Union of Councils for Soviet Jews

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Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union (abbreviated UCSJ) is a collection of Jewish human rights organizations working in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. They are based in Washington DC, but are linked to other organizations such as the Moscow Helsinki Group and have offices in the countries in where they operate.

The UCSJ was formed in 1970 as a response to the second class citizen status of Jews in the USSR and Eastern Europe. Today, most of its offices are based within the United States where it has 8 member councils, although there are seven offices in various locations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, including Moscow, Almaty, Bishkek, Lviv, Riga, Tbilisi and Minsk (although this was closed in 2005).

Their activities include reporting on the human rights situations of countries in the FSU, as well as assisting communities in need, providing support for asylum seekers and migrants, exposing human rights violations and hate crimes, whether these are targeted against Jews or other minorities in the region, such as Roma or Muslims. It receives funding from the European Commission of the European Union as part of a three-year project designed to combat racism, anti-semitism and islamophobia in Eastern European countries and the reports it produces on the situation in various countries are often presented to the US State Department.

Some 525,000 Jews remained in the post-Soviet states in 2003. Almost 450,000 of them live in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova .

Controversies

Blood Libel controversy

Nineteen members of the State Duma from Motherland and the Communist party have signed a letter demanding Jewish promoting religious hatred and sectarianism be banned in Russia. The letter referred to Judaism as a religion promoting ethnic hatred and made reference to the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch . In that regard, UCSJ made the following statement:

"The best example of how far some members of the national parliament are willing to go to demonize minorities came in January 2005, when 19 members of the State Duma from Motherland and the Communist party signed an open letter to the Prosecutor General’s office demanding that Jewish groups be banned in Russia. The letter referred to Judaism as a “Satanic” religion and made reference to the medieval Blood Libel (the belief that Jews ritually murder Christian children during Passover and use their blood to bake matzo). Russian Jewish groups—who have long ago grown accustomed to more modern-day antisemitic accusations of controlling the media, the financial system, etc.—reacted with horror to this intellectual descent into the barbarism of the Dark Ages".

Boris Stomakhin controversy

UCSJ president Micah H. Naftalin condemned conviction of journalist Boris Stomakhin for hate speech. He said: "This sentence exposes the underlying hypocrisy of the Russian government's half-hearted struggle against extremist groups and hate speech. ... This month alone, the FSB refused to investigate the distribution of a neo-Nazi hit list containing the names and addresses of human rights activists whom the authors 'sentenced to death,' a publisher of a newspaper in Ulyanovsk who publicly called for the murder of Jews got a suspended sentence, and three youths who broke the jaw and fractured the skull of the Minister of Culture of the Kabardino-Balkaria Republic while screaming racist slogans were sentenced to just six months to a year in prison. You don't have to agree with Mr. Stomakhin's radical, though non-violent, views on Chechnya to see that his sentence was disproportionate and unjust."

According to UCSJ statement,Stomakhin "either fell or was pushed from his fourth floor apartment window" during his arrest . However this accusation seem to contradict to numerous mass media and NGO reports and statements by Stomakhin's lawyer Alexei Golubev according to which Stomakhin jumped out of the window voluntarily.

Closing of UCSJ offices

A branch of the UCSJ was closed by the government of Belarus as part of what many observers saw as a wider crackdown on political dissent in the region. (main article - Human rights in Belarus)

External links

Other Jewish organizations in the former Soviet Union

Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS
Russian Jewish Congress (REK)
The Congress of Jewish Religious Communities of Russia (KEROOR) headed by Adolf Shaievich
The World Congress of Russian Jewry
Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (FEOR)
Vaad (Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Russia)
Moscow Jewish Community
Jewish Association of St. Petersburg (JASP).
Chabad Lubavitch movement
Jewish University in Moscow
Petersburg Institute for Jewish Studies
Foundation for Jewish Campus Life (Hillel)

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