The presentation of the Russia’s Jewish Community’s team of experts’ report, which deals with the problem of antisemitism, took place in the independent press room in Moscow. This team of experts was established some years ago with the support of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress.
While presenting the “Antisemitism in Russia in 2010” report to journalists, Prof. Mikhail Chlenov, Secretary-General for the Jewish Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, mentioned that the experts team was established by various major Jewish organizations aiming at “tracking the antisemitism state of affairs in Russia and to identify different trends of this despicable phenomenon”.
According to the Secretary-General of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, these reports, regularly published by the team of experts, are used by the global centers tasked with monitoring of antisemitism, when preparing their reports concerning the situation in Russia.
When talking about the antisemitism situation in Russia, Mikhail Chlenov emphasized that as from 2009, there has been a decrease trend in the figures of antisemitism incidents. In 2010, there were 3 registered cases of antisemitic assaults, one registered case of Jewish graves desecration, 13 registered assault incidents against Synagogue or Jewish institutions, 25 registered instances of hate signs and graffiti sprayings aimed against Jews – 42 cases altogether. For the sake of comparison – in the UK, 639 incidents were registered during the corresponding period. According to the Secretary-General of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, the decrease trend demonstrated in the numbers of antisemitic incidents stems from two reasons – The intensified activity of the law-enforcing authorities against the activities carried out by the extremist activists and the emboldened winds of right-wing conservationists, who do not consider the Jews as their number one enemy.
Victor Dashevsky, deputy chairman of the Center for the Combat against Fascism in Moscow, stressed, to the extent that he’s concerned, that the “The phenomenon of decrease in the number of antisemitic incidents does not provide any justification for tranquility and complacency. First of all, according to him, the fact that the Jews are nowadays less considered than before as the source of all evil, a trait which is being increasingly attributed to people from the Caucasus region, from Central-Asian countries and from the “third world”, is of no consolation to the Jews. The deputy chairman of the Center for the Combat against Fascism cited the summary part of the team of experts report: “The situation of antisemitism in Russia resembles a rotting bog swamp: The spreading of the latent antisemitism may lead under certain circumstances (as proved by the incidents of December 11th 2010) to an explosion”.
Crimes and Offenses related to negative attitude towards Jews
Motivation, incitement for the perpetration of hostile actions against Jews
The consolidation of the negative ethnical stereotype in relation to the Jewish People
Revisionism of the significance of the Holocaust
Expressions of antisemitism by government officials
Authority’s reaction to expressions of antisemitism
