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By Micah D. Halpern
June 30, 2005
Here's the thing about anti-Semitism. Eventually, the secret gets out.
Anti-semitism is not an emotion you can hide. You can try, but the venom is so strong, so powerful, so visceral, that inevitably it pokes its way out and reveals the true inner hatred. People can't hide their anti-semitic proclivities. Neither can nations.
Look no farther than the so-called newly-emancipated Russia of today. Russian State Prosecutors officially called a leading Moscow Rabbi, Zinovy Kogan, to investigate an ancient Jewish religious text that, it was claimed, was "provoking racial hatred."
The text, in Russian translation, is the Kitzur Shulkhan Arukh ( the "Shortened Set Table"), the condensed version of the Code of Jewish Law. The original, complete edition of the Shulkhan Arukh was written by Yosef Caro in the 16th Century in the city of Safed, Israel. The Russian version printed in three editions over the past few years has a run of about 5000 copies.
On Tuesday the prosecution dropped the investigation. It was dropped not because it lacked merit, but because significant international political pressure was brought upon the prosecutor's office.
As this story unfolds, it becomes obvious that the Moscow district prosecutors did not pursue this case on their own initiative, nor were they following the whim of a lone office underling. It was too quiet too high up in the ranks. Silence, in Russia, is acquiescence. And although Russian President Putin did issue a statement of condemnation, simple silence on everyone else's part spoke louder and more forcefully.
The decision to investigate the revered Jewish text was a decision that clearly had quiet agreement. It had it now just as it did in January when a similar investigation was launched.
The Russian Foreign Ministry refused to answer Israel's request for an explanation as to what was happening in the case and why.
The Kremlin was silent on the matter.
There is no explanation for anti-semitism. Trying to explain it away only makes matters worse. For example: one Russian senior political analyst suggested that official Russian government silence implied that the Russians were waiting it out to in order to extort more political clout out of Israel when the Russians finally resolved the controversy. Huh? That same source was quoted in the Israeli press as saying that the Russian government prefers the situation to be even more public and heated, so that the government will be able to exploit it better.
If today's Russia were truly run by progressive government, leaders of the legal system would have denounced and disclaimed the prosecution and immediately declared it for what it was. They would have called it a terrible mistake unbefitting the New Russia. But to wait. To see how it plays out. To assume that by eliminating the investigation, by fixing things, you are doing Israel a favor, well, that's just the epitome of arrogance. And it is the definition of anti-semitism.
Russia should fix it because it was wrong. They should fix it because selecting to prosecute Jews through the pretext of ancient Jewish texts is a violation of the very essence of a democratic judicial system. And spreading untruths about Jews is what the old Russia under the Czars did not what the New Russia does. Ethical, moral, accountable, responsible government must understand this.
Anti-semitism. Exploitation. Silent acquiescence. It seems like the new Russia is a lot like the old Russia. It seems that just as anti-semitism was at the very core of the old Russia, it is at the very core of the new Russia. It seems that way because it is that way. The prosecutor's office only bought what we all knew was lurking, festering, inside out into the open.
Shame on you Mother Russia.
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