On the 22nd of September, the Kyiv Scientists' House of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine hosted a lecture by Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) General Council Member Vyacheslav Likhachev. Likachev, who heads the EAJC program on monitoring and analyzing displays of xenophobia, spoke on anti-Semitism and racism in post-Soviet countries as part of the "Polit.ua Public Lectures Project."
The lector touched upon anti-Semitism and xenophobia in mass consciousness and the media, the election results of right-wing radicals and ultra-nationalist parties, neo-Nazi youth subcultures, and hate crimes and the reaction of the law enforcement and other government authorities to them. He gave special attention to the dynamic in these spheres in recent years, and compared the situations in different countries of the FSU and Eastern Europe.
The lecture provoked a lively response and a long discussion, in which both important scholars and journalists took part.
The video and transcription of the lecture will soon be available on Polit.ua.
The EAJC monitors displays of anti-Semitism and xenophobia in the entire region. Vyacheslav Likhachev edits a yearly collection of articles titled "Anti-Semitism in Eurasian Countries," which has become authoritative among experts on the topic. The EAJC monitoring serves as the basis for reports on anti-Semitism in the region for many important organizations, including the US State Department, the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism of Tel-Aviv University, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, and many others.