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February 18, 2005/Adar 1 9 5765, Volume 57, No. 25
Bush pressed to address anti-Semitism with Putin
MATTHEW E. BERGER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WASHINGTON - Amid the growing concern about anti-Semitism in Russia, Jewish activists in Washington are hoping President George W. Bush will press his Russian counterpart to do more.
Bush is expected to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Slovakia Feb. 24. The summit will focus in part on concerns about democratic efforts in Russia, and Jewish leaders say the rise of anti-Semitism is an important trend to discuss.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a federal body created to monitor religious freedom in other countries, was expected to meet with Bush Feb. 18.
Felice Gaer, vice chairman of the commission and director of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for Human Rights at the American Jewish Committee, said she hopes the president would push Putin to increase police efforts to protect Jews, to prosecute anyone thought to be guilty of physical attacks against Jews or other hate crimes in Russia and to be aware of the rising number of skinheads.
"He gets it," Gaer said of Bush. "It's a longstanding concern of our commission and the situation itself is more inflamed than it was in the past."
Last month, 20 Russian lawmakers signed a letter calling on Russia's prosecutor general to ban all Jewish organizations because they are extremist and anti-Russian. Next, on Feb. 3, more than half of the viewers who called the television station during a prime-time debate on one of the country's most popular talk shows supported a lawmaker who made anti-Semitic comments throughout the program.
The news is, however, not all bad.
Jewish leaders have been impressed with Putin's tough rhetoric on anti-Semitism, and hope he can be pushed by the Americans to combat the growing threat more actively.
"I'm not sure scolding Russia for human rights violations and anti-Semitism is the right approach," said Micah Naftalin, national director of the Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union.
Naftalin sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week, asking the Bush administration to recommend steps Putin could take to combat the growth of anti-Semitism.
"Despite Putin's exemplary rhetoric, which traces back to speeches made at least three years ago, the impunity of grassroots anti-Semitic and racist violence and propaganda has been increasing," the letter said. "This is not simply a failed effort at changing hearts and minds. It is emblematic of a failure to reform his corrupt and dysfunctional justice system, including a failure to discipline racist attitudes and behaviors by the KGB, police, prosecutors, judges, mayors and governors."
The nine-point plan includes encouraging more programming of human rights issues on the national government-controlled media, increased dialogue between U.S. officials and Russian human rights leaders, and increased reliance on the Russian business community to work with human rights groups in the country because they have a vested interest in the issue: A rise in anti-Semitic incidents could thwart economic development, international trade and investment.
JTA Foreign Editor Peter Ephross in New York contributed to this report.
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