[Cz-L] Zissels

All Group,
Read this on Mr. Zissels,
Hardy
4. International News
www.jewishtimes.com/scripts/ed - [Cached]
Published on: 7/17/2003 Last Visited: 7/21/2003

A thorn in the side of the authorities during Soviet days, Jewish community
representative Josef Zissels is now pricking Ukrainian Jewish leaders -- so
much so that they've declared him persona non grata.

Following months of warnings, the Council of Leaders of All-Ukrainian
(Major) Jewish Organizations on June 24 took the unprecedented step of
publicly declaring Zissels "persona non grata," with "no right to represent
the Jewish community of Ukraine before Ukrainian, international and foreign
governmental, state, public, NGO, national or religious organizations."

"The council unanimously considers that Mr. Zissels' activities have brought
irreparable harm to the authority, unity and integrity of the Jewish
community of Ukraine, and strongly condemns it," the declaration reads,
adding that his activity also "promotes anti-Semitism and interethnic
intolerance."

At issue is Zissels' lobbying against a memorial and community center
planned for Babi Yar, the ravine on the outskirts of Kiev where 33,000 Jews
were slaughtered in September 1941.
...
Zissels has been among the most vocal opponents of the project, arguing that
the "mass grave" that is Babi Yar is no place for a community center.
...
Since members of other minority groups also were killed at Babi Yar, any
memorial should be multiethnic in nature, Zissels and other critics argue.

Protest letters have included signatures of people from a number of ethnic
groups, including Armenians and Roma, or gypsies. A number of non-Jewish
representatives participated in the inaugural news conference this spring of
a committee opposing the memorial, of which Zissels is a member.
...
"It is rather a recommendation to stop relations with Zissels."

In fact, it was Zissels who earlier this year proposed that his actions be
judged by a rabbinical court.

"Our community has no tradition of resolving such conflicts and, in such a
vacuum, I turned to tradition," Zissels said. "Most rabbis are good and
honest people."

The requisite three rabbis were selected, but the rabbinical court has yet
to meet because of a lack of precedent for how to proceed.

It's not clear what effect, if any, the Council of Leaders' declaration will
have on Zissels. In addition to serving as chairman of the Va'ad umbrella
group of community organizations, he also serves as the Ukraine
representative of the Kazakhstan-based Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, or EAJC.

Dolinsky said the Council of Leaders is appealing to international donor
organizations to sever their ties with Zissels.
...
Martin Horowitz, director of the Jewish Community Development Fund run by
the New York-based American Jewish World Service, said his organization
would continue to deal with Zissels and the welfare, education and social
programs administered by organizations such as the Va'ad.
...
"This organization has known and worked with Mr. Zissels for 10 years, and
will continue to do so in future," Horowitz wrote in an e-mail interview
with JTA.
...
"As someone who knows Mr. Zissels and most of the people associated with
this recently created 'Council of Leaders,' I find it very sad to see one
small group of Jewish activists attempting to 'excommunicate' another of
Josef Zissels' stature."

For his part, Bleich said he sees the declaration more as a warning to
Zissels than as an excommunication. Like Dolinsky, Bleich said Zissels had
gone so far in his quest to find allies against the Heritage project that at
times he associated with groups that council members call anti-Semitic, such
as the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists.

"The issue is what is permissible for a Jewish leader to do in the
community," Bleich said. "All I expect is that Zissels should understand
that there are limits to everything, and that he went over the limit."
...
That would be fine with Zissels, who argues that the community center
portion of the complex must be located in another part of Kiev.

He continues to claim that those who back the project are blinded by its
monetary value.

"I think we should remind ourselves of the case from Jewish history when the
Jews created an idol for themselves," he said
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Received on 2008-04-02 04:27:22