From: khaikin@neptune.cis.ohio-state.edu (dmitry khaikin)
Subject: Re: State Antisemitism in Russia (was re: reply to S. Borodin)
Organization: The Ohio State University Dept. of Computer and Info. Science
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 02:06:49 GMT

In article <96370@netnews.upenn.edu> sergei@upenn5.hep.upenn.edu (Sergei Borodin) writes:
>In article <1992Nov5.034149.29449@cis.ohio-state.edu> khaikin@neptune.cis.ohio-state.edu (dmitry khaikin) writes:
>
>>>In article <96053@netnews.upenn.edu> 
>>>sergei@upenn5.hep.upenn.edu (Sergei Borodin) writes:
>
>>>  As for myth about state supported antisemitism - never happened.
>
>
>>........ Although, that was one of
>>the reasons my family and I did this. Communism is still in Russia, it
>>has just been renamed. Almost the same people in power, different
>>name... Come on! You don't have to be a ginious to figure that one out.
>
> Did I deny that? Anyway, I make a distinction between the two, e.g.
> communism and antisemitism.

Yes, it is different. But you did cut out a part of my post where I said
things that happened to my family. That was antisemitic and it was a
state supported antisemitism.

>
>>And by the way I do communicate with my relatives and, of course with my
>>girlfriend, and know first hand what is happenning over there. Although,
>>it is kind of hard to communicate when 3 out of 5 letters just never get
>>here. Oh, and is not the post office in Russia a government
>>organization? Yes, it is.
>
> ?? What do you mean? "antisemitic Post office"? 
> How about cosmopolitan telephone? It works for me.
>

Is not that interesting that you are not jewish and you ("for some
reason") never felt that nor experienced.


>>The saying that Soviet (or whatever they renamed themselves to be now) state
>>does not support antisemitism probably means that you are not jewish.
>
> That is correct. Reverse saying will be also correct, e.g. the acceptance
> of the idea that Soviet state does support antisemitism most likely
> means that the acceptor is Jewish. 
>

Yes, and you know why? Because we are the people that have been through
this.


> The problem is that you don't want to accept a simple thing, that is
> that soviets did not distinguish nationalities. 

Soviets did not distinguish nationalities? What do you call an item in
every Soviet passport that says "nationality".

>Jews were just one of
> more or less groupped people. The idea of free emigration for Jews
> made them potentially dangerous to the system.

Correct me if I am wrong but I think this is antisemitic.

>But it is not antisemitism
> it is just that the system preserved itself  from what it felt
>dangerous.

Oh, great! Now I will feel much better next time soviet government
supports antisemitism. Now I know that they have a very good reason for
doing so and the reason is not antisemitic at all.

> Happen it to be any other nation - we would see the same. 

But it did not happen to be any other nation (at least in most cases).
Oh, and I am not saying that Soviet government supports only
antisemitism, it supports a lot of discrimination not only agaist Jews.

>It is still
> not actions against nationalities, but rather against groups of
>people.

Yeah, right! It is agaist groups of people that just happened to be
nationalities. Wow, what a coincidence!

> In soviet system one could do anything he wanted UNTILL he gets known
> to the system for some (any) reason.
>
> A simple example. Would you consider a robbery made against a person 
> on a street (random sample of a person) an antisemitic action if the person
> happen (I mean it - happen) to be a Jew?
>
> S.B.
>

Let me make a little logical chain. If a person is antisemitic, and he
gets a position in government, then any antisemitic action that he/she
does is considered not just personal antisemitism, but antisemitism
comming from government. Now, is not it simple?

Thanks,
Dima
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  "A word is worth one coin; silence is worth two."_____ The Talmud.
  "Silence is good everywhere, except in connection with Torah."____ The Zohar.
   khaikin@cis.ohio-state.edu (Dmitry Khaikin, Columbus Ohio, USA)