[Cz-L] Mr Zissels and Babi Yar

Re Mr Zissels and the Babi Yar project:

This is very interesting and clearly very controversial, but personally I
would be wary of drawing conclusions without knowing much more about the
Babi Yar proposal and the resulting controversy.

And while the erection of a memorial at Babi Yar is clearly of the utmost
importance, I can't help wondering whether such a site would really be an
appropriate place for a community centre?

David



> 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 12:31:33