Nationalist Trends in Central and Eastern Europe and in the CIS:

New Challenges Facing the Jewish Communities

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Antisemitism was an accepted element of life in prewar central and eastern Europe. In some countries (e.g., Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, Latvia) national fascist movements aligned with the Nazis and worked cooperatively in the persecution and murder of Jews. In others (e.g., Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania) popular dislike of Jews helped facilitate the genocidal plans of the Nazis. In all these countries an honest and critical self-examination has only been possible in the last two decades.

Interest in securing membership in NATO and in the European Union helped focus the attention of political leaders in these nations, which in turn led to the creation of historical commissions, Holocaust education and commemoration programs and promises to address issues such as property restitution and combating antisemitism and xenophobia. While there has been genuine progress in many areas, problems persist and government commitments have diminished.

Attitude and opinion surveys continue to reveal significant anti-Jewish sentiments in many of these countries. Nationalist and populist press and Internet sites frequently contain antisemitic material. This hateful public discourse poses a distinct security threat to Jewish communities in the region.

Skinhead and neo-Nazi groups have become a common feature in many places, and governments have a mixed record in dealing with this new phenomenon. In some countries right wing, extremist political parties have emerged with surprising popular support. Although the primary targets of these groups are more frequently Roma or other minorities, antisemitism remains a common thread in all of them. 

Discussions about Holocaust history and negotiations for the return of former Jewish property are frequently accompanied by antisemitic reactions in the media and on the Internet. Rather than confront these antisemitic manifestations directly, political leaders frequently avoid public comment altogether.

Several eastern European Governments have adopted legislation or pressed efforts within the EU to commemorate the victims of Communism. In doing so they have often equated the crimes of the Soviets with those of the Nazis and opened the door to Holocaust revisionism. In some places this follows post-Communist efforts to rehabilitate former Nazi-era fascist leaders and creates an ambiguous or even distorted view of the history of the Shoah and its context.  

The CIS—and in particular, Russia and Ukraine—pose some of the same problems but also represent a special challenge because they still are home to significant Jewish communities. In Soviet times antisemitism was a tool of the state and restrictions on Jewish communal life and discrimination in education and employment were well-known. While this has ended and a genuine Jewish revival is underway, popular forms of antisemitism have also resurfaced. Antisemitic literature is readily available, and skinhead and neo-Nazi groups—especially in Russia—have become a serious problem. Other minorities may be the first targets of these groups, but they also hold strongly antisemitic views, and Jews have been counted among their victims.

While it is important to understand the reasons for the revival of this right wing, nationalist antisemitic behavior in central and eastern Europe, the workshop discussions will focus on the pragmatic steps that must be taken to engage governments and civil society in the region to confront and combat this problem.