Even grassroots anti-Semitism is minimal in Russia - FCJR
MOSCOW. Sept 21 (Interfax) - The Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (FCJR) finds that Russia has virtually been cured of anti-Semitism.
"As to Russia, it's mainly grassroots anti-Semitism, but this has been minimized over the past few years," FCJR President Alexander Boroda said in an interview with Interfax-Religion on the occasion of the Jewish New Year.
Even in the United States, there are currently marginal groups that have nationalist views, he said. "Cases of Jews repatriating to Israel from France due to the dangerous situation for Jewish life caused by the high number of migrants and frequent terrorist attacks based on ethnic intolerance have become frequent" over the past few years, he said.
The largest Jewish diaspora, over 5.4 million people, now lives in the United States, followed by Russia with about one million people, Boroda said. Large Jewish diasporas also exist in France, the UK, and Canada.
As for the 100th anniversary of the revolution in Russia, Boroda said it is wrong to blame Jews for the disasters that shocked the country on the grounds that most members of the Bolshevik government were Jews.
"The Bolshevik government composed of Jews is a myth invented in the period of the Civil War. The so-called 'top' was more or less international. And those ethnic Jews who were included in it were Jews by nationality, but they were not religious people, and, above all, they were citizens of the country with political convictions and views that did not depend on their origin in any way," Boroda said.
In the years of the rule of the atheist regime, "there were rabbis who were killed for fighting for the existence of Jewish tradition and culture," he said.