Jewish Russian Telegraph

1970- Boston reserves 10 Tevet for Soviet Jewry

JTA Archive (hat tip Adam Soclof):

RALLIES IN BOSTON, MORE IN N.Y.; COMMUNISTS, TROTSKYISTS DISAVOW LENINGRAD SENTENCES

Meanwhile appeals for clemency and demonstrations against the harsh sentences imposed on Jews in Leningrad continued today throughout the country. The latest representation was contained in a cable sent to the chief prosecutor of the Soviet Union, Roman Andreevich Rudenko, formerly chief Russian prosecutor at the Nuremberg war crimes trials. It was signed by Dr. Robert M.W. Kempner, of Landsdowne, Pa., who was the U.S. Deputy Chief Counsel at Nuremberg. The message said, "Recalling our efforts in Nuremberg for Justice and humanity, I appeal to you for mercy for the Jews sentenced to death." In Boston, the Rabbinical Court of Justice of the Associated Synagogues of Massachusetts, comprised of Orthodox, Conservative and Reform temples, declared yesterday that Jan. 7 should be considered a day of dedication to Soviet Jewry. Jan. 7 (the 10th of Teves) is an official fast day In memory of the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. Yesterday afternoon, 200 persons heard speeches of solidarity with the Leningrad prisoners by Catholic, Protestant and Jewish leaders who asked the Nixon administration to act to save the condemned. Messages of support came from Gov. Francis W. Sargent and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. The rally was called by the Jewish Community Council, the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry and other groups.

The Daily World, the organ of the Communist Party U.S.A., said in an editorial yesterday that while it believed the Leningrad defendants were guilty, "Nonetheless...we come to the conclusion that the interests of mankind will best be served if...the Soviet authorities commute the two death sentences." In an editorial scheduled for publication in the next issue of the Militant, the Socialist Workers Party (Trotskyist) organ, declares that the death penalty for an "alleged" hijacking is "one more example of the barbaric extremes to which the Kremlin bureaucrats will go in attempting to maintain their dictatorial rule." The editorial adds that "the principles of socialist Justice are totally alien" to the Kremlin. The SWP, which advocates the "dismantling of the State of Israel," contends in the editorial that "anti-Soviet" propagandists, especially in the United States and Israel, will use the Leningrad sentences for "their own reactionary purposes." In a radio interview last night, Rabbi Klaperman and Stanley Lowell of the New York Conference on Soviet Jewry asked listeners to bombard the Soviet ambassador in Washington, Anatoly F. Dobrynin, with appeals for clemency. [Read more]

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About 60 Minutes, Eric Cantor,Torah and Liberalism

IsraelMazav:

Video: 60 Minutes' Leslie Stahl pounds Eric Cantor for being Jewish and not Liberal

In case any of you missed it, the Torah does not command that you be politically liberal. It does not favor abortion on demand, it does not favor Communism or Socialism. The Torah commands that you give charity, but to whom you give it is your prerogative, and in many instances how much you give is voluntary.

But Leslie Stahl of 60 Minutes has no clue what the Torah says. And Eric Cantor, who does have a clue, let her off the hook.

Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: Sunlight via Atlas Shrugs). I actually added a fuller interview to the excerpt that Pamela posted.

[Read the rest]

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Yoram Ettinger: Do You Understand The Middle East?

Yoram Ettinger:

Intro to the Middle East

In the pursuit of peace, alliances and interests, Western policy-makers have tended to sacrifice the perplexing realities of the Middle East on the altar of oversimplification and wishful-thinking. Yet their attempts to implement unsubstantiated policies often have served to inflame rather than extinguish regional fires.

Lebanese-born professor Fouad Ajami, the distinguished historian and former director of Middle East Studies at John Hopkins University, asserted that realities in the region constitute “a chronicle of illusions and despair and of politics repeatedly degenerating into bloodletting (The Arab Predicament, Cambridge University Press, 1990).”

Western policy-makers and shapers of public-opinion would benefit from studying writings by some key historians and scientists, whose research reaffirms that fundamentals in the Middle East have remained largely intact for the last 14 centuries.

For example, the late Iraqi-born professor and leading historian of the Middle East Eli Kedourie, from the London School of Economics, wrote in Islam in the Modern World (Mansell publishing, 1980): “The fact that political terrorism originating in the Muslim and Arab world is constantly in the headlines must not obscure the more significant fact that this terrorism has a somewhat old history…which would not be easy to eradicate from the world of Islam.”

Meanwhile, the late Egyptian-born professor P. J. Vatikiotis, from the London University School of Oriental and African Studies, another preeminent Middle East historian, wrote in Arab and Regional Politics in the Middle East (Croom and Helm, 1984): “The use of terrorism by [Arab] states or rulers…has been for domestic, regional and international political purposes.… Rulers of this provenance and background are hegemonists of power.… If Islam and those who claim to represent it and wish to implement its law and rule over man, society and the polity reject all other human forms of law and rule…then clearly there is an unbridgeable gap between them and all other social and political arrangements.… The dichotomy between the Islamic and all other systems of earthy government and order is clear, sharp and permanent; it is also hostile.”

The assumption that the stormy Arab winter of 2011 is a temporary glitch that can be cured by a constitutional panacea is detached from long-standing realities in the region. Moreover, most Arab rage has been directed toward Arabs, and was expressed long before the 2011 turmoil and butchery gripped the Arab street. In the 1970s and '80s, some 200,000 Lebanese were killed in internal violence; in 1982, Hafez Assad slaughtered tens of thousands Syrians; Saddam Hussein murdered some 200,000 Iraqis while an additional 300,000 Iraqis were killed during the 1980-1986 war against Iran; about 2 million Sudanese were killed, and 4 million were displaced, during the 1983-2011 civil war; public executions and decapitations are regularly held in Saudi Arabia, and those are just several examples. [Read the rest]

posted by: jrtelegraph

Vladimir Bukovsky: This Is Not Your Father's KGB

FrontPagemag.com:

[This interview, conducted by Danila Galperovich, is reprinted fromsvobodanews.ru. It has been translated for Frontpagemag.com by Yelena Glazova].

One of the best known and most respected figures in the Russian dissident movement, Vladimir Bukovsky, spoke to Radio Liberty about the principles and methods employed by the KGB operatives in their work with free thinkers.  Which of those methods will be used in the very near future to control the latest wave of the protests that continue to transfix Russia?

Vladimir Bukovsky has always been a keen observer of the manner in which the KGB gradually regained its strength after initially losing power in 1991.  KGB representatives now occupy the highest echelons of the power structure in Russia.  What will happen in the near future? What should be expected by the participants of the protests?

This interview was conducted in England, in Vladimir Bukovsky’s home in Cambridge.  The first part appeared in print on the 30^th of December, Bukovsky’s birthday (he has turned 69). The interview’s second part will be published on January 4-5.  As we present to our readers the translation of the interview, we congratulate Vladimir most warmly on his birthday.

Galperovich: The young people who came to the meeting at Bolotnaya Square are approximately 20-25 years of age, and they are managers, businessmen, artists; the frequenters and users of Facebook.  They do not really understand the phenomenon of the KGB because the KGB did not exist as a visible phenomenon during their life time.  Nonetheless, this young generation will be dealing with the KGB-trained operatives, all placed in key positions in the country.  What should these young people know about their opponents? What should they expect? What awareness is central for these young people in their battle?

Bukovsky: Let me emphasize first of all that the KGB operatives have lost much of their qualitative acumen and sharpness in the last twenty years.  In my time, the Central Committee of the Communist Party supervised the activities of the KGB, and without the Central Committee’s permission, the KGB was not able even to conduct searches.  This stern control from above made their behavior precise and honed their actions; the Central Committee could always punish KGB operatives when, for instance, they committed errors or acted willfully and without permission. Thus, the KGB was very disciplined, highly professional. And although these operatives were at the height of their game, we were still able to score many victories in their very game, in their very field, so to speak.  All in all, they no longer compared well with Stalin’s NKVD. 

Since my time, however, they have fallen much lower.  I frequently gasp in astonishment – their level is that of the most inapt provincial militia; they are not the KGB of old. They cannot even blow up the buildings in their capital city without exposing themselves and leaving traces. Comrade Stalin would have shot them all.  When, for instance, they killed Zelimkhan Yandarbiev in Qatar and got caught immediately after – this appeared almost unreal. Why do they choose to act while being observed by cameras? How do they use traceable telephone lines and then travel to some diplomat’s country house? In our time this would be unimaginable. The former operatives were of a much higher qualification. [Read the rest]

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What's Next For Putin's Russia?

Minyanville:

Disgruntled urban Russians mounted another impressive protest in Moscow Dec. 24, 2011 drawing a crowd that was probably well upward of 50,000. Then they peaceably dispersed for the winter holidays, which in Russia stretch through Orthodox Christmas on Jan. 7. The leisurely break shows the urgency, or lack thereof, of the nation’s hunger for democracy. Yet all sides agree that the December rallies were an important event for Russia, not least national leader Vladimir Putin.

After an ambivalent early reaction, Putin made a flurry of moves toward year’s end aimed at co-opting rather than crushing the dissident movement. He demoted Kremlin political Svengali Vladislav Surkov, something of abete noire among liberals, promised a crackdown on corruption in state energy companies, and toyed with the prospect of reinstating popular elections for governors. (They are now appointed by Russia’s president.)

Political uncertainty in Russia, the world’s largest oil exporter, could roil already tightening world petroleum markets and prove a boon for ETFs that are long on oil prices like the United Stats Oil Fund (USO) or ProShares Ultra DJ-AIG Crude Oil  (UCO). More pluralism could threaten the interests of Russian state firms currently protected as national champions, like Gazprom (OGZPY.PK) and Rosneft (RNFTF.PK), and undermine international investors like Exxon Mobil (XOM), which last year entered a strategic partnership with Rosneft that could be worth tens of billions of dollars.

Centuries of autocratic rule have taught Russians, however, that what the authorities say today they can easily change their minds on tomorrow.  The lasting impact of the December protests will largely depend on whether they can coalesce around a leader or party that can counterbalance Putin on a daily basis if not unseat him. The chattering classes within and without Russia have launched a hurried search for such a figure. The results so far are not encouraging.

At the sillier end of the spectrum, Western media have been giving ready ink to former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who rails against Putin and demands a re-run of the Dec. 4, 2011 parliamentary elections that set off Russia’s unrest. Never mind that Gorbachev, revered as he may be in the West, is widely reviled in Russia as the man who destroyed a superpower. Last time he ran for president was in 1996, and he got 0.5% of the vote.        

The Christian Science Monitor, ever sober and well-informed in its foreign reporting, offered a more useful thumbnail of “Seven Russians to Watch” as the politics of 2012 unfolds. Heading the list is Mikhail Prokhorov, a vigorous 46-year-old multi-billionaire who has already jumped into the presidential race against Putin. Brash, quick-witted and photogenic, Prokhorov is the kind of fellow who might make waves in America as a less cranky reincarnation of Ross Perot. But if there’s one thing Russians hate more than bureaucrats, it’s the newly-hatched billionaires whom most of them see as having stolen the national wealth from the general population. Prokhorov will be lucky if his charisma and personal war chest get him 10% of the vote on election day, March 4.

Boris Nemtsov, the Monitor’s No. 3, is a likeable sort who turned the rust-belt city of Nizhny Novgorod into something of an economic maverick when he was governor there in the 1990s. But he has been grinding away in opposition since Putin took power in 2000 without much to show for it. Nemtsov is also Jewish, which unfortunately would be a major liability in contemporary Russian politics. [Read more]

posted by: jrtelegraph

Can The Jews Control The Media?

Yes, unless you are talking about Jewish media.

JTA:

NEW YORK (JTA) -- It is a strange irony: Jews have been successful in the television business -- but Jewish TV, not so much.

It’s not for lack of trying. Right now, no fewer than three Jewish-focused national cable channels are trying to carve out a viable niche within the already small niche for Jewish TV.

It’s a road others have taken in the past, only to reach a dead end.

Jay Sanderson, who served for 21 years as CEO of the Jewish Television Network, knows better than most.

“There’s been dozens of attempts and dozens of failures,” said Sanderson, now the president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. “It’s a cycle that’s been happening for 30-plus years. People want it to happen.”

The current Jewish television channels -- The Jewish Channel, Shalom TV and Jewish Life Television -- have scored some successes. They all launched in the past five years. [Read the rest]

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Will A Russian Jew Become First New York State Senator?

Jewish Press:

‘I Will Absolutely Fight For You’: An Interview With Would-Be State Senate Candidate David Storobin

By: Elliot Resnick

Published: January 4th, 2012

If the stars are aligned in his favor, attorney David Storobin will become the first immigrant from the former Soviet Union to serve as a New York state senator.

f the stars are aligned in his favor, attorney David Storobin will become the first immigrant from the former Soviet Union to serve as a New York state senator. Born in Russia in 1979, Storobin hopes to run for the State Senate seat left vacant when Carl Kruger resigned last month due to federal corruption charges.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has neither announced a date for the special election nor stated whether he even plans on holding one (if not, Kruger’s district will remain unrepresented until January 2013). Nonetheless, most pundits believe Cuomo will declare a special election for some time in March or April. The presumptive candidates are Storobin (Republican) and New York City Councilman Lew Fidler (Democrat).

The Brooklyn district Storobin hopes to serve – the 27th – covers Brighton Beach, Manhattan Beach, Sheepshead Bay, Flatbush and Midwood, among other neighborhoods.

The Jewish Press: Why are you seeking Kruger’s Senate seat?

Storobin: Because I believe what’s been happening in recent years is shameful – for multiple reasons. One is corruption. We keep on having people in the Democratic Party arrested for bribery, corruption, and other ethical violations.

I also think that pushing through gay marriage was an outrage. People representing very socially conservative areas such as Boro Park, Flatbush, Midwood, Brighton Beach and so on voted completely against the people they’re supposed to represent.

We need somebody who’s going to be [in the State Senate] – not to take bribes or promote some agenda that nobody in this part of Brooklyn wants – but to actually support the people and represent their ideas. [Read the rest]

posted by: jrtelegraph

Andrew McCarthy: Obama Recruits Islamist-in-Chief Qaradawi

Surrender is apparently a favorite if not the only option of this administration.

Powerlineblog.com:

Is Obama Preparing to Surrender Afghanistan?

by John Hinderaker

(John Hinderaker)

That is what Andrew McCarthy thinks. He notes the significance of President Obama’s recruiting Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi to mediate secret negotiations between the U.S. and the Taliban:

The surrender is complete now. The Hindu reports that the Obama administration has turned to Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s leading jurist, to mediate secret negotiations between the United States and the Taliban. …

For those who may be unfamiliar with him, he is the most influential Sunni Islamist in the world, thanks to such ventures as his al-Jazeera TV program (Sharia and Life) and website (IslamOnline.net). In 2003, he issued a fatwa calling for the killing of American troops in Iraq. …

Qaradawi urges that Islam must dominate the world, under a global caliphate governed by sharia. He maintains that Islam “will conquer Europe [and] will conquer America.” …

Thus does Sheikh Qaradawi champion Hamas, mass-murder attacks, and suicide bombings. 

posted by: jrtelegraph

Shock and Awe of The Current State of Anti-Semitism: Gloria Greenfield's Movie Screening in Newton on 1/17/12

Important article on Gloria Greenfield's shocking movie about the current state of the  anti-Semitism in the world. We all MUST see this movie in order to know what is going on. On January 17th Gloria Greenfield will discuss the movie as part of a special screening for the Russian Jewish community of Boston.



Reserve tickets here

Jerusalem Post:

Behind ‘Unmasked,’ there is hope

By HANNAH BROWN 

12/31/2011 22:12 

Director Greenfield discusses with 'Post' latest documentary examining global political assault against Jews.

Gloria Z. Greenfield, the director of the film Unmasked: Judeophobia, a new documentary that was just shown in the recently concluded Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival at theJerusalem Cinematheque – and will be screened again at the Jerusalem Cinematheque on February 16 – has no trouble finding a table even at the most crowded café at Mamilla Mall during holiday week.

That’s no surprise: Documentary filmmakers have to be resourceful, especially ones who choose such controversial and difficult subjects as Greenfield. But as we sit down to talk, she uses her resourcefulness in another way, to try to illuminate a subject many Israelis find difficult to deal with for all kinds of reasons.

“I decided to examine the resurgence of anti-Semitism from a global perspective,” she says, and to that end, she interviewed over 70 experts. The result of the interviews, some of which had to be cut, is a serious and sometimes terrifying analysis of how anti-Semitism, often masked as anti-Zionism (hence the title) has permeated modern life and discourse worldwide.

The line-up of interviewees in the final film is impressive. They include author and lawyerAlan Dershowitz, MK Natan Sharansky, author Robert Wistrich, Nobel Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, Wall Street Journal writer and former Jerusalem Post editor Bret Stephens, British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Canadian MP Irwin Cotler, Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick and many others.

Wiesel sets the tone for the film and outlines its subject in a clip from a recent speech in which he says, “Since 1945, I was not so afraid as I am now. I am afraid because anti-Semitism, which I had thought belonged to the past, has somehow survived. I was convinced in ’45 that anti-Semitism had died with its Jewish victims at Auschwitz and Treblinka, but I see, no, the Jews perished, but anti-Semitism in some parts of the world is flourishing.”

Says Greenfield: “The United States is a piece of cake compared to what’s going on in Europe. ...In the US, it’s largely happening on campus, and it’s real... but in Europe it’s much more pervasive in all walks of life.... Being in Europe was transformational for my analysis.”

She notes several infamous and appalling incidents of violence against French Jews, or people who were perceived by their attackers as Jewish but turned out not to be. [Read the rest]

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