with a minus twist: why do we want to restore the old 'Liberal' alliance?)
7. 10-16-08: Please Join us for Presidential Forum 2008!

I did not count the 'Neutrals' in the overall ratio, though if I wanted to broaden the criteria I might count 4 of these in the Plus column and 1 in the Minus.

Here's the tally:

Positive: 49
Negative: 29
Neutral: 7

Positive:Negative = 49:29

Bottom Line: 37% of all JCRC emails calling upon the community to take some action had nothing to do with Judaism or Israel. Viewed conversely, of course, 63% of all JCRC emails calling upon the community to take some action had at least something to do with Judaism or Israel.

[By the way, a search of all emails containing the words 'action' or 'alert' was much worse: 6:12 Positive:Negative, or 2/3 having nothing to do with Judaism or Israel.]

The trouble is that the negatives are far more destructive, since they divide unnecessarily. They are the proof that there are those for whom their definition of 'Liberalism' has become their religion. I can already hear the objections: 'But global warming is a Jewish issue [insert tortured justification here].' The thing is, no, it's not. It's a political issue upon which reasonable people may disagree, both on remedies and the basic data. It's not Judaism.

'But giving charity to the poor is a Jewish issue!' Yes, it is, but taxing people to do it, including non-Jews and those unwilling or unable to give, is not. What is disturbing is how many messages are delivered prodding people to strong-arm government officials to spend money, and how few encourage people to give on a private basis.

None of this may matter to you, but if you are not so keen on JCRC's advocacy for illegal immigration, tuition discounts for illegals, global warming hysteria, more government control over private business, tax increases, or you don't share their priorities on any of a number of other government policies, you may be one of those who will want to consider more targeted giving in the future. [link]

JRT comments:

The solution is remarkably simple. Current JCRC's budget should be diminished by 37%. With the saved money community should fund an organization that would be dealing with Jewish issues and Israel.  Now, are you planning to send a check to JCRC? Deduct 37%, this money in their budget should be coming from the Democratic party and MoveOn.org.

Why the Jews should be funding it? Simple? We thought so!

posted by: jrtelegraph