Euroasian Jewish News

Statement of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress on the Expert Opinion on the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice

The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) is indignant to see the free use of anti-Semitic rhetoric by Ukrainian radical-nationalists, which has become notably stronger after the Svoboda party entered the Ukrainian parliament.

The EAJC is bewildered to see the expert opinion of the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice, which has been given in response to a query made by worried citizens. This expert opinion states that Ukrainian law does not have any regulations prohibiting the use of the words “kike,” “kikess,” or “kikes” (“jyd”, “jydovka”, “jyds”), as they are natural for the Ukrainian language. This answer spread like wildfire through the Internet and, unfortunately, became “breaking news,” thus actually legitimizing usage of these words.

The position of the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice is even more worrying in light of the fact that after the most recent parliamentarian elections, the Ukrainian parliament now hosts unabashed nationalists, for whom anti-Semitic calls to fight against “moskals (derogatory term for Russian – ed.), kikes, and other vermin” have long become the norm. Moreover, Svoboda's representatives have announced that they will not be abandoning their usage of “kike,” and cited classics of Ukrainian literature to support their argument.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Justice with its “unbiased,” so to speak, position, gives an unambiguous signal to all open and closeted anti-Semites alike to unashamedly use in their rhetoric one of the most emphatic terms in the arsenal of all the “fighters against the Jewish plague” - a stereotype that has been humiliating Jews for hundreds of years on a huge territory. By protecting contemporary anti-Semites (what is not prohibited is allowed) in Ukraine, the Justice Department unties the hands of all fellows of Ukrainian nationalists, thus abetting the horrible European disease of the mind which had resulted in the death of millions of Jews in the last century.

We believe that a vocabulary entry in the Academic Dictionary of the Ukrainian Language (which gives two meanings to “jydy”: an outdated appellation of the Jews and an insulting appellation of the Jews) does not in any way free Ukrainian authorities of the necessity of a decisive political evaluation to the juridical condonation of anti-Semitism in the country.

In any other case, the virulent disease of Judophobia can very quickly overtake the entire territory of the former Soviet Union, threatening the seedlings of freedom and democracy, and will certainly harm the international reputation of our countries.

We hope that the leadership of the new Ukraine will not allow the nationalists to disgrace the country in the eyes of the global community and will take an assertive political and humanitarian stance, as befitting the largest European state.