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From: simon@elwood.DEC (Product Safety 237-3521)
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: Historical Persecution of Jews
Message-ID: <1679@decwrl.DEC.COM>
Date: Fri, 14-Mar-86 10:14:10 EST
Article-I.D.: decwrl.1679
Posted: Fri Mar 14 10:14:10 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Mar-86 23:34:46 EST
Sender: daemon@decwrl.DEC.COM
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
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>Because of their social isolation, Jews living in foreign countries were
>viewed with curiosity by the natives.  This curiosity was easily
>turned to contempt and hatred in times of stress by ambitious leaders.
> 
>What I'm trying to assert is that Jews have not been persecuted historically
>for their religion per se, but because of their social customs that are
>a result of their religious beliefs.  It was easy to learn to hate those
>"funny people" in the community that kept to themselves all the time.
> 
> 
>Terry Morse  (408)743-1487
>{ hplabs!cae780 } | { ihnp4!sun!sunncal } !leadsv!morse

Terry,

I tend to agree with you here, at least if we are talking about modern 
times.  Though I can base this only on my experience in the USSR.  The 
population of the Soviet Union is basically atheist.  There are very 
few religious people in general.  But since I do not know much about 
the Muslims in the Asian part of the country, which is large, I am 
taking only the Christians and Jews.  There no Jewish traditions left.  
Very few synagogues.  For example, in Moscow, where a few hundred 
thousands of Jews live, there is only one synagogue.

But...  Anti-Semitism is very strong.  It exists on two levels.  First 
is from people.  Second is from the government.

The people in Russia didn't like the Jews for centuries.  Of course in 
the old time the cause for hate was religious.  Now it is both 
tradition and envy.  Before the revolution the only way for the Jews to 
break through into the society was to go to college, get education and 
then get the permission from the police to settle in a city.  But the 
college admission for the Jews was limited to 5%.   Right after the 
revolution in 1917 the Jews got the civil rights that were unheard of 
for them before.  They used them.  They went to colleges, became 
professionals, served in the government (e.g. Trotsky).   The envy of 
their achievements was one of the reasons of the persecutions later.

Now this anti-Semitism is heated up by the government.  Everybody in 
the USSR has an internal passport.  On the first page it states your 
name and ethnic origin.  The passport is required to get a job, to be 
admitted to a college, to get married, to get a permission for an 
apartment.  This allows the government to control activities of the 
Jews.  By printing anti-Zionist articles in newspapers, showing 
anti-Zionist movies on TV and describing in the media Jewish activists 
as Zionists, the government created an image that Jewish equals to 
Zionist equals to Fascist.

Now I want to stress a few facts again.  The majority of Soviet Jews do 
not have their Jewish traditions any more.  They do not speak Hebrew.  
Those who are younger then 40 do not speak Yiddish either.  Their native 
language is mostly Russian or the language of the place where they live 
(Ukrainian, Moldavian, etc.).   They cannot read Jewish literature (which 
is practically not published).  All their Jewishness is in the 
passports only.  (There is a bitter joke among Russian Jews that even if 
you manage to change you passport that it says that you are Russian, still 
they will beat you in the face, not in the passport).  Yet as you all 
well know, the Soviet Union is one of the most anti-Semitic countries.

Leo B. Simon		 
 
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