Three large Jewish organizations are creating a hostile environment between Jews and Ukrainians by continuing to portray Ukrainians as anti-semites and leading a campaign to discredit the Ukrainian community, says a Ukrainian American author, social activist and editorialist.

"When I speak of 'the Jews', I don't mean all Jews, maybe not even most Jews. In my references to Jews in my remarks today I am specifically targeting the Jewish nomenklatura, three large Jewish organizations in particular whose ostensible purpose is to protect the good name and interests of the Jewish community but who are presently helping to create a hostile environment between Ukrainians and Jews. These organizations are the Anti-Defamation League, the World Jewish Congress, and the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles," said Dr. Myron Kuropas before an audience of 550 in Toronto, March 29, 1998.

"Let me also state emphatically that I am not denying the murderous acts committed by some Ukrainians against Jews during the Second World War. These crimes are known and were condemned by Ukrainian leaders such as Metropolitan Sheptytsky. These crimes, however, are not representative of the Ukrainian people as some members of the Jewish nomenklatura would have the world believe," he added.

"When Dr. Mikhail Stern, a Ukrainian Jew who was saved from a long imprisonment in Soviet Ukraine by Ukrainians who refused to testify against him arrived in Israel and dared mention that Ukrainians had assisted him, he was condemned. He later wrote a book and came to the United States where he was warmly welcomed by Ukrainians but ignored by the Jewish nomenklatura.

"Another person who received the cold shoulder form the Jewish nomenklatura is Yakov Suslensky, a Jewish refusenik living in Israel. He was saved from death by Ukrainians and he decided to dedicate his life to improving Ukrainian-Jewish relations. He visited the United States on three occasions and was warmly welcomed by Ukrainians. Among Jews, however, he was either ignored or condemned as a traitor," Dr. Kuropas added.

He singled out Simon Wiesenthal as a person "whose hatred of Ukrainians is limitless, despite the fact that he was saved from death by a Ukrainian."

Dr. Kuropas said that in Weisenthal's book Justice, Not Vengeance, he writes: "Accounts will have to be settled one day also between Ukrainians and Jews."

He noted that the creation of the Office of Special Investigations in the United States, which was responsible for the deportation of John Demjanjuk and has been found to have committed "fraud on the court" in the Demjanjuk case, "was tailor-made for Ukrainophobes."

"People like Eli Rosenbaum and Neal Sher whose disdain for Ukrainians is legendary have crafted comfortable careers around their bigotry," Dr. Kuropas said.

"In fairness, however, I need to mention those Jews who have tried to be more balanced regarding Ukrainian-Jewish relations. They include Harold Troper and Morton Weinfield co-authors of Old Wounds: Jews, Ukrainians and the Hunt for Nazi War Criminals in Canada; Kurt I. Lewin, author of A Journey Through Illusions; and Howard Aster who collaborated with Professor Peter Potichnyj in authoring Ukrainian-Jewish Relations in Historical Perspective. None of these books have been favorably received by the Jewish nomenklatura.

"Nor has the Jewish nomenklatura reacted kindly to the writings of Leo Heiman, Arnold Margolin, David Kahane, Rabbi David H. Lincoln, Solomon Goldman, Bill Wolfe and other pro-Ukrainian Jews," said Dr. Kuropas.

The effect on the Ukrainian community is that its reputation has been sullied, Ukrainian suffering during the Holocaust has been denied and the constant and unremitting references to Jewish suffering has kept the spotlight off the Ukrainian famine, he said.

He suggested that the Ukrainian community learn from the Jews and mobilize its resources.

"Adopt a dual-approach; a kind of "good cop/bad cop" paradigm. Your good cops should meet with the Jews realizing that Jews love to dialogue and are masters of the art. They dialogue with everyone, more than any other single group. I have spent two decades being dialoguing and have received two awards from the American Jewish Committee for my efforts," he noted.

"Your bad cops should go on the offensive reminding Jews of Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Sverdlov, and Kaganovich, Jewish Bolsheviks without whom the murderous Soviet regime would have collapsed in its infancy. Remind Jews also of the thousands of Jewish NKVD and KGB officers who worked so diligently to preserve the Soviet empire. Let the Jews go on the defensive for a change. The crimes of their people cannot be explained away easily." Dr. Kuropas said.

He also urged the community to publish more materials.

"The more books, articles, commentaries, you have out there, the better chance you have of reaching objective Canadians whose perceptions of Ukrainians should be of concern to you," he explained.

The lecture was organized by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, Toronto Branch which has also started a political action group called the "Committee for Justice". Admission fees to the lecture went to this committee, which also received donations of $500 from Buduchnist Credit Union and the Ukrainian Credit Union, plus $250 from So-Use Credit Union.

In her opening remarks, UCC Toronto President Maria Szkambara, who is also the chairperson of the newly created committee, informed the audience about its work.

"The STOP postcard campaign has already landed 26,000 postcards in Ottawa. Also, close to 7,000 letters to various ministers and MP's have been delivered" she said.

Olya Odynsky Grod, whose father Wasyl Odynsky faces deportation from Canada as a "war criminal" even though the government has not charged him with any war crime (see Ukrainian News February 25 - March 10, 1998), spoke about the impact of the government's actions against her father, upon her family, and upon the Ukrainian community.

"Speaking about this situation is very personal and very difficult", she said. "But it must be done."

Philanthropist Peter Jacyk, who spearheaded the campaign to help Demjanjuk urged the community to donate to the committee.

"Don't just give us your ideas about what the committee should do, dig deep into your pockets and give us the money to do it with", he said.

Master of Ceremonies for the event was Jurij Klufas, executive producer of the Kontakt television program.