From: goykhman_a@apollo.hp.com (Alex Goykhman)
Subject: Re: Ethnic violence in ESTONIA Against Jews
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 16:32:51 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Company, Chelmsford, MA

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 Savisaari
>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

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    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.
...
"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.

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.

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.

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.

"The Jews of Estonia are frightened, and they are leaving" said Buzzy
Gordon, a B'nai Brith spokesman.
...
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.

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.

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.
...
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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.




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Disclaimer: all opinions are mine.
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