To our friends of the UCSJ, President Obama has signed the Magnitsky bill, which passed in Congress by significant numbers. It is a great victory for human rights and for the UCSJ. Last August, the UCSJ gathered ten human rights groups and many individuals all of whom signed on to a letter to over 150 […]
UCSJ’s Work in Ukraine: Preserving Jewish Culture
Foreword to the presentation of UCSJ’s work to preserve Jewish Heritage in Ukraine. The vibrant Jewish culture and the spiritual life of the Ukrainian Jewish community in Lviv, Ukraine, much like elsewhere in the former Soviet Union, had been ruthlessly suppressed by the Nazi and Communist totalitarian dictatorships for many years. At present, there are only […]
An Oral History of the Rally to Save Soviet Jewry
Tablet Magazine How We Freed Soviet Jewry Twenty-five years ago today, a rally of 250,000 people changed the fate of Jews worldwide. An oral history. By Allison Hoffman Originally published December 6, 2012. (American Jewish Historical Society) Twenty-five years ago today, an estimated quarter of a million Americans, most of them Jews, flooded the Mall […]
Anti-Semitic March in Kharkov, Ukraine
The following description of an anti-Semitic march that took place in Kharkov (the second largest city in Ukraine) is a translation of an article originally posted in Russian. The original can be accessed here. During the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary elections, the nationalistic party “Svoboda” (Freedom) organized a rally. It was announced to be a protest […]
USCIRF Alarmed by Anti-Semitic Remarks in Hungary
On December 3, 2012, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released the following statement regarding the anti-Semitic remarks of Hungarian politician Marton Gyongyosi:
“The Twenty-Seventh Man”– The Crime of Writing While Jewish
By Diana Muir Appelbaum On the night of August 12, 1952, a group of Yiddish writers was executed on Joseph Stalin’s orders for the crime of writing while Jewish. The executions, remembered as the Night of the Murdered Poets, were the tragic culmination of the grand romance between Jewish intellectuals and Marxism. Author Nathan Englander now […]
Cossacks Given Positions of Power in Moscow
MOSCOW (AP) — Renowned for their sword-fighting prowess and notorious for their anti-Semitism in czarist Russia, the Cossacks are taking on new foes: beggars, drunks and improperly parked cars. With the approval of city authorities, eight Cossacks clad in traditional fur hats and uniforms patrolled a Moscow train station on Tuesday looking for signs of […]
Main Belarusian Human Rights NGO Forcibly Evicted from Minsk
Viasna, one of the main human rights NGOs in Belarus, has been forcibly evicted from their premises in Minsk. On Monday, representatives of the Ministry of Justice and the police closed Viasna’s office space and sealed off the premises. This is another result of the case against prisoner of conscience Ales Bialiatski, whose trial was universally declared […]
Hungarian Jews Request for Russia to Return Looted Items
Jewish Hungarians, backed by the government in Budapest, have requested for Russia to return items that were looted during WWII by the Nazis and the Red Army. While they are asking for a return of all the articles — including vestments, crowns and artwork — they are most interested in receiving the Torah scrolls that […]
The Diverse Culture of Chernivtsi, Ukraine and its ‘Cinegogue’
In Maria Danilova’s article “Journey Through Time in Ukraine’s Little Paris,” she describes the rich history that is still alive in the city of Chernivtsi, Ukraine today. Before WWII, this city had several dozen synagogues, and about one third of its population was Jewish. Today, Jewish residents make up only about 2 percent of the […]