Ukraine: Don’t Scapegoat Your Jews and Muslims

Back in May 2011, the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, which I serve as president, co-sponsored an international conference in Kiev together with the Ukrainian Jewish Committee to fight against anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in Ukraine and around the world. During the conference, I met many wonderful Jewish and Muslim Ukrainians — mainly from the Crimean Tatar community — all of whom told me that despite long and bitter histories of anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim violence in that country, they were committed to remaining in Ukraine and forging interfaith coalitions together with leaders of the majority Christian churches dedicated to building a pluralistic and democratic Ukraine.
The horrifying explosion of violence in Kiev and around Ukraine this week, that has apparently left as many as 100 people dead and many more wounded, has obviously put that noble dream at grave risk. There is growing concern that the very territorial integrity of the country could be endangered — with the country potentially fracturing into a pro-European western Ukraine and a pro-Russian eastern Ukraine — unless both the government of President Viktor Yanukovych and the opposition coalition manage to pull back from the brink. Amidst the specter of chaotic civil war, there is also ample reason for concern for the wellbeing of Ukraine’s approximately 300,000 Jews and 500,000 Muslims, the majority of whom are Crimean Tatars.
As I write, there is seemingly hopeful news that President Yanukovych, whose support has hemorrhaged even within his own party in the wake of the government-instigated bloodbath on February 19-20, has agreed to a tentative deal with the opposition involving a devolution of some presidential powers to Parliament and the holding of early elections. Yet the President has made similar conciliatory noises on several occasions since the political crisis began last November, only to return abruptly to efforts to crush the opposition through violent repression.
At this point, the President must immediately order security forces to cease firing live ammunition at protestors and both the government and opposition coalition must foreswear the use of violence and commence serious negotiations for a peaceful solution to the conflict. Whatever the shape of the eventual resolution of the political crisis, the supreme moral imperative of the moment is the preservation of human life.
Ukrainians must also be vigilant to prevent any recurrence of an age-old propensity to scapegoat the Jews as the source of their misfortunes. Concern on this score cannot be lightly dismissed given that last month there were attacks on two yeshiva students who were beaten by anti-Semitic thugs while leaving synagogues in Kiev. Ukrainian Jewish leaders have told us that while anti-Semitism has so far not played a pronounced role in the conflict between the Ukrainian government and the opposition coalition, they are deeply concerned about the potential for attacks on Jews if law and order break down and Ukraine descends deeper into chaos.
Although Jews have participated prominently in the pro-democracy and pro-European demonstrations on Maidan Square, one cannot help but look with disquiet on the fact that one of the three main opposition parties, Svoboda (Liberty), has a history of anti-Semitic rhetoric. Given the tragic history of massive anti-Jewish violence in Ukraine, going back to the Khemelnytsky pogroms during the 17th century, in which more than 100,000 Jews were murdered, both the government and opposition coalition have a special responsibility to be vigilant in preventing the outbreak of anti-Jewish violence in the coming hours and days.
We are also concerned about the worrying prospect of a possible outbreak of violence against the Crimean Tatars, a Muslim community that was exiled to Siberia by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin during World War II, and which returned to their homeland of Crimea, an autonomous republic within Ukraine, during the 1990’s. There are about 300,000 Tatars in Crimea today; about 12.5% of the total population.
In Crimea, the Jewish and Crimean Tatar communities have worked closely with FFEU in recent years to stand together against Islamophobia and anti-Semitism. There have been a rash of such incidents in recent years, including desecrations of mosques and synagogues, largely perpetrated by ethnic Russian extremists. According to Crimean Tatar leaders, in recent days prominent ethnic Russian politicians in Crimea have openly advocated that Crimea consider seceding from Ukraine and ask to be annexed by Russia. When Crimean Tatar leader Refat Churbatov took to the floor of the Crimean Parliament earlier this week to call for a peaceful resolution to the crisis in Kiev and maintenance of the unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine, he was met with a deafening cascade of boos and stamping of feet by members of Parliament.
The Crimean Tatars, who suffered greatly after the Khanate of Crimea was absorbed by the Russian Empire and under the subsequent Soviet regime, are fearful of renewed persecution if Crimea reverts to Russia. I call upon the leaders of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea to respect the human and civil rights of both the Jews and Muslims of Crimea and do everything to lessen the possibility of violence against the Crimean Tatar minority, who have charted a course of political moderation and want only to live peacefully in their ancestral land.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 3
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 4
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
In Case You Missed It
-
News Who would protect New York Jews better? Cuomo and Lander trade attacks on the campaign trail
-
News Rabbis revolt over LGBTQ+ club, exposing fight over queer acceptance at Yeshiva University
-
Opinion In Qatargate fiasco, Netanyahu’s ‘witch hunt’ narrative takes cues from Trump
-
Yiddish די הגדה ווי אַ לעבעדיקער דענקמאָל פֿון אַשכּנזישער פּאָעזיעThe Haggadah as a living monument to Ashkenazi poetry
אַמאָל זענען די פּייטנים, מיסטישע דיכטער־וויזיאָנערן, געווען אויבן־אָן בײַ די פֿראַנצויזישע און דײַטשישע ייִדן.
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.