I read with great interest the recent statements of my colleague, Chief Rabbi of Russia Rabbi Berl Lazar, regarding the awarding of Stepan Bandera the status of Hero of Ukraine. I write this with greater interest, since the Ukrainian Jewish Community is also very concerned about the rewriting of history.
However, I cannot remain silent when Ukraine is besmirched because of the action of one person – even if that individual is the president, a man who has lost all hope of going down in history as a positive leader and therefore decided to do his best to divide his people at the twilight of his oblivion.
Please let us not minimize the pain and disbelief that a man who purports to champion human rights, who was marketed as a Western-oriented leader, would do such senseless, and yes, stupid things. Something that he didn’t have the nerve to do when he still hoped that he might be re-elected!
I have long said that [outgoing Ukrainian President] Victor Yushchenko reminds me of a joke that I heard from a friend of mine who served in the Soviet Army. As the joke goes, a Russian told a Ukrainian serving with him “kill the Jews and save Russia.” The Ukrainian answered, “Your goal stinks, but the means are great.”
I have always understood Yushchenko’s goals to be the building of a proud Ukrainian people, with a history of their own of which to be proud – a pristine goal. But his means stink. And the proof is right there to be seen by all, as it seems that Yushchenko has broken a world record: never has an acting head of state received such a low percentage of votes cast in a re-election! The previous record, they say, was held by the president of Slovakia. He received 8 percent. Yushchenko couldn’t even gain 6 percent!
It is obvious that he was unsuccessful in uniting the country. He couldn’t even unite his own party! And so, therefore, to Plan B: let us divide the country! Let us raise awareness of the “Heroes to some, villains to others” of Ukraine.
I am not even entertaining the debate whether Roman Shukhevych and Bandera are worthy of the title. It is totally irrelevant now. My question is: Why would a sane politician do something that he knows will rile up 50 percent of his country? Is he suicidal? Why can’t we leave this debate to the next generation, when emotions aren’t running so high?
Enter Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s Russia. It is no secret that Putin dislikes Yushchenko. The prime minister never misses an opportunity to attack Ukraine, as a pretext to attack Yushchenko. Does he do it to glorify the Red Army? How was it terrible that Bandera – following in the footsteps of the Soviet Union – made a pact with the Nazis?
Give me a break! Joseph Stalin, the authoritarian leader of the Soviet Union before, during and immediately after WWII, was one of the first to sign a deal with the devil. Have we ever seen Putin, “champion of human rights,” stand up and condemn Stalin – if not for the murder of millions of Soviet citizens that he had killed, then at least for the destruction of Polish Jewry, which came about as a direct result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact?
With one wide-sweeping brush, Rabbi Lazar blames the Ukrainian people for collaboration, using words that would be funny if they weren’t so sad. “The government of Ukraine?” There was no government of Ukraine at that time!
Again, I am not belittling or minimizing the terrible acts that took place, the collaboration of some Ukrainians, even the collaboration of the SS Nightingale unit, or the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists under Bandera. I am only questioning the moral right of Putin, and the intentions of my colleague Rabbi Lazar.
Whom are you trying to impress by your Ukraine bashing? Let us first examine the collaboration of the Russians. Without comparing, let us examine the glorification of Stalin, and the rewriting of history that has been taking place in Russia over the last decade.
And let us always remember the saying, “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”
Rabbi Yaakov D. Bleich is the Chief Rabbi of Kyiv and Ukraine.
