Russian anti-semitism

joanna bujes joanna.bujes at ebay.sun.com
Tue Apr 16 09:42:28 PDT 2002


At 10:19 AM 04/16/2002 -0400, Chris wrote:
>I have often wondered why so many of the big-name oligarchs (Berezovsky,
>Gusinsky, Abramovich) are Jewish (something that is a real boon for
>anti-Semitic propagandists in Russia, by the way) and why the Mafia is
>dominated by ethnic Jews. Their biographies are so murky it's hard to say
>just how they got to where they are now. Would you hazard a guess that
>(possibly) having resources and/or ties abroad gave them a leg up on the
>rest of the population? Berezovsky used the Right of Return to get Israeli
>citizenship and funnel money to banks in that country.

I know nothing about jews in the USSR in the sixties/seventies. I read a book about relations between Israel and CIA that documented the fact that Israel was able to position itself favorably with the CIA/US by the sale/exchange of information which newly arrived Jews from the USSR and eastern europe had to offer about their former countries. Yet, I've never read that these debriefings were used against the jews that had not emigrated.

In Romania, from all I know, the jews were favored by many circumstances following the war. First, Romania had been allied with Germany; Romanian jews made up a large part of the underground communist party and resistance movement: after the war, they all rose to positions of power in the new Stalinist regime. Nearly all my parents friends were jewish: all of them were very highly placed in the government and they led a very privileged life. For example, my father, who was a producer in the film industry had a chauffeur driven Rolls Royce. Some emigrated; some did not. All the ones who emigrated did so to at least a solid-middle class life in the west.

In Romania, in the sixties, they were perceived as being very privileged: this perception was not amiss. They occupied the most important posts and they were able to leave the country when no one else could.

All I know about Russian jews today I know from work (there's a handful of computer folks from russia working at Sun) and from my Argentine tango class. (I reall don't know why, but Argentine tango seems to be a big draw for Russians.) All of these russians are 1) jewish 2) extremely well educated 3) very confident. In short, not much to feel sorry for.

Joanna



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