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27Sep97, 28Sep97, 29Sep97, 29Sep97, and 30Sep97, in which letters are discussed such
issues as that of your reciting every Saturday in the capital city of Ukraine the
Khmelnytsky curse;
(3) that Jewish interests have sometimes employed exaggerated, or wholly-imagined,
or even self-inflicted anti-Semitic acts to achieve such aims as heightened group
cohesion or increased emigration to Israel; and
(4) that Jewish groups in Ukraine who monitor anti-Semitic incidents report being
unaware of the two attacks that you describe.
Specifically with respect to point (4) above, an open letter to Morley Safer and
the 60 Minutes staff from I. M. Levitas, Head of the Jewish Council of Ukraine as well
as of the Nationalities Associations of Ukraine, as published in the Lviv newspaper Za
Vilnu Ukrainu (For a Free Ukraine) on December 2, 1994, included the following
observations, which I translate from the original Ukrainian. In the portion of the
letter that I quote below, Mr. Levitas argues that the attacks you describe may have
been simple robberies devoid of anti-Semitism. More importantly, Mr. Levitas provides
us with reason to wonder whether the attacks occurred at all:
You reported that two Jews were robbed and beaten. This might have
happened, but most likely not because they were Jews. I imagine that
in Lviv, Ukrainians are also robbed (and significantly more often!),
and yet nobody draws from this the sort of conclusions concerning
ethnic hostility that you draw from the robbing of these two Jews.
Our Jewish Council constantly receives news concerning Jews in
Ukraine, but during the past five years, we have received not a single
report of anyone being beaten because he was a Jew. However, it must
be admitted that such a thing may have occurred without it coming to
our attention - there are plenty of miscreants in every country.
The above speculations lead us once again to the questions of whether your
orientation toward the Ukrainian state is supportive or destructive, responsible or
irresponsible, restrained by reason or fired by emotion. A step toward answering such
questions would be taken by your responding to the points below:
(1) Would you be able to provide the names of the two sets of Jewish victims that
you alluded to (that is, the victims of the knife attack, and the similar victims in the
"Carpathian region"), and the places and dates of the attacks? If by "a number of
attacks" you mean more than two, I would appreciate receiving such documentation for the
other attacks as well. If in addition you are in possession of corroborative evidence
such as videotapes, newspaper clippings, or letters, I would appreciate receiving copies
of these as well.
(2) If the attacks did occur, then there follows the question of what motivated
them. Mr. Levitas suggests that if the knife attack occurred, then it was more likely
driven by economic motives than anti-Semitic ones. You, on the other hand offer that
the attack occurred "because they are Jews," and "because of the myth that all Jews must
have money hidden in their homes," and because "it's - again that stereotype." But for
you to know that the motivation was predominantly anti-Semitic, the perpetrators of the
attacks must have been caught and must have confessed and disclosed their motivation,
unless there exists some alternative evidence pointing to the same conclusion. In any
case, whatever the nature of the material that you relied upon to conclude that the two
attacks had been motivated by anti-Semitism, I wonder if you would be able to provide me
with a copy of it.
(3) I myself was unaware of any Ukrainian "myth that all Jews must have money
hidden in their homes." This strikes me not so much as a myth believed by Ukrainians
about Jews, as a myth believed by yourself about Ukrainians. I wonder if you could
inform me of what evidence you have that Ukrainians are so primitive in their thinking
as to entertain the fantastic myth that "all Jews must have money hidden in their
homes."
If your 60 Minutes testimony concerning violent attacks on Jews by Ukrainians and
motivated by anti-Semitism is true, then it behooves you to substantiate it and in so
doing to remove the doubt which surrounds it. If your 60 Minutes testimony is false,
then it behooves you to retract it. Either option will constitute a step toward
restoring your standing in the eyes of the Ukrainian community, and in ameliorating
Ukrainian-Jewish relations.
Silence is an option only if you are prepared to encourage the conclusion that you
spoke impulsively and irresponsibly, and that you subsequently lacked the courage and
integrity to admit your error.
Yours truly,
Lubomyr Prytulak
cc: Ed Bradley, Jeffrey Fager, Don Hewitt, Steve Kroft, Andy Rooney, Morley Safer,
Lesley Stahl, Mike Wallace.
HOME DISINFORMATION PEOPLE SAFER Safer > 815 hits since 24May98
Morely Safer Letter 1 28Dec94 Please explain silence
December 28, 1994
Morley Safer
51 W 52nd Street
New York, NY
USA 10019
Dear Mr. Safer:
I have been wondering which of the following three reasons best explains why 60 Minutes has not yet broadcast a
correction, a retraction, and an apology for "The Ugly Face of Freedom":
(1) The amount of disinformation in the broadcast was so large that a considerable amount of research and
introspection are necessary before a full and just response can be formulated - but one will soon be forthcoming.
(2) 60 Minutes' researchers and consultants have concluded that none of the objections to the broadcast are
valid, and a full rebuttal of these objections will shortly be made available.
(3) Whether the Ukrainian objections are right or wrong is irrelevant what is relevant is that CBS views
Ukrainians as too weak to force CBS to suffer any loss of face.
As time passes with no response from 60 Minutes, Ukrainians are increasingly pulled toward the third of these as
the correct explanation.
Yours truly,
Lubomyr Prytulak
HOME DISINFORMATION PEOPLE SAFER 669 hits since 24May98
Morely Safer Letter 2 19Mar96 Contempt for the viewer
March 19, 1996
Morley Safer
60 Minutes, CBS Television
51 W 52nd Street
New York, NY
USA 10019
Dear Mr. Safer:
I have been resisting occasional impulses to expand and amplify "The Ugly Face of 60 Minutes," which as you know
is my December 1994 critique of 60 Minutes broadcast "The Ugly Face of Freedom" - as it presently stands, this
critique covers the main points adequately, and I do not have time to polish it. Occasionally, however, some defect
or other of the 60 Minutes broadcast presents itself from a new angle, and I find myself wondering if adding a
description of this freshly-viewed defect to my critique would not strengthen it. For example, just now I thought of
adding:
Mr. Safer tells us of the Lviv reunion of Galicia Division veterans that "Nowhere, not even
in Germany, are the SS so openly celebrated," and yet does not pause to explain how it can be
that in this most open of all celebrations of the SS, not a single portrait of Hitler can be
seen, not a single hand is raised in a Heil Hitler salute, no Nazi marching songs are being sung
or played, no Nazi speeches are recorded, not a single swastika is anywhere on display - not even
a single "SS" can be discovered anywhere among the many medals and insignia worn by the