Information on ethnic conflict in Ukraine as it relates to Jews [UKR15043]

One of the best sources on the treatment of Jews in Ukraine is the Question and Answer Paper CIS, Baltic States and Georgia: Situation of the Jews, published by the IRBDC in July 1992 and available in your Documentation Centre.

The Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe corroborates this information in its January 1993 report on Human Rights and Democratization in the Newly Independent States of the Former Soviet Union:
Both the Ukrainian government and Rukh have condemned anti-Semitism and encouraged the development of Jewish culture. There is official support for Jewish newspapers, schools and Hebrew language and literature departments in universities.... According to Jewish leaders in Ukraine, these [anti-Semitic] groups are not encouraged from the top, and they have very few adherents among Ukrainians (63).

In February 1993, however, the National Conference on Soviet Jewry in New York wrote in its News Watch that

...there are strong reasons to be concerned that Jews may once again be scapegoated or targeted by nationalist enmity. The latest area of concern... is Ukraine.... These [anti-Semitic] groups appear to have the support of some public officials (C5).

The National Conference on Soviet Jewry wrote in its News Watch of 22 March 1993 that the Ukrainian Army is planning to accept rabbis as chaplains in order to encourage the enlistment of Jews (5), and its 23 April 1993 edition speaks of the plans of the Jewish Congress of Ukraine to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (5).

The DIRB has no further information on this subject as the present time.

References


Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. January 1993. Human Rights and Democratization in the Newly Independent States of the Former Soviet Union. Washington, D.C.

National Conference on Soviet Jewry. 23 April 1993. News Watch. New York.

National Conference on Soviet Jewry. 22 March 1993. News Watch. New York.

National Conference on Soviet Jewry. February 1993. News Watch. New York.

Attachments


Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. January 1993. Human Rights and Democratization in the Newly Independent States of the Former Soviet Union. Washington, D.C., pp. 63-64.

National Conference on Soviet Jewry. 23 April 1993. News Watch. New York. p. 5.

National Conference on Soviet Jewry. 22 March 1993. News Watch. New York. p. 5.

National Conference on Soviet Jewry. February 1993. News Watch. New York. p. C5.