Jewish Diaspora Status - Essay Example

due: Jewish Diaspora The Jewish history tells of a race that has faced many challenges due to a prejudice on them by other races. They have been blamed by the Russians, Lithuanians, and many others for so many of their misfortunes. The anti-Jewish sentiment is vastly spread especially among the peoples of the former Soviet Union. This can be attributed to the fact that the Jews were foreigners, exiled from the kingdom of Judah. It is surprising that Jews make less than 5 percent of the Russia’s population and yet they are so much loathed. The Jews had, however, managed to dominate various major positions in the government of the Soviet Union in the early days. However, historians from the Soviet tend to ignore this fact, perhaps because they do not want the Jews to have any respect of having served in some major government positions. Hatred for the Jews was escalated to a point of killing their leaders. For instance, the last emperor, Tsar Nicholas II was killed in cold blood with all his family. The cruel execution of Tsar was authorized by Lenin, then the Soviet’s leader. This was, however, unexpected since Lenin himself was one-quarter Jewish. His grandfather was a Ukrainian Jew who got baptized later into the Russian Orthodox Church. Lenin was so contemptuous of the Jewish and totally disregarded the cultural loyalties of the Jews. He held no regard for his countrymen. This paper will discuss the Jewish diaspora; in particular the Jews in Moscow, Russia for the period 1922-1991. The Jewish culture The Jewish emperor was a powerful figure among the Jews of Russia during the Soviet period. His power was absolute, and only a small minority held any significant political voice. He ruled over a large number of Jews who were poor. At this time, however, the Jews had freedom of press, religion, assembly and association. Their private property was well protected and were also free to join labor unions. To the Jews, their regime enemies such as Lenin, were treated fairly well without much disgrace (Weber, para 37). As a sense of identification, the Jews have adopted Yiddish as their traditional language of speech, and it is their mother tongue. They are naturally of Jewish tradition and religion. They are, however, considered to be an alien group in a land they have occupied for more than a thousand years. They are found scattered in Russia, unlike most other Soviet nationalities. Additionally, they are the only Soviet nationality with their total world population living outside the U.S.S.R. they have a historic and traditional ties of culture, religion, and family with other Jews found outside Russia. At the time of the Soviet Union, man Jews were leading middle-class lifestyles as a result of their engagements in commerce and business. However, their economic position deteriorated when they were confined to the Pale of Settlement. Under the Russian control, however, heavy taxation was imposed on them, marking the beginning of their impoverished lives. During the early years of the USSR, the Jewish population was in the smaller towns of the former Pale Settlement. However, anti-religious and anti-Zionist campaigns exposed to them were conducted down at the local level by their fellow Jews. This did not signify any change on their attitude towards their neighbors who were Gentiles. They related well with them and co-existed peacefully. Some Jews, however, had intentions to cut themselves out of the Jewish way of life and join the other communities in the Soviet.it was until the pass poetization time in the early 1930s that some of them became convinced of their Jewish past and roots which they thought was irrelevant (Weber, para 30). The emergence of World War II, however, changed both groups, those living in traditional areas of their settlements, and the others living in the major cities. The Jewish self-awareness reduced in the two decades before the World War II. This was further enhanced by anti-Semitism, both social and official, that contributed to the Jewish alienation. The Jewish identity was more pronounce in the small towns as compared to the larger ones. Most of the Jewish residing in the small towns were the region’s inhabitants and who were descendants of their forefathers. Jews living in these towns were well educated as compared to others in the other areas at the time (Weber, para 32). After the revolution, Jews, just like other nationalities were encouraged to promote their culture. Their Yiddish cultural activity included poetry, theater, the press, and education all which were evident in the Jewish regime. They also possessed cultural organizations such as the Institute of Jewish Proletarian culture. The authorities of the Soviet promoted Yiddish-language schools, even though their curriculum completely lacked in the Jewish subject matter which included secular branches of study (Weber, para 35). Yiddish cultural activities and institutions began to be restricted in the early 1930s when there were general transformations taking place within all nationalities. Worse still, their culture was badly hit in 1948-1949 when their intents and purpose were prescribed. This led to the disappearance of some of their cultural practices as a result of conditions imposed by the Soviet nationalities policies that acknowledged the nation’s existence. Some of their cultural artifacts were lost. Outside pressures mainly from the Soviet authorities weakened their cultural practices. Resultantly, a majority of Jews were unable to identify with their cultural practices. They had instead become Russophones, and their sole culture was supposed to be Russian. By 1959, only 17 percent of the Jews were registered with the Yiddish as their mother tongue, and the number even continued to decline in the subsequent years. However, most of the Jews felt that they should be allowed to have their national culture recognized and respected by all, just like the other Soviet peoples. They were not interested neither willing to substitute their culture for the Russian culture they had adopted. They considered this a form of discrimination. The Jewish national movement decided to adopt Hebrew and Israel cultural artifacts which would cement their cultural focus. This was a trend that was evident in the late 1950s, and it gathered momentum as the 1960 approached (YIVO, para 39). Jewish community in the larger society The Soviet Union officially recognized the Jews as a nationality. The Jews were however required to vary internal passports bearing their nationality as Jewish (Yevrei); just like other nationalities were required to. In the official Soviet census of 1959, the Jews were listed among the official nationalities. The nationalities were allowed to choose which nationality they would like to be identified with. Approximately 2,268,000 of the people specified their nationality as Jewish. Around 38 percent of the world’s population of Jews live in Russia. The Jewish used Yiddish, which is their traditional language of speech and literature, and their mother tongue. Secondarily, the Jewish were regarded as a religious group. This complicated their status and made it even more conspicuous (Israel, para 1). The Jews were the only nation deprived of their basic rights in the U.S.S.R. The communist party guaranteed the complete freedom of each citizen of the U.S.S.R and were also forced to speak, rear and educate their children accordingly. Until 1948, the Jews were permitted a cultural life in their language, which was the Yiddish since Hebrew was forbidden in the Soviet Union. The language was to be used by all newspapers, books, publishing houses, and a variety of literary journals. They were required to propagate the Yiddish language in all their activities. They felt this was more of a discrimination, in the name of exercising their nationality rights. They had been prohibited the use of their language, the Hebrew. Despite Stalin’s death, there was no basic change in the policy of cultural deprivation until 1959. The Soviet theater boasted of having the best artistic achievements. However, most of the artifacts bracing the theater were from the Jews, who despite all their contributions continued to be downtrodden in the Soviet Union (Israel, para 1-3). The Soviet portrayed the Jews as dispersed, explaining why their cultural organizations could not be consolidated. This was, however, not the case since there were other tiny minorities like the Chechens, Ossetians, and Komis, who lacked their territory and yet were allowed to produce their newspapers and works of literature in their languages. Their language was also used in teaching in their schools. The Jews were forbidden from attending classes in either Yiddish or Hebrew in the general schools. In addition, they were not permitted to get in contact with Jewish cultural matters with Jewish institutions abroad (Decter, para 30-34). About their religion, Judaism was purely subjected to discrimination. They were not allowed to exercise their faith in the Soviet, and could not hold a religious functions within the union. Judaism was not permitted for publication facilities and no publications. Since 1917, no Bible has been published in Hebrew. The study of Hebrew was banned for religious purposes. Since the early 1920s, there was no single religious book authored in Jewish. In other denominations, there were relatively many prayer books. For instance, the Baptists published 25,000 hymnals in 1956, the Lutheran Church of Lativia produced 1,500 copies of the psalter. All other types of religious publications were permitted apart from that of the Jewish. The Jews were not allowed to have an institution for training rabbis. However, in 1957, a yeshiva (rabbinical academy) was established as part of the Great Synagogue in Moscow. Since then, only two men have been ordained as rabbis, but none of them has functioned as a synagogue leader. This illustrates how the Jewish community was deprived of the much needed religious leadership (Decter, para 38). In April 1962, a majority of students who came from the Jewish community were forbidden to resume their studies in Moscow. This was on the ground that they did not have the necessary residence permits, in a capital city with a shortage of accommodation facilities. It was only four students who were taken in. In addition, Jewish seminarians were not allowed to advance their studies at the institutions of Jewish learning abroad. The Jewish religious delegation from the U.S.S.R were not allowed to visit religious institutions abroad (Decter, para 40). A clear picture of the oppression of Jews was witnessed on March 17, 1962 when Rabbi Judah Leib Levin of the synagogue of Moscow announced the prohibition of the public baking and sale of matzah. Matzah was an unleavened bread used in the observance of Passover. It was the first time in the Soviet history to have an enforcement of a total ban on the matzah throughout the country. This was a part of an extreme official attempt of the destruction of the bonds between the Soviet Jewry as well as the traditional roots of Judaism. Passover is an important feast of the Jews since it commemorates the liberation of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt thus marking their identity as free people. Interference of such an important celebration was an insult to the Jewish faith and religion. The ban on the matzah was linked with Zionist ideology and chauvinism. The Jewish religious holidays, particularly the Passover was regarded as killing the Soviet motherland, as it appeared in some press articles. The same articles branded the Jews as money worshippers. The Rabbis and the lay leaders of the synagogues were consistently portrayed as extorting money from their faithful for religious purposes. Judaism and all its rites was mocked. Holding private prayer meetings by the Jews was prohibited. Since many synagogues had been closed, some of the Jews had opted to gather privately for prayers. The gatherings were frowned upon and termed unauthorized, with the members being put under arrest and punished. In the Soviet Union official system, atheism was mean to affect all religious groups. However, it was only with the Jews and Judaism that a theme of lack of patriotism and disloyalty was injected into the propaganda. Both the religious and the non-religious Jews felt that this was so unfair (Decter, para 45-52). For the few Jews who were lucky to secure jobs in the Soviet leadership were not spared the discrimination. The discrimination was, however, carried out quietly and informally. With the introduction of the internal passport, many Jews disappeared from positions of major responsibility in the diplomatic service (Decter, para 54). The Jews under Stalin rule Stalin was one ruler who targeted the Jews. More than two million Soviet Jews died under his rule during the Holocaust. The persecution of the Jews resulted in anti-Semitism which became deeply entrenched in the society. Having killed more than 43 million people previously from mass starvation, executions, and deaths in labor camps, Stalin was determined get rid of all Jews citizens in the Soviet Union. He would blame Jewish doctors of negligence that ended in deaths of some of his prominent people in his administration. For instance, the death of Andrei Zhdanov which was allegedly from natural causes was blamed on his physicians by Stalin. He stated that the Jewish doctors were secretly backed by America, conspiring to overthrow the U.S.S.R by killing its leaders. He, therefore, planned a Holocaust to rid the U.S.S.R f the Jewish citizens. He was searching for techniques to attack the Jewish community, fearing that they had greater loyalty to America and that America supported Israel (Journal, para 2). In 1947, he launched an anti-Semitic campaign that targeted thousands of Jewish intellectuals, scientists, political leaders and private individuals who were investigated and questioned on their loyalty to the U.S.S.R. They were ridiculed publicly, threatened and then imprisoned. Committees would visit towns and villages, finding out who the true Russians were and who were Jews. By 1950, so many Jews had been executed on claims of conspiracy against the U.S.S.R. rumors were circulating that the Jewish doctors were poisoning the Russian children, and killing infants in maternity wards. Stalin was responsible for the spreading of the fantastic propaganda against the Jews doctors (Journal, para 3-4). The Jews got a relief from 1953 when Stalin collapsed in Blizhnaya and died after four days in agony. His death was from brain hemorrhage even though it was surrounded by controversy. It was not until the late 1980s and early 1990s that the Soviet Jews took advantage of the liberalized immigration policies and half of them migrated to Israel, the United States, Germany, Canada, and the Australia. The Jewish population in Russia remains large. It was in 1989 that the government of Vladimir Putin granted the Jews exodus from the Soviet and took an official firm stand against anti-Semitism (Wikipedia, para 32). Conclusion In the Soviet policy, the Jews were regarded as people of little or no value. They were not allowed to assimilate, nor exercise their full Jewish life, nor emigrate to areas like Israel, where a majority of them would have preferred. They were recognized as religious group, equal citizens but in practice, they were deprived of their national rights as a group, and of complete equality as individuals. They were considered a Soviet nationality but the official doctrine consistently denied their existence as an entity, with the official practice seeking to discourage the Soviet Jews from feeling themselves members of that entity globally. Thus, it is clear that the Jews diaspora during the U.S.S.R period was an agonizing experience. This is evident by the hundreds of the Jews’ lives which were lost. Additionally, access to services like education and employment was only out of luck since they were barred from them. Works cited Decter, Moshe. “The Status of the Jews in the Soviet Union.”Foreign Affairs.1963.Web.8 May 2015.https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/russian-federation/1963-01-01/status-jews- soviet-union Israel, American. “Russia Virtual Jewish History Tour, Jewish Virtual Library.” Russia Virtual Jewish History Tour, Jewish Virtual Library.8 Nov.2012.Web 8 May 2015.http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/russia.html Journal, National. “Stalin Wanted to Murder at least 20 Millions of Jews in the Soviet Union!” Stalin Wanted to Murder at least 20 Millions of Jews in the Soviet Union!Web.8 May 2015. http://globalfire.tv/nj/03en/history/stalin.htm Weber, Mark.”INSTITUTE FOR HSTORICAL REVIEW.” The Jewish Role in the Bolshevik Revolution and Russia’s Early Soviet Regime. 2015.Web.7 May 2015.http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v14n1p-4_Weber.html. Wikipedia. Stalin and Antisemitism.”Wikipedia.Wikimedia Foundation, 2 Apr.2015.Web.8 May 2015.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalin_and_antisemitism YIVO. Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. YIVO.Web.7 May 2015.http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Union_of_Soviet_Socialist_Republi cs Read More