belarus 2009

 

 

According to a nation-wide census conducted in 2009 there are about 12,650 Jews in Belarus (out of a population of about 9.5 million); however Jewish organizations estimate that there are between 20,000 and 50,000 persons of Jewish origin in the country. Most of the Jews are concentrated in the cities of Minsk, Grodno, Gomel and Bobruisk, among others.

The attitude of the Belarus authorities toward the "Jewish question" can be summed up in the well-known French Revolutionary slogan "We must refuse everything to the Jews as a nation and accord everything to Jews as individuals.” The state does not subsidize Jewish schools, newspapers or cultural establishments, nor is any air time on radio or television allocated to the Jewish minority. There is no Jewish publishing house, and the history of the Jews in Belarus is minimized in academic, referential and educational literature. Since there is no law on property restitution, Jewish communities must rent facilities for their activities, although many buildings throughout the country once belonged to the Jewish communities, including synagogues. Property of Christian communities confiscated by the Soviets, on the other hand, is being returned and the state even helps in funding restoration work.

Belarus differs from some of the other multi-national post-Soviet states in regard to antisemitism and the Holocaust, in two ways: first, there has not been a single case of physical violence against Jews in the last seven years, and second, there is no commemoration of local collaborators with the Nazis during World War II.

Belarus sees resistance to the Nazis during World War II as one of the characteristics of modern Belarusian identity. This may be because the Soviet Republic of Belorussia was one of the Soviet states that suffered most under the Nazi occupation – one-third of its population (including Jews) was exterminated and its non-Jewish population was less cooperative with the Nazis than the Lithuanians and Ukrainians were. Belarus, the most “Soviet” in political characteristics of all other post-Soviet states, has recognized Jewish suffering during the Holocaust and (usually after persistent persuasion by the Jewish community and Jewish organizations abroad) allows the establishment of memorials to Holocaust victims (mostly initiated and financed by Jewish communities and donors). The Museum of History and Culture of Belarusian Jews which opened in Minsk in 2002, organizes educational events and engages in teaching and researching the Holocaust and the history and culture of the Jewish people in Belarus. However, high officials, writers, journalists and others refrain from attending Holocaust memorial services and some have even questioned the truth of the Jewish tragedy.

There is still no official Holocaust Memorial Day in Belarus in spite of the Jewish communities' efforts to persuade the authorities to institute one. The subject of the Holocaust is covered only superficially (if at all) in textbooks, which mainly stress the aid the local population extended to the Jews and not the uniqueness of the Holocaust itself – a direct continuation of Soviet policy. Collaboration of the local population with the Nazis is not mentioned anywhere. Furthermore, in 2009 dissertations of a number of graduate students on the Holocaust were not approved by the relevant academic committees, allegedly for administrative reasons.

The beginnings of a change in attitude toward the Jews and the Holocaust, in early 2008 (see ASW 2008), brought on by economic and pragmatic reasons (primarily, the global economic crisis), did not continue after anticipated funds from the West and investments by wealthy western Jews were not forthcoming.

Jewish facilities, graves and Holocaust memorials are desecrated every year. For example, on the night of July 25/26 a Holocaust memorial in Slutsk was defaced with swastikas and antisemitic graffiti. The memorial, established in October 2007, is dedicated to Jewish ghetto inmates who were burnt to death by the Nazis on February 8, 1943. This memorial was desecrated several times in the past, but the perpetrators were never caught. On April 22, a swastika and the slogan "6 million - a lie" were painted on the synagogue in Vitebsk.

As in other countries, graffiti on Jewish and non-Jewish facilities has become a way to express anti-Jewish feelings in recent years. For example, "Kill Mikhoels,” a crossed out Star of David and a large swastika were painted on a summer house in the woods of Stepianki in July 2009. The nature of the graffiti indicates that the offenders knew (according to one version) that this was the place where in January 1948 the Jewish actor and leader of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee Solomon Mikhoels was murdered on orders from Stalin.

One of the main disseminators of antisemitic propaganda in Belarus is the well-known novelist and publicist Eduard Skobelev, who has been publishing antisemitic articles in local newspapers since the 1970s (never using the word "Jews" − always "Zionists") and defying press laws (which did not prevent him from being the editor of the presidential bulletin till 2008). In August, for example, he wrote a 10-column-long article titled "On the Technologies of Worldwide Domination" for the Russian newspaper Russkii Vestnik. It praised Iranian president Ahmadinejad and the "generous and honest" Stalin and condemned the tsarist regime, which "had mercy on the Jews.” He also claimed that the Khazars, who existed between the seventh and the twelfth centuries, were already Zionists who fooled the peaceful Slavs and turned them into slaves. According to Skobelev, the Khazars are still around and are trying to dominate the world.

Sport-related antisemitic activity has penetrated the country in recent years. In late June, for example, a large swastika and the slogan "FCDM [Football Club Dinamo Minsk] 100% Nazi" appeared on a building on Gebelev Street, Minsk. Mikhail Gebelev, after whom the street was renamed in 2005, was one of the leaders of the Jewish underground in the Minsk ghetto. Similar incidents were report in 2010.

One of the most troubling problems related to antisemitism in Belarus is the lack of reaction by the authorities, expressed in the unwillingness of the prosecutor's office and the police to thoroughly investigate incidents motivated by antisemitism and to bring the perpetrators to trial. For example, in 2009 a swastika and other antisemitic graffiti painted on a building in Slutsk housing the offices of the Jewish community were classified by the police as "hooliganism." In such cases, the perpetrators are almost never caught.

One response to antisemitism since Belarus became an independent state was the closure (by a court in Minsk) in December 2008 of the Christian Initiative organization (also known as Pravoslav Initiative) which was publishing antisemitic books (see ASW 2008). The organization filed an appeal, which was rejected in February 2009.