Operation Cast Lead

Russian Voices Heard

Local group gathers in solidarity with Israel.

Bill Carroll
Special to the Jewish News

T

he crowd was smaller than
expected, but the determination
was strong as a group of local
Russian-speaking Jews met at the Oak
Park Jewish Community Center Jan. 20 to
express solidarity for Israel in the ongoing
battle against Hamas Islamic militants.
Close to 50 people, many of them mem-
bers of the Russian Orthodox Jewish com-
munity, signed a resolution of support for
Israel that will be distributed to American
and Russian news media and sent to
Israeli leaders. The rally competed with
continuing television coverage of President
Barack Obama's inauguration plus bitter
cold conditions.
"The Russian community has been
silent on this issue for a long time, and
now we want to make our voices heard,"
declared Dmitriy Selektor of West
Bloomfield, president of the Michigan
Association of Russian Speaking Jewry
in America. "It's our desire to get strongly
involved and express our unity with Israel.

We want to counteract the demonstrations
by the Palestinian groups in Dearborn."
There are about 50,000 Russian-
speaking Jews in Michigan, according
to Selektor. "Other people who couldn't
attend the meeting have indicated a desire
to sign the resolution:' he said. "We will
obtain as many signatures as possible
before delivering the resolution."
Signs displayed at the rally read: "Stop
Hamas Rockets;' "Hamas Equals Terror"
and "Israel Wants Peace." The group saw
a video clip presentation of Hamas lead-
ers urging "jihads in the name of Allah"
against Israel, and showing how they teach
children to hate and want to kill Jews.
Speakers included Arik Dahan, a profes-
sor at Jerusalem University, who pointed
out that Hamas has been targeting civil-
ians and carrying out rocket warfare
against Israel for many years.
"What would the United States do if a
neighboring country lobbed rockets into
this country all of the time or performed
other acts of warfare?" he asked. "I'm sure
the U.S. would be justified in fighting back
against this terrorism!'

Members of the
Association of Russian
World War II Veterans,
some wearing their
military decoration
stripes on their suits,
also spoke at the rally.
Asked whether the
current cease-fire
after three weeks of
top
Israel's action against - S
Ha ma s
Hamas in Gaza
would diminish the
fervor of the Russian-
A:x°
zic
skk
ind e ot f s
W e ast Bloomfield and Ken Sharm of Oak Park
speaking Jews, Ken
Sharm of Oak Park,
the Michigan Association vice president,
said Yury Voldman of Farmington Hills.
answered, "No. We think the cease-fire is
"He had to support everyone there!"
only temporary. The Hamas rockets will
Ilya Bromberg of Oak Park called
probably continue, and so will Israel's
President Obama "an unknown quantity','
response."
adding, "No one really knows what he will
Several members of the group felt there
do about anything. But from his actions so
would not be much difference in President far, we know he wants to make friends in
Barack Obama's relations with Israel com-
the world."
pared to former President George W. Bush.
Bela Kherberg of Oak Park, summed up
"President Bush really was between a rock the sentiment of the Russian Jewish group:
and a hard place on the Mideast situation:' "Russian Jews love Israel very much." II

"Tr

Renewed Fears

French Jews
face attacks.

Devorah Lauter
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Paris

T

he spike of anti-Semitic attacks
across Europe during Israel's
three-week war in Gaza has struck
a raw nerve here, reviving fears among
French Jews that the violence of the second
intifada years has returned to their country.
During the intifada earlier in the decade,
a sustained surge in attacks against French
Jews and the government's perceived lack-
luster response prompted many Jews to fear
for their future in France, with some leav-
ing the country The government's belated
crackdown on the violence and the election
in May 2007 of a new president, Nicolas
Sarkozy, with warm ties to Israel and the
Jewish community allayed the fears of many
and helped tamper anti-Semitic attacks.
But the attacks returned this month with
the latest conflagration in the Middle East,

A20

January 29 • 2009

enraging French Muslims and resulting
in near-daily assaults against Jews for the
duration of the Gaza war.
"They are more worried about their safe-
ty. They are more afraid than before,' said
Rabbi Mendel Belinow, leader of a Chabad-
Lubavitch synagogue and outreach center
in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis
that was firebombed Jan. 11.
Two of the nine Molotov cocktails thrown
at his synagogue ignited, burning part of the
center's cafeteria. No injuries were reported,
though the rabbi was in the building at the
time and was believed to have been a target.
The synagogue, located in a heavily
immigrant suburb known for its high crime
and poverty rates, also was attacked in 2005
when "Death to the Jews" was scrawled on
its inner walls.
Over the past few weeks, the Jewish com-
munity has seen attacks ranging from fire-
bombings to stabbings. The government's
inability to protect them from violence,
despite the efforts of French authorities, has
generated a renewed sense of unease in the
French Jewish community, which numbers
roughly 600,000 in a country of 60 million.
France has 5 million to 6 million Muslims.

"It's harder to reassure them now:'
Belinow said of his approximately 160 con-
gregants.
While the current cease-fire between
Israel and Hamas is expected to dimin-
ish anti-Jewish violence, pro-Palestinian
groups have promised to continue with their
anti-Israel protests. Such demonstrations
in France, which have drawn tens of thou-
sands, commonly have ended in riots and
are a mouthpiece for virulent anti-Zionism,
including the burning of Israeli flags. Jews
and synagogues have been attacked during
and following protests by a fringe of violent
youths.
Jewish community leaders warn that
fears of further attack will disrupt the daily
routines of Jews and intimidate them into
hiding their religious identity — and if the
volatile situation is not controlled, to flee the
country.
In Toulouse, where institutions were
mostly spared from violence during the sec-
ond intifada, Rabbi Jonathan Guez said he
and congregants were shocked and unpre-
pared when a car containing firebombs was
rammed into the front gate of their syna-
gogue and exploded on Jan. 5. Guez said

Jews would now be "more discreet" about
displaying their religion publicly and care-
ful about avoiding troubled neighborhoods.
The few Jews who still live in government-
subsidized housing projects are thinking
about leaving the area, and the synagogue
will be heavily secured with cameras and
patrol units for the first time, Guez said.
During the violence in France during the
second intifada, some French Jews fearful
of anti-Semitism pulled their children from
public schools and enrolled them in private
Jewish schools, began wearing baseball
caps on their heads to hide their yarmulkes,
moved out of mixed Muslim-Jewish neigh-
borhoods or immigrated to Israel.
But as the attacks against Jews waned, so
did French aliyah, dropping to 1,910 in 2008
from 2,700 the year before. Oren Toledano,
the director of the Paris-based aliyah
department for the Jewish Agency for Israel,
called this the "Sarkozy Effect',' attributing
it to the popularity of the French president
among French Jews and the sense of secu-
rity Sarkozy's election gave them.
Many Jews fear Sarkozy alone isn't
enough to reassure the community. When
French politicians considered friends of