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Democracy In Eastern Europe
Could Become Risky Business
HELEN DAVIS
Foreign Correspondent
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34 FRIDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1989
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hile the Communist
empire totters and
crumbles in
Eastern Europe, some
observers fear that the world
may be witnessing not only
history-in-the-making, but
also history repeating itself.
The drama and the tumult
associated with the current
revolution has ushered in a
period of profound instabili-
ty. This, in turn, has provok-
ed deep concern that the
power vacuum created by
retreating Communism may
be filled by rampant nation-
alism, which could unleash a
tidal wave of pent-up anti-
Semitism.
The unease may seem ex-
aggerated in light of the de-
termined resolve of fledgling
democratic movements to
"decontaminate" the past
and create a new order based
on far-reaching, market-led
economic reforms, as well as
freedom, justice and equality
for all.
Opening the windows to
the winds of freedom,
however, could be a risky
business. Democracy does
nes.
not confer instant solutions
on deeply entrenched
Moses Rosen of Romania
economic problems, which
have any doubt about its
afflict all the emergent
identity: "The scapegoat,"
Eastern-bloc states; freedom
he says, "is always the Jew."
does not fill supermarket
Rabbi Rosen should know.
shelves.
He has spent decades
The red light was snapped
navigating a safe passage for
on by the virulently anti-
Romania's 23,000 Jews
Semitic, Russian nationalist
through the minefield of
Pamyat movement, which
Eastern Europe's most
flowered at the first sign of
repressive totalitarian
Gorbachev's glasnost.
regime.
It is a phenomenon that
Democracy, he told a
liberal Europeans now fear
gathering of Jewish leaders
might spread beyond the
from Eastern and Western
borders of Russia's
Europe in Lisbon last week,
heartland into the less-
"did not always work in
stable, more volatile reaches
favor of the Jewish people."
of post-communist Eastern
It was, he pointed out, a
Europe if the wounds of 45
democratic system that
years are not quickly healed.
brought Hitler to power, and
Long-dormant nation-
in the current changing
alisms and old racial pre-
climate it was incumbent on
judices are forces that new • Jews to be extremely careful
democratic governments,
in their dealings with au-
however well-intentioned,
thority.
may be unable to control if
Other delegates from the
they cannot rapidly
Eastern bloc echoed that
translate political ideals into
sentiment: the current
economic recovery.
changes should be welcomed
Given the shattered state
— with extreme caution.
of most of the economies of
A representative from
East European, that is a tall
Yugoslavia reported that the
order, and if the new
nationalist upsurge among
governments fail to deliver
the large variety of ethnic
the expected economic
groups welded into the
miracle, a scapegoat will
Yugoslav republic had left
have to be found.
the small and scattered
Nor does Chief Rabbi
Jewish community feeling
M..*in=Nswsdsyby G...1
timvsiay. Disinbuted by La. Angola.
isolated and dangerously
vulnerable._
"Nobody knows what
tomorrow will bring," he
said. "No love is lost bet-
ween any of the ethnic
minorities, hatred is the
watchword and our concern
must be to save our own
skins."
One of the most
remarkable, and potentially
hazardous, features of the
current political revolution
is the number of Jews who
are prominent in the New
Order.
In East Germany, whose
official population statistics
number just 200 Jews, the
new head of the Communist
Party is Gregor Gysi, a 41-
year-old Jewish lawyer. In
Czechoslovakia, which has a
Jewish population of about
16,000, the new foreign min-
ister, Walter Komarec, is
Jewish.
In Poland, two leading fig-
ures in Solidarity, Bronislaw
Geremek and Adam
Michnik, are Jewish, while a
large number of the editorial
board of Solidarity's news-
paper, Gazeta Yyborcza,
Poland's largest-selling dai-
ly, are Jewish.
Indeed, Polish Jews, who
number only 10,000 (com-