Moldova 2009

 

There are about 15,000 Jews in Moldova (out of a population of about 4 million), mostly in Chisinau, the capital, and in Beltsy, the second largest town, in the north.

Parliamentary elections were held twice in Moldova in 2009 (April 5, July 29). From 2001 until July 2009 Moldova was governed by the Communist Party, which despite its name adopted a reformist and pro-European course. Once the party came to power, it immediately took a pro-minority stand and promoted a Moldovan multicultural identity. As a result, the Holocaust entered the public and political discourse. Pro-governmental media of the time frequently discussed the subject of the Holocaust and many memorials were erected, with government encouragement. In July 2009 the pro-government TV channel New Ideas Television (NIT) showed a documentary about the murder of Jews near Beltsy in 1941 by the army of Romania’s wartime fascist leader Ion Antonescu. 

However, the government’s avoidance of discussion of the Stalinist totalitarian past and commemoration of its victims angered some sectors of society. Moldovan society became strongly divided: one part (not only Jews) considered the Holocaust a principal component in collective memory, while others stressed Stalinist crimes. The debate as to whether the Soviet army was a liberator or an occupier intensified, and often included whitewashing of Antonescu’s crimes. On June 24, 2009, Capitala, the official newspaper of the city council of Chisinau, published an article entitled, “Soldiers, I order you, cross the Prut River" (a famous Antonescu quote), describing Antonescu in a favorable light and praising his policy of unification of Romania and Moldova. The Association of Former Prisoners of Ghetto and Concentration Camps and other Moldova-based Jewish organizations condemned the article. Notably, it appeared during the election campaign when Capitala was directly under the control of the mayor of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca, deputy chairman of the Liberal Party of Moldova. The intention was to mobilize a pro-nationalist electorate.

As a result of the parliamentary elections in July, the Communist Party lost its majority in the parliament, and three right-wing parties (the Liberal Party, the Liberal-Democratic Party and Our Moldova), with the center-left Democratic Party, formed the new ruling Alliance for European Integration (AIE). Since they lacked the requisite votes to elect a president, Mihai Ghimpu of the Liberal Party became parliamentary speaker and temporary president until new elections take place. Now, Holocaust victims are no longer commemorated officially while Stalinist victims are, and issues connected to the Shoah have been marginalized.

No political party in Moldova can be called antisemitic or racist, but some individual politicians express xenophobic or revisionist views (see Moldova 2008). However, in December the extreme right, antisemitic and neo-fascist Legionnaire Movement of Moldova, headed by Sergiu Lascu, was officially registered by the justice ministry under the name National Christian Movement. This decision was immediately condemned by the Communist and Democratic parties. Lascu's organization claims to have 100 members and, according to him, the numbers are increasing. With links to Romanian counterparts, its members view Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, leader of the fascist, antisemitic Romanian Iron Guard (Legion of the Archangel Michael) as a model (see Romania). Tudor Ionescu, leader of the Romanian extremist Noua Dreapta, has been a frequent guest in Moldova (see ). Together with Lascu's organization, Noua Dreapta holds public demonstrations and gatherings, as well as summer camps, where young Moldovans receive T-shirts printed with portraits of Zelea Codreanu and leaflets with antisemitic, anti-Roma, homophobic and anti-communist slogans.

Most anti-Jewish sentiments in Moldova are connected to Romania’s collaboration with Nazi Germany. For those who consider themselves Romanians, it is a difficult and unwanted past. At the same time, the notion that most Moldovan Jews enthusiastically welcomed the Red Army and collaborated with it is widespread and is one of the main reasons for today's antisemitism. Novels by Bessarabian-born writer Paul Goma have been published and widely distributed in Moldova, particularly Red Week: 28th June – 3rd July, 1940, or Bessarabia and the Jews, regarded by the Jewish community as an antisemitic book since it blames the Jews themselves for the Holocaust and accuses them of attacking Romanian forces and supporting the Red Army.

Several antisemitic incidents were recorded in Moldova during 2009. On June 29, Rabbi Israel Livshits, head of the Jewish community at the religious-cultural center Agudat Israel of Moldova, together with several students, was attacked and robbed during a holiday in the village of Panasesti by a group of 8-9 young people. According to the rabbi, this was a well-planned antisemitic act, since the attackers uttered antisemitic insults while they beat him, shook him and pulled his beard. A criminal case was opened.

In March the only synagogue in Bendery was broken into and neo-Nazi graffiti painted on its walls. The Torah scroll was damaged, silver religious objects were stolen and posters burned. The police classified the incident as hooliganism and one perpetrator was sentenced to two years and four months in prison. In August, antisemitic graffiti such as “There is no place for Jews here" and "Death to the Jews" was painted on buildings and fences in the Dacia district of Beltsy. In mid-October the text "Do not fool the world with the Holocaust! Defend the country" appeared on buildings on Pushkin Street, Chisinau.

During the festival of Chanukah in December, Saint Matrona, a group of Christian believers led by priest Anatol Cibric, vandalized a menorah in Stefan the Great Square in Chisinau. Shouting antisemitic slogans, they broke the candelabra and threw it in front of the monument to the medieval Moldovan king Stefan the Great. Police were present during the incident but did not intervene. The vandalism was strongly condemned by international Jewish and human rights organizations. No criminal case was opened and Cibric was fined only 600 lei (~$50) for offending religious sentiments and profaning objects of worship. Some politicians from the governing alliance accused the opposition of provoking the attack. Referring to it as an "unpleasant incident," the Moldovan Orthodox Church archbishop said that if the candlestick had been placed near the monument of the Jewish Ghetto, the attack could have been prevented. Cibric and his group were known for their antisemitism: in November-December 2008 they posted antisemitic posters outside their offices.

The authorities' response to antisemitism is weak. The Jewish Evreiskoe mestechko continued to struggle against antisemitic manifestations. Chief editor Ilya Mariash again raised the issue of a street in Chisinau named after Octavian Goga, Romanian deputy prime minister in the 1930s, founder of the pro-fascist National Christian Party and a leading antisemite. The street which was named after him in 1991 crosses the former Jewish ghetto. A first attempt to remove Goga’s name was made in 2007 but was rejected for lack of popular support.