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Pogroms Restarting in Europe?
EDIT: Apparently the report was overwrought – by far. The Jerusalem Post says it was nothing more than a brawl. So while my original question stands, the data it stands on is rubbish. My apologies!
I am keenly aware that, as been very ably presented here on Ricochet, there is no statistical support for violent anti-semitism in the US rising above the levels of background noise.
Is this argument a bit like Obama’s pitch that since terrorism kills far fewer people than do car accidents, we should ignore small terror numbers? I ask this because yesterday there was an old-style Pogrom in Ukraine. And while a few battered and bruised people may not amount to much numerically, from a qualitative perspective, thugs hunting down members of an ethnic group in the streets certainly seems troubling to me.
Published in General
Yes. It’s a lot like that.
Based on what’s happened recently in New York, my snarkier side sees this story and wants to know since when did Bill de Blasio become president of Ukraine to set up the conditions for the pogrom? (Hey, at least Ukrainian president de Blaiso might give Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi the testimony they want of that quid pro quo thing with Trump….)
I may be oversensitive, but burned into my brain was how the Jews and the rest of the populations would make light of attacks, and the consequences of that.
And to me! I have noted subtle changes even here. My own great grandson, nearly had a meltdown having to spend the night with his Jewish great grandmother. He was visiting from Sacramento, CA, and refused to speak to me the afternoon he was picked up to return home, didn’t even say goodby. He is 17 years old and has a most distressing attitude. He treated his step-grandfather the same way who is very sympathetic with Judaism, and has a Mezuzah attached to every door of his house.
It didn’t make any points when I told him his great-great grandfather was a Rabbi in NJ about the 1900s, and my, thus his ancestry backed up to the Jews of the Islands of Rhodes in Greece.
His behavior was very sad, his uncle was about to whop his tail feathers, so his grandparents sent him back to CA after about 2 or 3 weeks.
I don’t like it in the US either. “You’re more likely to die by falling in the bath tub” isn’t an adequate answer to these things: the same could certainly have been said on September 10th, 2001 in New York and for that matter, in Munich in 1929.
What complicates the issue is, of course, the widespread tendency among American and European minority groups and their “woke” defenders to exaggerate the numbers and significance of bias-motivated crimes. There are activists who actively inculcate in vulnerable people an unjustified fear of being targeted for violence. Since fear is unpleasant and exhausting, creating fear where it serves no useful purpose is stupid and cruel.
So the facts matter.
But there is a big difference between expressing or promoting paranoia on the one hand, and, on the other, noticing and responding to possible or proven patterns of criminal behavior.
We don’t have to see Hitler lurking in every dark alley, but surely the lessons of the world’s historical atrocities both relatively small and unimaginably huge, is that atrocities happen. And —being atrocious—these ought to be nipped in the bud, wherever possible, while still inchoate?
Besides which, long before we get anywhere near an atrocity, wouldn’t we prefer that the Jews of Brooklyn or Ukraine can go about their ordinary days without having to worry overmuch about being set upon by anti-Semitic thugs? Or, God knows, without the worry that, should thugs appear, the enforcement arm of their government will fail to vigorously defend their lives and property?
This is not too much to ask.
Nonetheless, we should not wait until this anti-Semiticism rises above background noise before we take action. Nip it in the bud . . .
My Spider-Sense is tingling all over the map on this one.
I am worried about the limited sourcing.
One hit is the term “Ukrainian Thugs” as opposed to just “Thugs” or some more descriptive term regarding the particular movement. In the past few years there has been a very odd dynamic of both sides in the Russian-Ukraine war trying to frame the other for anti-Semitism in international media, while domestically accusing the other of being a puppet of the Jews.
Why weren’t the thirty overwhelmed by the crowd?
A reasonable concern. Here is the origin of the news, as far as I can tell.
Would have been more understandable if it had been in English.
I’m familiar with Zion, but not with a tzion. When I try to look up the latter, Google keeps returning the former. Does the article mean that Ukraine police guarded the synagogue?
If a mob beats terrorizes people hundreds of miles away, all I can do about it is pray and note if any of my neighbors express support of the thugs. If it happens in my area, then it is my responsibility to defend my neighbors and face down the hate.
Reading about distant troubles doesn’t make me fret about my home culture. There is hate in some American neighborhoods, but they might as well be Ukraine for all I can do about it. Anti-semitism is not an overt problem here.
I have long thought that hatred of God’s chosen people is a bellweather of social violence. Where it does arise, it should be put down quickly and forcefully.
Might he be responding, in the manner of a typically foolish teenager, more to the outward trappings of Judaism more than to Jewish identity or beliefs?
In other words, maybe he doesn’t like staying with his grandmother because of the rituals he is expected to join there, rather than because he objects to other people practicing Judaism. Maybe it’s like an atheistic kid who is annoyed by all the “God talk” and having to hold hands for the blessing of a meal.
Many teenagers have only begun to learn need of tolerance and respect for traditions they don’t share.
Unfortunately when you live in a country that has sanctioned approximately 60 million abortions it doesn’t take too long before some citizens look upon homicides as acceptable collateral damage in the attempt to create heaven on earth.
They’re the same. Tzion would be the Hebrew–tsee-OWN.
Edit–I had the accent in the wrong place.
You would have a point, except I made certain there was no Jewish rituals involved. Nor did I discus Judaism with him. However, my walls and apt is full of Judaic paintings, and other Judaic symbolism. I had no intention of taking them down or putting them out of sight because he sneered at them. He even brought his own food, so didn’t offer mine.
I did discus some genealogy, some family history, showed him photos of his great-great grandparents and photos of several generations back. I have even done genealogy on his paternal grandparents, their connections with Native American tribes, and their black ancestors. Talk wasn’t going to badly until he started screaming at me, “Why in h–l was he expected to dress like a white boy? Everybody was disrespecting him.”
I responded by saying: He was the one screaming at me, and disrespecting me, I had said nothing to set him off. Second: I pointed out he was pulling the race card in his disrespect. We, his family in Montana, expected him to dress like normal kids in MT, not like “gangsta kids from the “hoods.”
Then the following morning, after spending the night on my sofa bed, he claimed to be nauseated, ready to throw up, had a pounding headache, and a number of other things. Trying to claim he still had cancer, when I knew he had been free of any signs of cancer in almost 2 years. So he is well on his was to playing the race card, the victim card and the discrimination cards. And he didn’t like it one little bit that he had Jewish DNA from both his mothers side, and several grandparents.
I should write to him, as he is back in Sacramento, but I just haven’t found the words yet.
When I clicked on the link, a drop-down offered the option of translating the site. I clicked Yes, and it instantly appeared in English. Very strange.
I didn’t see that , so thank you Mr. McConnell.
Let’s say a jet airliner crashes. Of course we want to find out the reason for it and see if we can learn something from it that will prevent other crashes. But if people are afraid to fly because they read about that crash, I don’t think it makes someone insensitive to point out that millions of people fly safely every day. I think there is value in analyzing where the actual risks to your life are.
INFORMATION ABOUT JEWISH POGrom IN UMAN NOT CONFIRMED – CITY COUNCIL
The Executive Committee of the Uman City Council issued a statement refuting the scale of the conflict in Uman on January 10.
On the evening of January 11, The Yeshiva World published information that an attack was made on a group of Jews in Uman, about 30 people were called Ukrainians who ran around the streets with clubs and knives in search of Jews.
The Uman City Council has denied information about the mass character and anti-Semitic nature of the conflict:
Information on the conflict between security company employees and Hasidim:
1. On January 10, an incident occurred between employees of a security company and Hasidim, the circumstances of the conflict are being established. Participants in the conflict have no serious bodily harm. The conflict occurred on household grounds.
2. Information about the mass character, as well as the use of knives or sticks by the parties to the conflict is not true.
3. On Saturday, January 11, a meeting of local activists with Hasidim took place.
4. On Sunday, January 12, a meeting was held in the Uman City Council, headed by the mayor, with the participation of representatives of Hasidim, the police, including a separate police group from the city of Kiev, the Security Service of Ukraine. Following the meeting, the following agreements were reached:
• To protect the grave complex of Rabbi Nachman, the State Guard Service will be involved;
• together with the city council, the Hasidim will continue to install CCTV cameras throughout the historical and cultural center of the Bratslav Hasidim;
• maintain operational communication between the parties in order to prevent such incidents.
The Uman City Council focuses on the fact that there was no ethnic or religious foundation either in the beginning or during the conflict.
OEOU reminds you that if you encounter manifestations of anti-Semitism (vandalism, graffiti, swastikas, insults, violence against Jews), please contact the 910 hotline at 910 (free of charge from a mobile phone) and 0 800 600 910 (free of charge from a hospital) .
tags Jews of Ukraine, OEOU, Rabbi Nakhman, Uman, Hasidim
If they were afraid to fly because there were people whose goal it was to kill you in airliner crashes, that creates a different type of comparison. People react differently to things that just happen due to random chance, inadequate technology, or even to carelessness or negligence, and things that happen because people want to see you harmed or dead. Even though the latter might be less frequent, people might want to take first level precautions against them.
I hope you find the right words and that your great grandson is able to be receptive. As an adult, some of the things that stick with me most from my elders, including older siblings, were admonitions–some gentle, some less so–when they held up my bad attitudes and behavior to the light.
I’ve heard and read reports of increasing anti-Semitic violence in Europe. Most of these seem to be linked to Muslim immigration. I don’t get the impression that this applies to this specific incident in Ukraine. It is important to keep these attacks in perspective.
According to this source, the Israeli government reported that the number of anti-Semitic killings in 2018 was the “highest in decades.” I have not seen figures for 2019. The figure reported by the Israeli government was 13, including 11 from the horrible Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.
So should we be extremely concerned?
Well, a UK government report (here) states that there were 4,136 Christians killed worldwide in 2018 “in violence in which religious faith was a critical factor.” Of these, 3,731 were killed in Nigeria, so there were apparently 405 religion-based killings of Christians in 2018 outside of Nigeria.
I have no way to evaluate the reliability of these figures, other than to note that the sources are reputable — the Israeli and British governments.
Accepting these figures as correct, there were 318 anti-Christian killings in 2018 for every 1 anti-Semitic killing. Each of these 4,149 deaths was a terrible crime and a tragedy.
The overwhelming majority of the Jewish deaths — about 85% — were the result of the single, horrible synagogue attack in Pittsburgh. The overwhelming majority of the Christian deaths — over 90% — were the result of systematic anti-Christian persecution being carried out by Nigerian Muslims.
My concern is the unusual focus on the 0.3% of this deadly violence that is directed against Jews, while ignoring the 99.7% of this deadly violence that is directed against Christians.
I haven’t been reporting these statistics — in this comment and previously — in order to pick on my Jewish friends here at Ricochet. To the contrary, one of my main purposes is to give reassurance. All of the figures indicate that the danger of anti-Semitic violence is extremely small.
I do question the call for action. The problem of violence against Christians is more than 300 times greater than the problem of violence against Jews.
My main concern is the sense that we’re having a false narrative pushed on us, for reasons that I cannot know for sure, but that seem nefarious. This narrative seems designed to create hatred and division, between Jews and Christians and Muslims and others, between blacks and whites and others, and doubtless between other groups.
I want to emphasize that I am not accusing my Jewish friends here of misleading anyone, let alone having a nefarious motive. I have faith in the purity of your motives and the genuineness of your concern.
Salient thoughts.
There are more Christians than Jews available to kill. If we factor that in and consider the numbers as percentages of some sort, would there still be much imbalance?
The critical distinction between deaths caused by terrorism and deaths caused by cars is that cars are not out to get you. They have evolved to be ever safer. Terrorists aspire to wreak ever more death and destruction on their targets.
It’s best to treat terrorism (and anti-Semitism) as malignant pathogens. Hit hard, hit early.
And hit repeatedly, until the cure has been assured.
Have you spoken to your grandson’s parents?
That argument was made even prior to Obama, and was made even by people who should have known better.
If an infection disease is “only” affecting 50 people a year, and “only” killing 10 of them, does that mean it is a minor public health hazard?…depending on the epidemiology of the disease, those numbers may be orders of magnitude larger.
If steering gear on a particular vehicle model tends to have a failure rate that rapidly increases after 5000 miles of driving…and few vehicles of the model have reached that mileage, then the overall failure rate for the model may look minor. Stratifying the failure rate by the mileage will tell a different story.
Similar logic should be applied to outbreaks of terrorism and anti-Semitism.
That would make an interesting post, Kay. I say that because I see stories about antisemitism, but the influence it has on a 17 year old who has a Jewish background is very important, especially if he is somehow upset by it. This is very concerning because he should feel proud. Have you done Ancestry?
The United States, as a non-Jewish state (we’re not Israel) has always been more welcoming to Jews than the rest of the world.
I’m not saying we’ve always welcomed all Jews, all the time. But compared to the rest of the world at those times, we’ve held a higher standard.
At our worst, our anti-Semitism has been mild.
I’m presently not worried about the United States based on what is going on in Ukraine, which by the way, happens to be a fairly corrupt country, leaving out their conduct towards Jews.
We ignore that because of their recent victimization by Russia. But it’s there.
Also a question of geographic distribution when you use worldwide numbers. In many places, the Christians are being victimized only because the perpetrators can’t find any Jews (in some because the perps. already got rid of the Jews). Thus, even if the proportions of Christians killed worldwide exceeds that of Jews, anti-Semitism may be more virulent everywhere.