• Home page
  • News
  • Berel Rodal: Russian propaganda uses Jewish question as a weapon of war...

Berel Rodal: Russian propaganda uses Jewish question as a weapon of war

17.05.2014, 13:05
"The broad experience is that such problems, which the Jewish community has in Ukraine, are coming from Russia. It’s the use of the community as a part of weapon of war. Anti-Semitism is much less a problem in Ukraine than in most of the societies I could think of,” said Berel Rodal, Cairman of the Advisory Board of the International Public Initiative Ukrainian-Jewish Encounter (UJE) during a briefing at the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center on May 16.

"The broad experience is that such problems, which the Jewish community has in Ukraine, are coming from Russia. It’s the use of the community as a weapon of war. Anti-Semitism is much less a problem in Ukraine than in most of the societies I could think of,” said Berel Rodal, Cairman of the Advisory Board of the International Public Initiative Ukrainian-Jewish Encounter (UJE) during a briefing at the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center.

“The rhetoric of the Russian propaganda often accuses Ukraine of alleged anti-Semitism and fascism, while under indisputable facts, it is the Russian fascist and neo-Nazi organizations, who are actively involved in the organization of pseudo-referendum and other events taking place in the East of Ukraine,” noted Adrian Karatnycky, member of the board of directors, co-director of UJE and former head of the human rights organization Freedom House.

They presented the initiative Ukrainian-Jewish Encounter during the conference of intellectuals “Ukraine: Thinking Together,” and stressed that the idea of the project is to create a shared historical narrative and to increase common sympathy between Jews and Ukrainians who have a shared sense of victimness and are forming new identities in their states.  

The Ukrainian Jewish Encounter (UJE) is a privately organized, multinational initiative conceived and launched in 2008 as a collaborative project engaging Ukrainians of Jewish, Christian, and other heritages, in Ukraine and Israel as well as in the diasporas. Its work engages scholars, civic leaders, artists, governments, and the broader public in an effort to promote stronger and deeper relations between the two peoples.