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avoiding anti-Semitism. Second, Ukraine's current problems are more rationally seen as being
the result not of too much freedom, but of too little - specifically, Ukraine's problems are the
result of continuing to be ruled by the old Communist nomenklatura that had originally been
appointed from Moscow and that presently is robbing the country blind while obstructing economic
reform. A weak economy, in turn, affects Ukrainian-Jewish relations by inviting scapegoating
from each group against the other and by promoting Jewish emigration out of Ukraine. Thus, it
is not too much freedom, but rather the absence of freedom from rule by Moscow's appointees that
most stands in the way of good Ukrainian-Jewish relations. Third, it is surprising to hear an
American objecting to freedom from slavery. Some 60 Minutes viewers will notice that Mr. Safer
objects to it on behalf of other people and not on behalf of Americans. I expect that if anyone
were to argue that American anti-Semitism or America's low quality of education or America's
high crime rate is the result of America having broken away from England, Mr. Safer would not
agree. I expect also that if England had been guilty of the horrific crimes against America
that Russia has been guilty of against Ukraine, Mr. Safer would find the suggestion odious. In
fact, Mr. Safer's suggestion is as odious to Ukrainians as would be the suggestion that Israel
would be better off under German rule would be odious to Jews. No, Mr. Safer's suggestion is
more odious - this because Berlin today is not ruled by former Nazis, whereas Moscow today is
ruled by people who just a few years ago were ardent Communists and who today continue to be
ardent imperialists.
CONTENTS:
Preface
The Galicia Division
Quality of Translation
Ukrainian Homogeneity
Were Ukrainians Nazis?
Simon Wiesenthal
What Happened in Lviv?
Nazi Propaganda Film
Collective Guilt
Paralysis of the Comparative
Function
60 Minutes' Cheap Shots
Ukrainian Anti-Semitism
Jewish Ukrainophobia
Mailbag
A Sense of Responsibility
What 60 Minutes Should Do
PostScript
Ukrainian Anti-Semitism
Is there any? Of course there is. Anti-Semitism is universal. Ukraine has some, just as does
the United States or Canada or Israel. But is there more anti-Semitism in Ukraine than
elsewhere? 60 Minutes said so - as much as said that Ukraine leads the world in anti-Semitism
but failed to provide any evidence of this, and in fact does not seem to be aware of how to go
about obtaining such evidence.
The American Jewish Committee did a better job - it sponsored a survey in 1992 about attitudes
toward Jews in the republics of the former Soviet Union, and its findings do not support 60
Minutes' allegations:
Based on the total of anti-Jewish responses to items appearing in the
questio
toward Jews in 1992 is as follows: Uzbekistan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Lithuania,
Azerbaijan, Russia, Latvia, Ukraine, Moldova and Estonia. (Ukrainian Weekly,
June 21, 1992, p. 6)
Worthy of note, too, is that between 1990 and 1992, attitudes toward Jews became more negative
in all of the above republics, with the exception of Ukraine and Moldova, in which two republics
the attitudes became more positive. The failure of Ukraine to rank high on anti-Jewish
responses in this survey should have been noted by 60 Minutes, as should the improvement in
attitudes from 1990 to 1992. Instead of applauding the reality of favorable Ukrainian attitudes
toward Jews, and the reality that they are getting even better, 60 Minutes seemed bent on
encouraging their deterioration.
And, if 60 Minutes had wanted personal testimony concerning Ukrainian attitudes toward Jews to
bolster the dry facts coming from the opinion poll, then it could have consulted any number of
Ukrainian Jews who would have been happy to correct 60 Minutes' biases. The above-mentioned
Iosep Zissels, for example, would have offered observations such as that "There was a time when
the leaders of Pamiat [or "Pamyat" - the Russian anti-Semitic organization] would travel from
Russia to recruit supporters in Ukraine. They didn't find any. We are well aware of this fact"
(Ukrainian Weekly, January 26, 1992, p. 4)
CONTENTS:
Preface
The Galicia Division
Quality of Translation
Ukrainian Homogeneity
Were Ukrainians Nazis?
Simon Wiesenthal
What Happened in Lviv?
Nazi Propaganda Film
Collective Guilt
Paralysis of the Comparative
Function
60 Minutes' Cheap Shots
Ukrainian Anti-Semitism
Jewish Ukrainophobia
Mailbag
A Sense of Responsibility
What 60 Minutes Should Do
PostScript
Jewish Ukrainophobia
Is there any? Of course there is. Jewish Ukrainophobia is universal. Ukraine has some, just
as does the United States or Canada or Israel. But is there more Jewish Ukrainophobia in
Ukraine than elsewhere? Don't ask 60 Minutes - to ask such a question is to violate rules of
political correctness.
One thing missing from the above discussion of Ukrainian anti-Semitism, then, is any mention of
the reciprocal attitude of Jewish Ukrainophobia (or more generally of Jewish phobic responses
toward Gentiles or peoples of any other creed). But perhaps we would be able to evaluate
statistics on the rate of Ukrainian anti-Semitism more intelligently if we were able to put them
side by side with statistics on Jewish Ukrainophobia. If Ukrainian anti-Semitism shows a
declining trend over some interval, would this fact not be enriched by a comparison with the
trend of Jewish Ukrainophobia over the same interval? In a discussion of Ukrainian-Jewish
relations, how is it conceivable that the attitudes of Ukrainians toward Jews is deemed relevant
and susceptible to quantification, but the attitudes of Jews toward Ukrainians is not? Here, as
in several other instances above, we see a curious paralysis of the comparative function, a
puzzling Ukrainian passivity in allowing the Jewish side to set the agenda for discussion and to
limit its parameters. Ukrainian motes are put under the microscope and measured and analyzed,
but Jewish beams are not.
CONTENTS:
Preface
The Galicia Division
Quality of Translation
Ukrainian Homogeneity
Were Ukrainians Nazis?
Simon Wiesenthal
What Happened in Lviv?
Nazi Propaganda Film
Collective Guilt
Paralysis of the Comparative
Function
60 Minutes' Cheap Shots
Ukrainian Anti-Semitism
Jewish Ukrainophobia
Mailbag
A Sense of Responsibility
What 60 Minutes Should Do
PostScript
Mailbag
60 Minutes' Mailbag comment on October 30, 1994 - the Sunday following the original The Ugly
Face of Freedom broadcast - was inadequate. It failed to retract or correct any of the
misinformation noted above. It failed to present the other side of the story. It continued to
pour fuel on the fire.
Of what possible relevance is it that - as 60 Minutes reports a letter as saying - a fraction of
Ukrainians refuses to admit that they collaborated with the Nazis? Possibly, some minuscule
fraction does irrationally refuse to admit this (60 Minutes offered no data, of course) - but so
what? The same might be true of every other group. Possibly some minuscule fraction of Jews