martillo@mit-athena.UUCP (Joaquim Martillo) (02/20/85)
From the New Republic, 18/2/85: P 13. Hebrew is "officially" taught only to Russian Orthodox priests and government "Jewish experts...." Comment: A few months ago Mike Cherepov disagreed with me when I claimed legally studying Hebrew in the Soviet Union was basically impossible. Of course he would never have tried and therefor would never have run into the obstacles which the Soviet government has made for such study. P 14. The Soviet government now openly disregards the formal distinction it once insisted upon between "anti-Semitism" and "anti-Zionism." The result is anti-Jewish propaganda as apoisonous as that put out by Libya or Iraq, or, for that matter, by *Hitler*. The official youth newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, for example, declared in March 1983 that the meaning of Zionism is "to turn every Jew, no matter where he lives, into an agent of the Jewish oligarchy, into a traitor to the country where he was born." A few weeks later, the Leningrad party daily Leninskaya Pravda described Israel as a "money-grubbers' paradise" and concluded: "Let us be frank. The appeal to Hebrew ... is far from cultural, but is strictly political .... How does Zionism extend its tentacles? ... First of all, with the aid of religion, and Hebrew." Yehoyaqim Martillo 'A`jemi
david@fisher.UUCP (David Rubin) (02/22/85)
To be more precise, the Soviet Union does not differentiate between
anti-Zionism (opposition to Jewish nationalism) and anti-Judaism
(opposition to Jewish religous practice). However, it does maintain a
difference between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism (opposition to the
Jewish "race"). Equating it with Iraq and Libya is a solid analogy,
but equating it with Nazi Germany is rhetorical overkill. The Soviet
Union has not advocated a racial "solution".
David Rubin
{allegra|astrovax|princeton}!fisher!davidcher@ihlpm.UUCP (Mike Cherepov) (02/26/85)
> To be more precise, the Soviet Union does not differentiate between > anti-Zionism (opposition to Jewish nationalism) and anti-Judaism > (opposition to Jewish religous practice). However, it does maintain a > difference between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism (opposition to the > Jewish "race"). But historically Judaism has been the main component in the preservation of Jews as a group. The distinction between anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism is a very hard one to draw. I would say that the two are synonymous whenever anti-Judaism is not accompanied by equal share of anti-Catholicism, anti- Hinduim, etc. And that has become increasingly obvious in the Soviet Union. Mike Cherepov