From: thietaniemi@cc.helsinki.fi
Newsgroups: talk.politics.soviet,soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Re: Alleged anti-semitism in ESTONIA
Date: 15 Oct 92 08:50:25 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki


-------------------------------------------------------------------------
ALLEGED ESTONIAN ANTI-SEMITISM:
SOME FACTS CHECKED....
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Of course, checking the facts takes more time than fabricating war propaganda:
Anyhow, now I provide here some new information. I think I should reproduce 
the whole discussion here, in order to make my point of view more clear and
to avoid misunderstandings.

In article <1992Oct12.003251.1@cc.helsinki.fi>, thietaniemi@cc.helsinki.fi 
writes:
> In article <Bvt9yr.2IC@apollo.hp.com>, goykhman_a@apollo.hp.com 
> (Alex Goykhman) writes:
>> In article <1992Oct8.131103.1@cc.helsinki.fi> thietaniemi@cc.helsinki.fi 
> writes:
>> ....
>>>There are very few jews in Estonia. One of the first things the Savisaar
>>>government did in 1989, was to secure them their rights to form associations.
>>>There is no "jewish problem" in Estonia. Just your nightmares.
>>>
>>>with the best regards
>>>
>>>Tapani Hietaniemi, University of Helsinki

The democratic Estonians are usually proud to note that the Jews in Estonia got
their first free press in 1988 and a Jewish gymnasium in 1989. They sometimes
claim that these institutions were first of this kind in XSU. I wonder whether
they really were the first ones? This interests me...
 
> I still stick to my opinion expressed above: as an eager reader of Estonian
> press, I have not noticed anything antisemitic in them. Neither I have seen any
> notices of Estonian antisemitic violence in Finnish press (which is very keen
> to point the bad sides of the Estonians). The other countries do not follow the
> Estonian development so near, therefore these should be the best sources.
> 
> The accusations about antisemitism, not to speak anything of violence, sound 
> surprising to me, when not absurd.
> 
> However, there might be some new skinhead-type activism, which I am not
> aware of. That would not surprise me: in post-soviet conditions everywhere
> we will be witnessing more outbursts of juvenile reactionary right wing
> militantism combined with all kinds of racism, I am afraid.
> 
> Anyway, your subject was: ethnic VIOLENCE against jews in Estonia. 
> Nevertheless, even when attacking Estonia you refer only to one violent
> act that had happened in reality.

Which I have not been able to trace. At least, not yet.
 
> So, even you are not claiming that there would be ethnic violence against
> jews in Estonia as a mass phenomenon.

But still A.G. writes:
 
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>     RUSSIAN JEWS FLEE DANGER IN ESTONIA
>>     By Jonathatan Broder
>>     "WE" Washington Bureau, 09/21-10/04, 1992
>>     (excerpted without permission)
>> 
>> Estonia's Jewish Community is fleeing back to Russia to escape anti-semitic
>> attacks and new citizenship laws that discriminate against those who do not
>> speak Estonian.
> 
> First, I would like to know something about this "Bureau". The last sentence
> is very typical to those reactionary groups in Russian parliament....
> I think this "Bureau" is framing Estonians and spreading disinformation.
> 
>> ....
>> "The fact that Jews are leaving is not only because they are Jewish but
>> because they are Russian" said a US official that closely monitors events
>> in Estonia.
>  
> During this year, many Russian speakers are leaving Estonia. This is correct.

About 10.000, I might add. The figure might be even higher by the end of the
year.
 
>> But according to B'nai Brith, and American Jewish organization that looks
>> out for the welfare of Jews worlwide, the rising tide of Estonian
>> nationalism also has turned the Jewish community into a target of anti-
>> Semitic attacks.
> 
> Here, no information is given. Just empty accusations. Combining
> antisemitism and Estonian nationalism together is just ignorant.
> 
>> 
>> In the past few weeks, Estonian nationalists has desecrated more than
>> 80 Jewish graves in the central city of Tartu where assailants also
>> firebombed a Jewish cultural center.  The desecrations were the fourth
>> such incident since last November.
> 
> As you were answered already, it is suspected that some Russian speakers
> might have done this - there certainly is much anti-semitism in Skt.
> Petersburg! I would like to emphasize that we do not know who is behind these
> detestable deeds. Probably some Estonian or Russian lunatics, which will
> be arrested by Estonian police when caught.

One Russian man was caught in 1987 in Tartu when he was damaging the jewish
cemetery. We do not know who has been damaging Jewish graves during this
year in Tartu. Claiming that "Estonian nationalists did it" signifies 
deliberately spreading disinformation.
 
> Firebombing a Jewish cultural centre was totally new to me. I have not read 
> about it from the press. Unfortunately I can't call Tartu today. But I will
> clarify this theme later on. This interests me: it might be a sign of
> skinhead-activities I am waiting to emerge in Estonia. Accusing "Estonian
> nationalists" in this context is just ignorant. Estonian nationalists are
> interested in restituting the Estonian republic. Antisemitists persecute
> the jews. Do not mix them up, if you want to argue something in an intellectual
> manner.

I couldn't get through Estonia by phone, but, fortunately yesterday one friend
of mine called me from Tallin. He is a social democratic historian who is 
holding lectures in Tartu University and has been writing the programme of 
the Estonian social democratic party (which is a member of Socialist 
International). I asked him about this incident. He had not heard or read
about it, either. I quote him: "This kind of incident would have been a
sensation in the Estonian press." And, I suppose, in the Finnish press too.
Nevertheless, my friend claimed to know the leader of Tartu Jewish cultural
center, namely Moisha Michelson (I hope I got the name right through the
phone.)

It is not my task to prove that this incident (firebombing Jewish cultural
center) did not happen. If it happened in reality, it interests me the most.
But still I have not been able to trace this incident. If I got the datum,
I could check the newspaper archives. In democratic Estonia with a free press
this kind of incidents can't be concealed.

>> U.S. State Department officials say a number of anti-Semitic articles 
>> appeared in mass-circulation Estonian newspapers, including one that
>> said the Talmud, the book of Judaism's teachings, urges Jews to kill
>> gentiles [sounds familiar?].  Several members of Estonia's Jewish 
>> community received telephone death threats, the officials say.
>  
> In which newspapers? Estonia has the freedom of speech nowadays, so even
> this kind of rubbish could be published anywhere by any lunatic.
> It is possible, that this kind of articles have been written. But I deeply
> suspect that any major newspaper would print such stuff in Estonia.
> Name the newspapers, and I check the facts. Besides, were those alleged 
> articles written in Estonian or in Russian? Are you accusing the Estonian
> or Russian press in Estonia?
> 
> Maybe somebody has received threats by telephone. Such actitivity will
> be criminally prosecuted in Estonia. And: in which language were the threats 
> expressed?

This is very important: the only public anti-semitic meetings in Tallin were
organized by Slavyanski sojuz in the Russian officers building in Tallin
during this year. I was informed that anti-semitic slogans did not receive
much intrest in the ranks of Russian speakers in Estonia, either.

>> "The Jews of Estonia are frightened, and they are leaving" said Buzzy
>> Gordon, a B'nai Brith spokesman.
>> ....
> 
> No new information. Just empty accusations.
> 
>> Only 2,500 Jews remain among Tallinn's 600,000 residents.  That number,
>> B'nai Brith says, is less than half of the Jews who made up the centuries-
>> old Estonian Jewish community only a year ago.
> 
> This is the only interesting piece of information. I must check some statistics
> by Tallinn officials. You claim that a half of Tallinn jewish population
> that amounted 5000 in the year 1991 has moved from Tallinn (certainly not 
> towards Russia!). I am not even sure how we could know that... Are there 
> statistics about "jews" in Estonian public offices? I doubt that but I check 
> it anyway in the very near future.
> 
> I suspect the information of this "Bureau". It does not even know how many
> residents Tallinn has: 484,400 (in the year 1990).
 
First checks proved that the information is at least misleading.
Speaking of "centuries-old Estonian Jewish community" is misleading, 
because most of the jewish community was destroyed in the WWII atrocities. 
The overwhelming majority of Jews in Estonia came during the last four decades.

The experts seem to quarrel how many Jews there are in Estonia. That depends
on the definition of "Jewish" and whether we count the Estonian speaking
Jews to this community. The estimations vary between 5.000 and 10.000.
I am afraid we have to wait until the first census of Estonia that is made 
according to international standards (It should be ready next year)
before we could check whether the half of Jewish population moved from 
Tallin during 1991 and 1992.

Perhaps it might be even unnecessary:
The citation above could, of course, be read in another manner:

>> Only 2,500 Jews remain among Tallinn's 600,000 residents.  That number,
>> B'nai Brith says, is less than half of the Jews who made up the centuries-
>> old Estonian Jewish community only a year ago.

It could also be read: "only less than a half of Jews in Estonia lived
in Tallin in 1991." In this case, the statement might be correct, but 
irrelevant to the present discussion.

And still, Tallin has less than half a million inhabitants.
  
>> The attacks and threats against the Jewish community appear to have
>> intensified after Jewish leaders in Tartu protested officially
>> sanctioned plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Estonian
>> Legion - a group of Estonians who fought against the Soviets during
>> WWII on the side of the Nazis.
>> 
> 
> Tartu and the Tartu University have many famous jewish scholars that
> decided to move to Tartu from Russia because of Russian anti-semitism.


Ask the semiotic Juri Lotman, a honorary citizen of the Estonian republic.
 

> I must check this "planned" celebration of Estonian legion. 
> It sounds irritating and shameful. But you are not claiming that
> this kind of celebration has taken place, I must emphasize.

This piece of information seems to be partly correct: there are some "plans"
to celebrate the anniversary of the Estonian legion. The veterans of the
Estonian legion (which I definitely do not symphatize) have the right to
organize peaceful meetings. There is nothing illegal with veteran meetings.
One Estonian right-wing opinion I heard (which I do not share):
"If the Stalinist butchers have the right to organize their peaceful
meetings, why should these guys not be allowed to do the same?"

The centrist Savisaar government (until 1992) fiercely critized that kind
of activities. The attitude of the leftist Va"hi government (1992) was 
more labile - it did not continue the critique of Savisaar determinately 
enough. It remains to be seen which will be the policy of the right
wing cabinet of Laar (1992-?) towards this kind of meetings.

My opinion: this kind of meetings should be banned in Estonia. Many Estonians
would surely think that it would be a violation against democratic principles,
but it would be a politically prudent act: the activities of one minority
could be used even against the democratic Estonians!

>> The Estonian Legion became the 20th Division of the SS, whose special
>> Einzatzgruppen commando units were responsible for the roundup and
>> execution of hundreds of thousands of Jews in the Baltics and former
>> Soviet Union.  After the war, some legionnaires fought a guerilla
>> war against the Soviets before they were crushed.
>> ....
> 
> I have no reason whatsoever to "explain" the deeds of Estonian (or Finnish
> or British etc.) fascists. They could drop dead so much I care.
> 
> Claiming that the guerilla warfare in Estonia against the reds was "fascist"
> activity is ignorant. Of course, even the fascists might have done some
> resistance before they were crushed. And I can't rule out the possibility that
> some individual guerillas had previously fought with the fascists (and had 
> therefore no future in Stalinistic Estonia).
>  
>> Contrary to what Tapani Hietaniemi claims, there is a "jewish problem" 
>> in Estonia, but thanks to Estonian nationalists at home and abroad,
>> a final "solution" seems to be within the reach.
> 
> You should be ashamed of posting this kind of nationalist hatred propaganda!
> 
> - No record of ethic violence against the jews in Estonia was given by you,
> if we exclude the firebomb in Tartu with no casualties. This detestable deed
> might have taken place but it does not prove that jews would be persecuted in 
> Estonia. It would only prove that there were some underground racist activities
> rising, which already in itself would be unfortunate indeed.
> 
> - There is no anti-semitist legislation in Estonia neither antisemitism is
> supported any way by the Estonian government (Estonia had a left-wing
> government, by the way, until previous week.).
> 
> - No Estonian party in Estonian parliament has presented anti-semitist
> slogans. I am tempted to say that there are no anti-semitists in parliament,
> but I do not know all 101 deputies thoroughly enough.
> 
> - Anti-semitism is no discussed issue in Estonian politics.
> 
> 
> It's just some reactionary Russian circles that keep up painting the
> portrait of Dorian Gray.
> 
> 
> with the best regards
> the observer
> Tapani Hietaniemi, University of Helsinki
 
I have no reason to change my views on this subject.

with the best regards
the observer
Tapani Hietaniemi, Universitas Helsingiensis
                   urbs fennorum
 
 
Newsgroups: talk.politics.soviet,soc.culture.jewish