Jewish leaders in Ukraine have purchased newspaper advertising to publish an open letter they wrote earlier this month accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of dishonesty regarding the extent of anti-Semitism in Ukraine.
“The Russian-speaking
citizens of Ukraine are not being humiliated or discriminated against, their
civil rights have not been limited. Meanderings about ‘forced Ukrainization’ and ‘bans on the Russian language’ that have been so common in Russian media
are on the heads of those who invented them. Your certainty of the growth of
anti-Semitism in Ukraine also does not correspond to the actual facts. It seems
you have confused Ukraine with Russia, where Jewish organizations have noticed
growth in anti-Semitic tendencies last year,” according to an excerpt of the letter.
Natalia A. Feduschak,
the director of communications for the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter, said that
full-page ads have been purchased in the March 26 New York Times and
International New York Times as well as Canada’s National Post and Israel’s
Haaratez newspaper. Feduschak said that more advertising space will be
purchased in the future.
The letter is supported by a number of Jewish businesspeople,
artists, scientists and public figures and has 222 signatures in all.
