thoughts on the shooting of Yevgeny Marshalik, Russian-Jewish feelings of vulnerability and the task ahead

Dear readers, sorry for my long absence. I have been dealing with the after affects of illness and have had minumum emotional and physical energy for spilling my guts here, especially after finishing my duties for Jewish Week, Daily News etc. Let me reconnect here with my latest Jewish Week story about the death of hero auxiliary cop Yevgeni Marshalik z"l, and his father's campaign to get auxiliary cops the right to wear bulletproof vests. Then read on for some musings on the pain such an incident evokes in the Russian community

My discussion with Boris Marshalik, a well known pediatrician in the Russian community with an office in Sheepshead Bay, was moving on several levels. Here is a guy who emigrated with his wife from Pyatigorsk, not far from Chechnya back in 1994, seeking a more secure place of habitation for his two sons, and then the older one, Yevgeni, an honor student in Brooklyn, goes to Stuyvesant H.S. and witnesses 9/11 up close and personal and insists on staying at Stuy for all four years of high school even though his family has in the meantime moved to the security of Woodmere, Long Island with quality public schools. The 9/11 experience impacts him deeply--drawing him toward law enforcement--and he decided to study to be a prosecutor and to become an auxiliary cop. He and a partner get word on their radios that a man has left a crime scene, having apparently shot someone and they pursue him and demand he stop, even though they are without weapons. The man shoots the two of them dead execution style.


What does it all mean? First, the Marshaliks' lives have been devastated; their wonderful 19 year old son so full of promise has been stolen from them in a city where they had reason to believe he would be safe. I heartily endorse Boris Marshalik's campaign--supported by Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny who will introduce a bill in the State Legislature that auxiliary cops be given bulletproof vests if they desire. Brook-Krasny noted that Eugene Marshalik is the first Russian-speaker to have died in the line of duty defending the New York community, and that evokes feelings of pride and deep sadness.

In a larger sense, the incident graphically evoked the sense of vulnerability so many Russian Jews in New York feel. They came here to escape anti-Semitism and violence, and suddenly Islamist terrorists strike New York, their place of refuge and murder nearly 3000 innocent people, including several Russian Jews. Meanwhile, in Israel, all the close relatives and friends of members of the Russian community here feel continually under siege from what they perceive as the same enemy. Many Russian Jews have already died serving in the IDF and as civilians in terrorist attacks.

The bitter truth is that there is no safe haven, whether from criminals, as in the case of Marshalik, or from terrorism. That sense of vulnerability, the unfairness of it, has caused many Russian Jews to look for answers and solutions to the extreme right--advocates of militance, hatred and repression vis a vis Muslims/Arabs/Palestinians, whether in Israel or the U.S. That is understandable, but the truth is that approach is unethical, unJewish and unworkable. There ARE reasons for fear--nothing is safe or guaranteed in life, whereever one lives. Any of us can get shot on the streets of Greenwich Village or Brighton Beach tomorrow, any of us could be blown to smithereens by a terrorist bomb at any moment, just as we may, God forbid, come down with incurable cancer like Elizabeth Edwards. It is also true that there ARE many Muslims and Palestinians who hate Jews, Israelis and Americans enough to blow them up as suicide bombers. There are also many Muslims, Arabs and Palestinians--many more than the bombers--who would like to live normal lives and want their children to live better lives than they have had. The question is which set of of Israeli or U.S. policies will stimulate Muslim/Arab/Palestinian hatred and violence and which set of policies will strengthen the will to moderation and compromise--accepting the permanence of Israel among other things--as a condition for giving their children better lives.

I believe passionately that the Likud line and the Bush line only stimulates Muslim hatred and violence and makes all of us a lot less safe than we would be otherwise, whether in Jerusalem or New York. Muslims are human beings, just like we are, and we have to reach out to them, communicate and seek to find common ground. The path of peace and reconciliation is difficult and fraught with dangers, but the path of confrontation and repression is ultimately more dangerous and dimishes the humanity within us.