Heightened Worry In Russia

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Golden 'Goose'

AU,

Once-shadowy Russian figure is
new symbol for human rights.

LEV GORODETSKY
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Moscow

A

Government Friends

Analysts say Goussinsky capitalized on
his close ties to the Moscow government
and especially to then Deputy Mayor
Yuri Luzhkov, who later would assume
the city's top post.
The Moscow government deposited
the city's huge accounts into Goussinsky's bank. It
made him, overnight, one of the wealthiest people
in Russia. Goussinsky was not the only Russian to
gain his wealth from close ties to the government,
but his ties to Luzhkov would come to hurt him.
In 1993, Goussinsky entered the media business,
launching a newspaper and establishing a television
channel. NW quickly became one of Russian's
three national TV channels. In 1999, NTV was
known for its opposition to Russia's war in
Chechnya, a province in the former Soviet Union.

n ongoing government campaign against
Vladimir Goussinsky, which landed him
for three days last month in the
Butyrskaya prison and has him charged with
embezzling $10 million, has turned the shy, con-
troversial media mogul into something of an inter-
national cause celebre.
The campaign is also just the latest episode in a
life that has turned from that of an ordinary
Soviet citizen into a reported billionaire who is
both the leader of the Russian Jewish Congress
and the controversial focus of government
attention.
Goussinsky, 47, grew up in a Jewish family
that like millions• of other Soviets, suffered
under the oppressive weight of Stalinism. His
grandfather was executed in 1937 during the
Great Purges, and his grandmother spent nine
years in a Soviet prison camp.
Like most Soviet Jews, G-oussinsky knew little
about Judaism when he was growing up. But the
outside world didn't let him forget about his back-
ground.
"I had to fight often when someone called
me a Jew-face," Goussinsky recalled in a 1998
JTA interview.
People who know him closely say those
childhood fights gave him a strong desire to
fight for other Jews and help them respect
themselves.
Goussinsky studied at the Moscow Institute
of Petroleum. He never graduated, but during
Vladimir Goussins
his student years, he was one of thousands of
Jewish youths who flocked to Moscow's Choral
Synagogue on Jewish holidays, especially on
This stance did not endear Goussinsky to
Simchat Torah, to demonstrate pride in their
Vladimir
Putin, who was elected Russian presi-
Judaism — ignoring the KGB agents who were
dent
in
March
of this year and took office in
taking pictures of the crowd.
May. His predecessor, President Boris Yeltsin,
But that was the extent of Goussinsky's Jewish
had made Putin his prime minister in August
involvement as a student.
1999, in part to accelerate Russia's war in
In 1986-87, the early years of Soviet Premier
Chechnya.
Yeltsin named Putin acting president
Mikhail Gorbachev's opening to the West and
upon
resigning
on Dec. 31.
restructuring of the Soviet economy, Goussinsky
The
Goussinsky-owned
NTV, a private chan-
began making money in a tiny metal-works coop-
nel,
also
heavily
capitalized
on government dis-
erative. He quickly and mysteriously managed to
counts
on
state
broadcast
services,
leading to accu-
become wealthy — and by 1989, when he found-
sations that Goussinsky had a "special relation-
ed the Most Bank, he had entered not only bank-
ing but also real estate.
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7/14
2000

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from a position of influence," said Andrei Zolotov, a
reporter covering the story for the Moscow Times, an
English-language daily newspaper. "But because so
many of his activities are also Jewish, it was inevitable
that the community would also become involved."
Zolotov and others suggest that for Putin and his
circle, muzzling Goussinsky may have had an anti-
Jewish dimension.
Over the past several years, the RJC has kept its
Western allies apprised of the Kremlin's unrespon-
siveness to various violent attacks against Jews and
synagogues and to the rise to prominence of assort-
ed antisemites.
How a country treats its Jews is often considered
to be an accurate barometer of how democratic and
tolerant is that country. Thus, local Jews can often
make or break a country's international image.
In the case of Russia, some suspect that with
Goussinsky's possible removal from the scene, Putin
seeks a more loyal Jewish leadership to give any
reform he touts a Jewish "stamp of approval."

Chabad 's Role

This suspicion leads to the second controversy that
has enveloped Russian Jewry, the election earlier this
month of a second chief rabbi by the Chabad-domi-
nated Federation of Jewish Communities in Russia.
Chabad, whose presence in the region dates back
some 250 years, is roundly credited for breathing
Jewish life back into many far-flung corners of
Russia, such as Siberia.
"Jews here are so far from Judaism, the issue is to
remind them what it means to be Jewish," said Rabbi
Berel Lazar, now the top Chabad rabbi in the country.
The federation, known as FEOR, elected Rabbi
Lazar as its chief rabbi of Russia on June 13, in
direct challenge to Shayevich, especially after he was
officially recognized by Russia's Ministry of Culture.
The young are "the last generation we can save,
because some remember that perhaps their grandpar-
ents were religious," said the Italian-born Rabbi Lazar,
36, who has lived in Russia for 10 years. "If we don't
give them a reason to feel good to be a Jew, they'll for-
get it. Once they feel good, we've achieved our goal."
However, many Russian Jewish leaders are uneasy
that Jews in the provinces, unlike their counterparts
in Moscow, generally only have one brand of
Judaism to choose from — the one provided by a
fervently Orthodox group like Chabad.
Not only are Russian Jews predominantly assimi-
lated and uneducated about Judaism, but half or
more of them are partners in mixed marriages.

Strict Adherents

While Chabad has the backing of many lay leaders
in the provinces, and has so far been open to Jews
of all stripes in the many cultural and holiday
events it organizes, the sect also adheres strictly to
halacha, or Jewish law.
Some Jewish leaders fear that in the future, if
Chabad gains control of the community, a large
number of interfaith Jews will be excluded from
such things as Jewish burials or marriage unless •

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