Actual unemployment in Ukraine is about 15 to
20 percent, estimated one foreign diplomat; it is higher among young people and
in smaller cities, he added.
Disaffection with the government is very high, he observed, but the
opposition is weak and is itself subject to powerful business interests with
limited concern for the broader interests of the country. Yanukhovych can afford to remain complacent
because he retains control over security forces, said the envoy. Political demonstrations are permitted and
contained. The people may be unhappy, but they also are
tired and passive.
Russia remains an abiding concern, a powerful
neighbor to the north and east. It
controls more than three-quarters of Ukraine's energy resources and maintains a
large naval base in Crimea. It meddles
in Orthodox church politics, attempting to impose the will of the Moscow
patriarchy over Ukrainian Orthodoxy. The
government of Ukraine strives to forge a discrete Ukrainian identity, separating
itself from its former Russian colonial past.
Use of the Ukrainian language is strongly encouraged, although Russian
remains the dominant tongue in most large cities and in much of eastern
Ukraine. Most educated Ukrainians and
residents of western Ukraine, regardless of educational background, identify
more closely with central Europe and the West in general than with Russia.
Responsible estimates of the size of the
Jewish population in Ukraine
range from 80,000 to 200,000, with the largest single number – 20,000 to 50,000
- residing in the capital city of Kyiv.
A somewhat smaller number of Jews is believed to live in Dnipropetrovsk,
and progressively smaller Jewish populations are to be found in Odesa, Kharkiv,
and Donetsk. No other Ukrainian city has
even 10,000 Jews.
No
Jewish population center in Ukraine can be characterized as the center of
Ukrainian Jewry. Notwithstanding its
stature as the national capital and the relatively large size of its Jewish
population, Kyiv remains without effective Jewish leadership, a
city with multiple Jewish offices but little sense of Jewish activism or
direction. Odesa, as always, is the
Jewish intellectual and cultural capital, and Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv are
important centers of Chabad activity.
However, the majority of Ukrainian Jews remain distant from Jewish
engagement, finding little of interest in contemporary Jewish life.
Conventional
antisemitism is an enduring presence in Ukraine, so much so that many
parents do not reveal family Jewish ancestry to children, fearing that their
offspring may blurt out this awkward fact in school or another group setting. Nonetheless, observers report few acts of antisemitic
violence, such as assaults on Jews as individuals or graffiti or other damage
to Jewish community buildings or cemeteries. More common is street antisemitism in
the form of remarks about conspicuous Jewish wealth
and such insensitive acts as the construction of large Chanukah menorahs near
churches. The Internet also hosts a
number of Russian and Ukrainian antisemitic sites that blame Jews for various
adversities in Ukrainian life, including Communist rule in Ukraine during the
Soviet period, the Holodmor,
and continuing Russian influence in now-independent Ukraine.
Of concern to many is the strengthened showing of the
right-wing Svoboda (Freedom) party in 2012 Ukraine
parliamentary elections. Fascist in orientation, Svoboda gained 10.44
percent of the popular vote, entitling it to 37 seats in Parliament. As one observer noted, Svoboda bears little
resemblance to an organized political party; instead, he continued, it is more
of a concept, an undisciplined mob that is unable to control its rank and
file. On the one hand, some of its
adherents voice strongly bigoted views against Jews and Russians; on the other,
some of its leadership has reached out to official Israeli representations,
asserting that they are not antisemitic and that their use of offensive
language is not anti-Jewish in intent.
Oleh Tyahnybok, a native of Lviv and
leader of Svoboda, and his followers have made many inflammatory comments in
public speeches against Jews and Russians.
Photo:
http://bigstory.ap.org/photo/oleh-tyahnybok. Retrieved May 31, 2013.
Monitors
of Ukrainian antisemitism acknowledge that Svoboda often seems more
anti-Russian than antisemitic and that unlike Jobbik, the antisemitic
political party in Hungary, Svoboda has no associated paramilitary forces. However, Svoboda activists continue to employ
antisemitic and other xenophobic rhetoric in public statements, defying hopes
that their success in the 2012 elections and apparent desire to appear
mainstream might effect some moderation in their speech. Their frequent expressions of bigotry as
members of Parliament may have legitimized such language in public life. Further, their lack of internal discipline
frightens many observers who believe that such verbal violence may escalate and
generate physical attacks on people and property.
Relations
between Ukraine and Israel remain strong.
The few anti-Israel demonstrations that occur, said one diplomat,
attract about ten people and usually are instigated by Palestinians who have
some involvement with local communists.
In general, Ukrainians admire Israel for its successful formulation and
articulation of a national idea - Zionism; more than two decades after
independence, Ukrainians continue to search for a coherent national identity.
The
writer interviewed 74 individuals during her travels in Ukraine, including five
diplomats attached to foreign representations.
The diplomats are not identified by name or position in this review.
Odesa
A famous port city on the shores of
the Black Sea, Odesa was founded by a Turkish khan in 1240 and was controlled
by Turks until the 1789 Turkish-Russian War.
During much of the
nineteenth century, it was a free
port, a factor that doubtless has
contributed to the diversity of its population, which includes Ukrainians, Russians, Jews, Poles, Romanians,
Greeks, Bulgarians, Albanians, Italians, Germans, Frenchmen, and others.
Symbolic
of the extraordinary role of Odesa in Russian culture is the famed Odesa
National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet, which dates from 1810. Seating 1,636, it is renowned for its opulent
baroque style and its fine acoustics.
Photo: http://opera.odessa.ua/ru/o-teatre/arhitektura/galereya. Retrieved May 31, 2013.
From the 1880’s until the 1920’s, the Jewish
population of Odesa was the second largest in Russia (after Warsaw, which was
then within tsarist Russia). According
to general censuses, 139,984 Jews (34.65 percent of the municipal population)
lived in Odesa in 1897, and 153,194 Jews (36.4 percent) resided in the city in
1926. Eighty-three synagogues were counted in the
city 100 years ago, prior to the Bolshevik Revolution.
Pogroms occurred in 1821, 1859, 1871, 1881,
and 1905. Notwithstanding repeated
anti-Jewish violence, Jews were well-represented in Odesa commerce and general
culture. Odesa Jews also developed an
extensive network of Jewish educational and cultural institutions, and the city
became a notable center of popular Zionism.
Among Odesans who achieved prominence in the Zionist movement are Ahad
Ha’am, Menachem Mendel Ussishkin, Meir Diezengoff, Haim Nachman Bialik, Leon
Pinsker, and Vladimir Jabotinsky.
Approximately 180,000 Jews lived in Odesa in
1939. At least half of the Jewish
population managed to flee the city before it was occupied by German and
Romanian troops in October 1941 following a protracted siege. Most of the remaining Jews were slaughtered
in several massacres during the Holocaust in 1941 and 1942. Others were
transported to regional concentration camps, where some died in mass shootings
and some perished from starvation, disease, and exposure to harsh winter
weather.
As is the case throughout the post-Soviet
states, no reliable demographic data exists about the contemporary
Jewish population of Odesa. The writer
heard estimates ranging from 20,000 to 40,000 individuals eligible for
immigration to Israel under provisions of the Law of Return. The majority of responses were closer to
20,000.
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