Kagan finally concedes to Brook-Krasny

I know I'm sharing 'news' here thats already been reported in the Bay News and the Russian media, so hardly qualifies as news at all, but last week Arai Kagan called Alec Brook-Krasny and finally conceded the primary election. In a conversation Kagan said lasted about 30 seconds, he informed Brook-Krasny that he would not sue in Federal Court to overturn Brook-Krasny's thin margin of victory and congratulated him on his victory. Kagan then said he was not endorsing either Brook-Krasny or his GOP rival, Patricia Laudano in the general election. Brook-Krasny thanked Kagan for the call and expressed an interest in meeting sometime in the future.

Kagan said he feels a sense of "closure" after making the call, and plans to go on a long-delayed vacation with his family after receiving an award from the Manhattan Beach Jewish Center on Nov 17. He emphaszies that while he will go back to journalism, he will not fade away politically, a point that was made symbolically clear today by the prominent role he played as a master of ceremonies at an event inagurating a stone in the Holocaust Memorial Park alongside the canal in Sheepshead Bay on behalf of the victims of the Minsk Ghetto (I'll write more about the event in a few days), while Brook-Krasny stood in the audience but was not called to the stage to make remarks. Ari noted that he acknowledged Brook-Krasny's presence in the audience in his remarks and it was not his decision not to ask B-K to speak but rather that of some of the other members of the organizing committee--many of whom took strong pro-Kagan positions during the election. Still, the point was made; Kagan retains his power position in the Russian community and will not be driven from the scene by B-K and his supporters without a struggle.

As I've written here before, it would seem to behove both men to find a way to reach some form of reconciliation. Brook-Krasny barely won the Democratic primary, but lost the election to Kagan in the Russian-speaking community and thus will need to bring some of Kagan's supporters to his side if he is to be able to say persuasively in Albany that he is the key player on the Russian scene. For his part, Kagan will clearly have to reconcile with some of Brook-Krasny's wealthy and powerful supporters if he is to be politically viable for future elections. Eto nye budit licho (It wont be easy) for either of them after the extreme negativity of this campaign, but in the end political reality will likely force both to do some reaching out that they are emotionally not able to do at the moment.

Kagan asked me; "So what do you expect me to do--send flowers?" while Brook-Krasny said to me not long ago, "After all the terrible things he said about me and my family, I cant reach out to him." Earth to Ari and Alec; this is politics American style; a whole look of nasty things get said and done in the course of elections, but in the end, there are no permanent enemies or friends, only permanent interests. Alec did a wonderful job at wooing Domenic Recchia, who defeated him in 2001 and turning him into his staunchest supporter in 2006. Without Recchia's support, B-K would likely have lost this election. Certainly, of Brook-Krasny can reach out to Recchia, he should be able to do the same to Ari Kagan, especially as the interest of the Russian community would be to have these two quality human beings close this fratricidal chapter and move forward together.

On a personal note, I have to pay tribute to both Ari and Alec for providing me with such wonderful copy for so many months and with such a fascinating display of local politics. It appears that both still consider me a friend after some stories and rubyjewday dispatches that pissed both of them off, so I feel good about that as well. I'll stay on the story through November 7, when Brook-Krasny looks certain to roll to victory over Laudano and far beyond as we watch to see hosw having a representative in Albany impacts the quality of life in the Russian community and the entire 46th District.

Continued...

My Article on Avigdor Lieberman in Jewish Week

http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=13160

Continued...

Avigdor Lieberman and Yuri Shtern

Have just returned from Israel seriously jet lagged but exhilarated by an immersion into Russian-Israeli reality. After two days at the Bar-Ilan conference which I wrote on above, I spent the remainder of the trip trying to get a handle on the whole Avigdor Lieberman phenomenon. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of my friend Yuri Shtern, number two in Yisrael Beiteinu, I was unable to get an interview with Lieberman, given the intensity of coalition negotiations, but I got a lot of insight from talking to members of the Russian elite, including many who attended the conference, as well as many grass roots Russians. What comes across is that much of the grass roots loves Lieberman as a man of strength and action who they believe will put the Arabs in their place and improve conditions for both Russians and “kal Am Yisrael” (all of Israel), whereas much of the Russian intelligensia is full of disdain for him as a demagogue only out for himself who will sell out the Russians in a minute once he gets comfortably ensconced in power.

The contrast between these two perspectives is shockingly wide. Obviously some of the antipathy of the Russian elite—especially the political elite—toward Lieberman seems to come from jealousy. There is a sense of vitality, but also danger about him; that he has an authoritarian flavor, a man on horseback, with a proposal to abolish the parliamentary system of political horse trading and desiring to create a strong executive—even stronger than in the U.S.—perhaps tipping the Israeli toward authoritarianism. That said, everyone agrees that he is the most creative player of the political game to come along in Israel in quite a while, that he has big ideas; that he could upset the whole apple cart.

Is he really an extreme rightist, a racist, as many on the left claim? Well, if memory serves me right, there were those in the peace camp a decade or more ago, people like Yossi Beillin, floating the idea of attaching Umm al-Fahm and the Triangle to Palestine in exchange for Israel keeping settlement blocs in the West Bank. Certainly, no one screamed ‘racist’ at Beillin. Indeed, When the left screams ‘racist’ at Lieberman, Russian-Israelis take it to mean that veteran Israelis relate to them collectively as racists, and it only strengthens the attachment of the Russians to the political right. The left has been making terrible mistakes in its approach to the Russians since the big aliyah started back in 1989, so this is just the latest blunder, but it doesn’t make it any less egregious. Of course, the idea of detaching these areas from Israel is only admissible if the Israeli Arabs living there agree to become part of Palestine, which they bso far do not, and since the Palestinian state doesn’t appear to be imminent, its all an academic question at this point anyway. But the left should get it through its thick head that hurling insults at Lieberman only strengthens him anjd further alienates the million-strong Russian community.

The main point here is that in advocating such a ‘transfer’, Lieberman is tacitly acknowledging there will eventually be a Palestinian state in the West Bank to which to attach the Triangle and Um Al Fahm, which would appear to contradict the perception of him as an extreme rightist. In reality, as Prof. Zeev Khanin, the organizer of the Bar-Ilan conference, told me, Lieberman is really a pragmatist posing as an ideologue and is much less committed to traditional Revisionist Land of Israel ideology than his rival Netanyahu. And let’s not forget that Lieberman is pushing for civil marriage, something Netanyahu would never touch in a million years. So if, in the wake of the Lebanon disaster, the Israeli pendulum is again swinging sharply to the right, I say better that it should swing to Lieberman and the Russians, rather than Bibi and the Likud. Well, I may get my leftist credentials revoked for saying that, but hey, I could use a little credibility enhancement among the Russkis, pravda?

I want also to pay tribute here to Yuri Shtern, who is seriously ill with a brain tumor, but exhibited enormous grace and class during his appearance at the Bar Ilan conference. He was pale and hairless from chemotherapy and it was clear that public appearances are very draining for him, but he not only gave a speech, but stayed for hours listening to other speakers and engaging in conversations. Yuri and I are far apart politically—at least on issues related to war and peace, but I will never forget writing about him and his efforts on behalf of the refuseniks and Jews marooned in the Soviet Union during the 1980’s—including his appearances at Reagan-Gorbachev summits in Geneva and Reykjavik to my visit to his sister in Moscow in 1985, during my very first trip to Russia, and so many other wonderful encounters over the years.

And now that the party that he built together with Lieberman from the ground up, is nearing power, Yuri may be too sick to play a meaningful role; almost like Moses leading the Hebrews to Land of Israel, but not himself being allowed to enter. I want to salute Yuri with all my heart for a good and useful life devoted to the service of the Jewish people.

Continued...

My article on the Russian conference in JTA

I am including the link below to my published piece in JTA, and then the piece as I actually wrote it which was nearly twice as long and contains some important stuff which was unfortunately cut in the editing process. I am presently on deadling for a Jewish Week piece on
on sharply contrasting feelings among Russians about Avigdor Liberman as he stands poised to ascend to the government--the grass roots loves him but the intelligensia is much more ambivalent. I fly back to NY tonight and tommorow will place online here all sorts of stream of consciousness stuff on this trip and my encounter with Russian Israel. See below them link to JTA piece and then, for hard core rubyjewsday junkies, (if such truly exist), read the longer version.

http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?intarticleid=17190&intcategoryid=1

By Walter Ruby

RAMAT GAN—

Is the glass of the million-strong Russian-speaking community in Israel half empty or half full?

According to some of the leading lights of the Russian community, academicians as well as political leaders, who gathered here for a just concluded conference on the “Russian-Speaking Jewry In the Global Perspective: Power, Politics and Community” held at Bar-Ilan University, the state of Russian-Israeli reality at present is decidedly negative. Speaking in language at once emotional and clinical, they drew a picture of a community, which despite its huge demographic clout—about one out of six Israelis is Russian-speaking—faces considerable discrimination from veteran Israelis, who manifest a barely concealed antipathy to Russian language and culture. Even as Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the mainly Russian Yisrael Beiteinu party, jockeys for a powerful position within the coalition government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Russian sociologists and political scientists at the conference argued that the perception of Russian political power is somewhat illusory and that in other high prestige professional fields such as academia and the arts, Russians confront a ‘glass ceiling’ that prevent them from reaching the top.

Noting that there is not even one Russian university president in Israel, and only two Russian full-time Russian professors in the social sciences in all of Israel’s universities,” Dr. Eliezer Feldman, a sociologist from the Institute of Social and Political Research, commented, “In general, the situation is very bad. There is great resentment from veteran Israelis towards a community that wants to hang onto its language and culture.” Pointing out that a growing number of young Russians with higher education, including many who came to Israel as children or were born here, are now moving to Moscow in search of greater professional opportunity and higher pay, Feldman said, “What is significant in this is that those who have left or are planning to leave are not marginal people who can’t find themselves here, but rather talented young professionals. They don’t want to deal any more with a situation where they are part of a community that is near the bottom of the Israeli social ladder, on the same level as the Israeli Arabs. Should we be content that the Ethiopians are even lower than us?”

Dr. Alec Epstein, a political scientist at the Open University of Israel, remarked, “There is great frustration that even our best and brightest are being denied entry into the Israeli elite. Those Russians who have achieved great success and become well known, whether in politics, business, or the arts, have been accepted by veteran Israelis as representatives of the Russian community but almost never on their merits as individuals representing the best of Israel.” Epstein noted that in 2004, a widely discussed poll appeared in the Israeli media listing the 100 most influential figures in Israeli culture, and there was not a single Russian-speaker. In 2005, there was one Russian out of 100 in the same poll—Yevgeny Arye, artistic director of the mainly-Russian Gesher Theater.

Epstein said he felt insulted and incensed last spring when Olmert formed a cabinet without a single Russian-speaker—the first time there has been no Russian in the cabinet since 1996, and asserted that he made his selections based on his appraisal of the talent of prospective ministers, rather than on the basis of ensuring that particular ethnic communities would be represented. “Olmert appeared to be saying that not one of one million Russians in Israel was smart and talented enough to serve in his cabinet,” said Epstein. “I took that comment very personally.”

The conference, which drew 150 participants from Russia and the U.S. as well as from Israel, also made clear sharp divisions within the global Russian community. Dr. Sam Kliger, director of Russian Jewish Affairs at the American Jewish Committee, expressed displeasure that simultaneous translation of speeches at the conference was only available in Russian and Hebrew and not in English, a perceived slight that compelled him to deliver his remarks in Russian rather than in English as he desired, and which, he said, was symptomatic of a sense among Russian-American participants at the conference that “We are not taken seriously here. The sentiment at the conference is that the two axes of the Russian Jewish world are Jerusalem and Moscow, not the triangle of Israel, America and the former Soviet Union that we Russian-American Jews see as reality.” Zeev Khanin,, a professor of political science at Bar-Ilan, and chairman of the conference, which was sponsored by Bar-Ilan and the Rappaport Center for Assimilation Research and Strengthening Jewish Vitality, responded that the decision not to pay for English-language translation was based purely on budgetary considerations, but added, “The reality is that Russian Jewish organizations in America are still much smaller and weaker in terms of political clout and financial resources, than Russian Jewish bodies here and in Russia.”

Despite a fiery speech at the conference by Yuri Shtern , the second most powerful figure in Yisrael Beiteinu, contending that a plan being pushed by Lieberman advocating radical changes in Israel’s political system to create a strong executive would accrue to the advantage of grass roots Russian speakers, conference participants from varied political position indicated skepticism about Lieberman personally and about the efficacy of his plan.

“The reality is that Lieberman not really interested in helping Russians, but, rather, is completely out for himself,” said Alla Shainskaya, director of Biological Mass Spectrometry at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, and a member of the Meretz Party. “I believe he is a demagogue and dangerous to democracy.” Yuli Edelshtein, the former Minister of Immigrant Absorption and a prominent member of the Likud Party, remarked, “My personal opinion is that Lieberman’s plan and his desire to join Olmert’s government is a great mistake. Even if Olmert manages to bring Lieberman into the government over the objections of the Labor Party, Lieberman will not accomplish anything by going in except to split the national camp. If he goes that route, he will lose support on the political right, even within the Russian community.”

Not all participants in the conference agreed with the analysis that things are bad and getting worse for the Russians in Israel. Veteran political scientist and expert on emigration Prof. Yochanan Peres of Tel Aviv University and a Russian-born colleague Dr. Sabina Lissitsa, made a presentation of the results of a recent survey they conducted which showed relatively high levels of satisfaction among Russians with the quality of their housing, with their childrens’ academic progress and with the advancement of the Russian community in the Israeli political sphere; even while expressing frustration with their socio-economic status in relation to veteran Israelis and with their level of integration into Israeli culture and social relations with Israelis. Overall, Lissitsa said, “While there has not been as much progress as many Russians would like, there have been many positive developments and the situation is not nearly as bad as many contend.” Asked how their relatively upbeat report can be reconciled with expressions of gloom and doom by top-notch Russian academics and politicians, Peres replied that, as a general principle, leaders of communities in transition from disenfranchisement to empowerment like the Oriental Jews in Israel in the 1960 and 70’s and African-Americans in the U.S., “always present the state of things as worse than the objective reality” because, despite their personal success, they feel responsible to articulate the larger community’s overall sense of frustration. Paraphrasing a famous remark by Winston Churchill during World War II after the early tide of German victories had been blunted, but the Allies had not yet begun to win major battles of their own, Peres said that integration of Russian Jewry in Israel “is not yet at the beginning of the end, but rather at the end of the beginning.”

Naum Krupetsky, an 80-year-old retired doctor who came here from Ukraine with his family in 1991, said he agreed with the analysis of Peres and Lissita, remarking, “Community leaders often exaggerate how bad things are. In fact, pensioners like me have a wonderful life here, with good pensions that allow us to spend our time meeting and discussing political and cultural issues.” He added, “I myself have one daughter who is a physics teacher in a high school with a husband who is an electrician who live very well and are well-integrated. In contrast, my second works as a supermarket cashier and her husband despaired of making a decent living here and moved back to Ukraine. The reality is that some are more successful than others in adapting to a capitalist society where each individual has to take greater personal initiative than in the Soviet Union. Yet overall, I think Russians have done better than many here are saying.”

Nearly everyone in attendance agreed that the conference, which was the second such event convening of Russian Jewish academics and politicians from around the world under the aegis of Bar-Ilan and the Rappaport Center for (the first took place here two years ago) represents an important opportunity to take the temperature of world Russian Jewry that should be continued on a regular basis. Martin Horwitz, director of the American Jewish World Service Jewish Community Development Fund in Russia and Ukraine remarked, “This conference has been a very creative interchange between representatives of Russian-speaking Jewish communities around the world that gives us an opportunity to learn from each other’s experiences in developing new approaches to difficult problems.”

Olga Gershenson, a Russian-born and Israeli-raised academic who now teaches a course on Russian-Israeli films at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, commented, “This is the first conference I have ever attended that I witnessed a meaningful interaction between politicians and academics. The conference was quite politicized compared to most research conferences, but that is because there is so much at stake here and the issues hit very close to home.”

Khanin, the convener of both this conference and its predecessor in 2004, pronounced himself “very pleased that we have now developed a cadre of young Russian-speaking academics who specialize in this issue and have something to say to each other and to the larger Israeli society and Jewish world on the condition of Russian Jewry in Israel and around the world.” Yet Khanin said he was “disappointed that not one Hebrew-language media organ deigned to cover the conference. I see that as symptomatic of a general obliviousness from Israeli society concerning the issues facing the Russian community, and it is that very attitude that hurts us the most.”

Continued...

A Collective Cry of Pain

RAMAT GAN---

Yesterday's session of the conference here at Bar-Ilan University was extraordinary. The spectacle was some of the most accomplished, articulate and successful members of the Russian community in Israel; sociologists, politicians, scientists, writers, film critics, people of the right, center and left, emitting a collective cry of pain about the perceived failure of the Russian community to integrate in Israel after 16 yearts--the blame for which they place fully on the Israeli establishment. Political opinion ranged all the way from Yuri Shtern, the number 2 person of Lieberman's party, Yisrael Beiteinu, to Alla Shainskaya, a scientist at the Weizmann Institute and a Meretz person, but while these two and others disagree dramatically on where to move politically, especially obviously, on the Palestinian issue, they shared in the collective cry of pain. Not for themselves, personally, mind you; all of the people at the conference have done very well, thank you, in terms of having fulfilling, well paid careers. But they all affirm that Israel--left, right and center--has refused to accept and integrate the Russian community; that even the most successful Russians feel 'outside' , and not accepted socially, that many or even most other Russians feel their careers are being stunted by a 'glass ceiling' and that more and more young Russians--people in their 20's and 30's who came to Israel as children or were even born there--are despairing of the situation and considering moving back to Moscow, where they will also be outsiders but at least can make better money. This trend has increased since the recent Lebanon war--a deeply disheartening and painful experience for all concerned--but it has much deeper roots and causes than the war.

Two brilliant sociologists, Dr. Eliezer Feldman and Dr. Alex Epstein, shared a lot of statistics to flesh out what I have written here and to express a tranchant observation; that virtually no Russian--whether in politics, academia, business the arts etc and no matter how successful and well known he/she is--.have "made it" as full members of Israeli society. They have not been accepted as 'Israeli' artists, politicians, scientists, the way sabras are, or even Anglo-Saxon olim are. Rather, they made it as representatives of the Russian power block which the Israelis have had to swallow because there are over one million of them, a "critical mass." Thus, NONE of these highly successful people, whether Shtern, Shainskaya, Gaildemak, Leviev, Sharansky, film directors, musicians artists, and so many more, have been accepted, or felt accepted, as full Israelis.

All day, these brilliant, highly accomplished people, spoke of slights that they personally have had to endure or that the Russian collective has had to endure--for example of a highly successful young Russian female juornalist who speaks better Hebrew than Russian being hired as an anchorperson at Channel 2 television and soon being let go, presumably because the sabra audience couldnt tolerate her slight Russian accent. I was told by Dr. Zeev Khanin, the brilliant young political scientist at Bar Ilan who organized that he and one another professor at Bar-Ilan, Larissa Remennick, are the only full time Russian-speaking professors in the sciences at ANY Israeli university and that so many others who richly deserve full professorships are forced to take lesser positions. Then there was the situation this spring when Olmert didnt give a cabinet posiiton to Marina Solodkin, even though she was Number 7 in Kadima and much higher than others who got positions and then made matters worse by saying he chose caninet members based on talent and desire rather than for ethinic considerations. A number of speakers spoke about that comment as the ultimate slap in the face; a statement by the Israeli establishment that not even one out of over 1 million Russians was sufficiently talented or determined to be given a cabinet post.

The message coming out of the conference is that this community feels slapped in the face and spurned, and the negative consequences of this, both in terms of Russian yerida and in terms of Russians tuning out politically and/or turning out of frustration to extreme right, possibly anti-democratic political solutions, could be enormous.

Continued...

Have Arrived at Global Russian conference in Israel

Unfortunately, my plane was two hours late so arrived here at the for the last 15 minutes of the first day of the three day conference which is entitled "Russian-Speaking Jewry In Globel Perspective: Power, Politics and Community". It brings together academics and political types from the Russian communities in Russia, US, Israel and Germany to think together about the world Russian Jewish community and where it is going. I need to write two pieces by Monday; one on the conference itself for the JTA and a piece on the Avigdor Lieberman phenomenon for Jewish Week...Right now, its all a balagan in my mind, which has a lot to do with jet lag and being wide awake at 4 AM--The conference is at Bar-Ilan and I am staying at a charming hotel at Kfar Maccabiah in Ramat Gan, where I remember coming as a 12-year-old back in 1962 with my parents to say a soccer game, in which Israel defeated Italy-or so I thought until my father explained that actually Israel had defeated the Italian Jewish community's team. It was part of the Maccabiah, which is the Jewish Olympics. There are photos on the walls here from the opening of Kfar Maccabiah when it was a raw enclave on the edge of town--today, of course, it is swallowed in the Tel Aviv meglopolis; a lovely enclave with palms and luxuriant gardens surrounded on all sides by big roads and traffic in near perpetual gridlock.


Had an interesting discussion over dinner with a Russian social scientist whose name I seem to have already forgotten who researches Jewish identity among people in Russia with one Jewish parent and one Russian one--a category that has included many of Russia's top politicians over the past 15 years. The social scientist hereself is of a mixed marriage and she and I had a fun discussion about Jewish identity in Russia and America. It is amazing to me that she is being paid by the Russian government to research Jewish identity at a top Russian institute...I spoke briefly with Genya Satanovsky, a colorful character who I have known since the 1980's and who once headed the Russian Jewish Congress. People who heard his speech said he seemed basically to be saying that things are better and better for the Jews of Russia and to give a fairly glowing picture of the Putin government. Interesting, as six years ago, Putin drove Genya's then patron, Gusinsky out of the country and put the Russian Jewish community effectively into the hands of Genya's arch-enemies, Chabad. But apparently there are no permanent enemies, only interests, and certainly a lot of vada pod mostu (water under the bridge) since then. OK, I'll be back at this in 24 hours or so, when I have more congent info to impart. Maybe I'll try to sleep for another hour.

Continued...

Human Rights Activists In Moscow Wear Yellow Stars To Protest Kremlin Crackdown On Georgians

Kol Hakavod to these courageous human rights activists , including many Jews, who were right on target to put on yellow stars and carry signs saying "I'm A Georgian" to protest the Kremlin's thuggish explusion campaign of Georgians from Moscow.

http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?intarticleid=17155&intcategoryid=2

As a community that experienced the Holocaust, it is forbidden for Jews to turn away and remain silent when another ethnic group is chosen for discrimination and ethnic cleansing. It is sad that official Russian Jewish organizations, like the Russian Jewish Congress, have not shown similar courage to speak out. It is all well and good to sponsor multi-million dollar remembrance ceremonies like the just completed event at Babi Yar. But what about present day violations of human rights by one's own government like the anti-Georgian crackdown and the murder of Anna Poitkovskaya?

However, good for Baruch Gorin, spokesman for FEOR, for having the guts to say on the record that what the Putin government is doing to the Georgians is "very dangerous."

Continued...

My Latest Jewish Week Piece

The Congressman, The Mosque and The Temple

http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=13099

Continued...

The Links Are Up At Last!!??

Dima Zabarko, my intrepid webmaster qua connection to the younger generation of 'raised in America' Russian Jews has put up the links on rubyjewsday. Wat tak, na kanyetz. Or so Dima tells me and so my equally intrepid brother Dan--another web genius with his own multifaceted site www.festivalpreview.com claims.

The problem is ya nichevo nye viju, I cant see the flocking links even though I keep refreshing and trying. How to see them? Dan tells me the following;

"Walter, To see them, you may have to empty your cache or clear history or whatever they call it in Explorer. It is probably under the tools menu. You might also consider downloading Firefox and use that as your browser instead of Explorer. It is available for free at http://www.mozilla.com/.

OK, whatever. Cant you guys speak English, Russian, Ivreet, Swahili,. anything except this damn web parlance? Hey, I'm from a previous generation. Nu charasho, I'll get there yet. What I really want to know is if Dima, Lenny Gusel, Lenny Petlakh or any others of this moladoye pokoleniye is about to invent the new 'You Tube', Russian variant, and let me invest in it. Nu, davai, reebyata, I'm not getting any younger. Dima got me into this blog by holding out prospects it could eventually become a money maker; now that we (allegedly) have our links, its time to start thinking in that direction. I've done my part (sort of), what I want to know is when Google is going to come around offering millions (I realize billions probably wont happen) to buy me out. I'm even ready to sell out to a Republican or a Likudnik if the price is right.

OK, a few announcements. As promised, I'll have up my thought piece on Putin and the Russian-American Jewish Community: Engagement or New Cold War in the next couple of days...On Monday, I'm flying to good old Eretz Israel for a conference at Bar Ilan University on the global Russian community. There should be some excellent commentary coming out of that, including perspectives from Israeli Russians on Avigdor Lieberman, the Russian man on horseback, aka silnaya ruka, and possible future Prime Minister. So good stuff coming up. Life is sweet, and there is much to write ---nu, if I could only see those damn links.

Whimsically,

Walter

Continued...

Comments from Kagan

I just want to remind my opponent that I received 49% of total vote in 46 District.

It's much more than just Brighton Beach. Talking about Russian community, I won heavily Russian Shorefront Y and Grady High School (polling sites at Brighton), Habor Houses (West 24 Street), PS 90 (Luna Park) and many other Election Districts.

Ari Kagan

Continued...

Kagan: I Will Never Concede The Election To Brook-Krasny

Nearly a month after apparently narrowly losing the State Assembly race to Alec Brook-Krasny, Ari Kagan is still spitting defiance and vowing to fight on.

In comments to rubyjewsday, Kagan said that he is still considering filing a lawsuit in order to invalidate the results of the September 12 primary with a goal of “preventing Brook-Krasny’s name from appearing on the November 7 ballot.” According to Kagan, “I have decided that I will never concede this election because I believe I won it and have an obligation to attain justice for people who were denied the right to vote.” Claiming that he expects to submit evidence soon in court to prove that many of his supporters were illegally denied the right to vote and that Brook-Krasny personally interfered with the balloting, Kagan said he decided not to file his legal action in State Court out of concern the Brooklyn Democratic machine might influence the verdict, but is likely to file his prospective lawsuit in another court. While he would not confirm this, it seems likely Kagan is considering filing his prospective lawsuit in a federal court.

Kagan said his decision not to concede the election and instead to threaten legal action has been influenced by Brook-Krasny and his supporters whom, Kagan said, have continued to denounce him in personal terms instead of reaching out to him in the wake of the election. “Brook-Krasny is still calling me a Communist and talking about my attending the Lvov Political—Military School. His supporters continue to smear me.” Kagan said that if he determines he has a strong enough case, he may file the lawsuit at any time between now and November 7; asking the court to invalidate the results of the Democratic primary in the 46th Assembly District and order a new election.

But should anyone take such a threat seriously given that he has not filed suit until now and that less than a month remains before the November 7 general election? "A lot of people did not believe I would stay in the election after Brook-Krasny came in, and a lot of people expected he would win easily," Kagan responded. "I proved that I was serious by running a very strong race. I am very serious about what I am doing now.”

For his part, Brook-Krasny dismissed as baseless Kagan’s charges that he had interfered with the voting and said that one of Kagan’s own supporters was physically removed by police from the Shorefront Y for allegedly improperly interfering with voters there. Krasny said Kagan had not yet filed a lawsuit because his lawyer “understands there are no grounds for legal action.”

Asked whether it will be hard to project himself as the voice of the Russian community in Albany when he apparently lost the Russian vote to Kagan in the primary and when Kagan and his supporters remain bitter and unreconciled, Krasny responded, “Look, Brighton Beach is not the whole Russian community. If I lost in Shorefront, I won the Russian vote in Coney Island. Even if the majority of people in Brighton Beach voted for a different person, I have two years to convince them to vote for me (in 2008). They will see I will be able to connect them with the people (in government) who can provide them with services.”

Might it not be possible for him as the apparent winner of the primary to make a conciliatory gesture to Kagan and his avid supporters? “I am supposed to make a gesture after all his campaign said about me and my family? Its not gonna happen,” Brook-Krasny said emphatically. My mother couldn’t sleep for a few nights after all the things they said about me being pro-Kremlin.”

I then got into an extended discussion with Brook-Krasny about the entire issue—which so roiled his contest with Kagan --- of whether and how the Russian Jewish community here should engage with the Russian government. I will publish the results of that discussion on rubyjewsday in the next day or two.

Continued...

Bush: Good for the Jews?

According to exit polling conducted during the 2004 Presidential elections by RINA (Research Institute for New Americans), more than 75 percent of Russian-speakers in New York voted for George W. Bush over John Kerry.

According to RINA’s director Dr. Sam Kliger, who also serves as Director of Russian Jewish Affairs at the American Jewish Committee, the vote was first and foremost an expression of appreciation for Bush’s strong support for Israel during the Intifada, but also an appreciation for many Bush policies like his tax cuts and embrace of traditional values. Kliger has argued that Russians ‘don’t get’ liberal causes like defense of civil liberties, separation of church and state, and gay rights and therefore prefer the harder-line more traditional Republican approach.

Events of the past week or two might give pause to Russian FOBs (friends of Bush). The recent National Intelligence Estimate report found that the centerpiece of Bush’s foreign policy, the invasion and occupation of Iraq, has become a “cause celebre” that has strengthened Islamic extremism and jihadism throughout the Middle East and around the world, rather than weakening it as Bush has insisted. Does anyone believe that strengthening jihadism is good for Israel—especially since stirring up jihadism can only increase the hatred for Israel and desire to attack the Jewish state? Also, as Americans become progressively more insistent upon withdrawal from Iraq, as will almost certainly happen in the coming months and years, will they be more likely to embroil themselves further in the Middle East by intervening on behalf of Israel? I doubt it.

On the domestic front, we have had a series of horrendous attacks by madmen on schoolchildren, including sexual predators with guns that molested and murdered teenage girls in Colorado and Pennsylvania. Their sickness cannot be blamed on either party, but the ease with which they are able to arm themselves with guns, can certainly be laid at the door of the Republicans, who successfully prevent the passage of even modest gun-control proposals. These are good old Republican ‘family values’; making sure that everyone in the country can arm themselves to the teeth with all manner of guns, and then go and take the lives of innocents?

Now we have the spectacle of Congressmen Mark Foley (R-Florida) being forced to resign after his sick e-mails and instant messages to teenage boys were revealed. And guess what, the Republican leaders like Speaker of the House Denny Hastert and Majority Leader John Boehner—those stern avatars of traditional values—turn out to have been aware of some of Foley’s “overly-friendly” e-mails months ago, but to have done nothing about it except ask Foley not to further contact one of the teenagers he had been in touch with. They were more concerned about keeping things quiet and keeping the Democrats and the press from finding out—so as to protect Foley’s congressional seat--than to conduct an investigation into whether someone who sent such an e-mail might have been trying to seduce other youngsters.


Then there is the detainee bill the president forced through Congress that strips detainees of a habeas corpus right to challenge their detentions in court and will continue to allow U.S. interrogators to use a variety of techniques that much of the enlightened world would consider to be torture, or very close to it. The law, which Bush aggressively pushed through Congress and which many Democrats were too cowardly to stand against, violates some of the most basic rights guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution, as Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich) pointed out when he said that the Bush bill provision “is as legally abusive of the rights guaranteed in the Constitution as the actions at Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo and secret prisons were physically abusive of detainees.”

Many ex-Soviet Jews were beaten, tortured, psychologically abused and imprisoned without recourse to the legal system in their former homeland. They came here to live in a democracy where basic human rights are protected. Can they really be comfortable to find out that some of those basic human rights have now been dumped, as America moves in a more authoritarian direction, thanks to Bush, Cheney and company?

But don’t worry, I hear many of you saying, the kind of abuses we are talking about, will only be done to suspected Muslim terrorists in faraway places like Guantanamo. If you believe that, read the following horror story in this week’s Jewish Week about several young Israelis who were held in a prison right here in good old Brooklyn and claim to have been mercilessly tortured by their jailers as suspected terrorists.


http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=13052

Once basic rights start being taken away, it can happen to anyone, Jews included.

Perhaps Russian Jews will begin to rethink their support for Bush and the far right of the American political spectrum. You say that despite everything we shouldn’t forget that Bush is ‘good for the Jews’? Well, with due respect, if Bush is really ‘good for the Jews’, I’d hate to see what ‘bad’ would look like.

Continued...