Ukrainian Jews split vote in election

KIEV, Ukraine, Nov. 22 (JTA) — Ukrainian Jews mirrored the rest of the country in this week’s presidential elections — both in how they voted and in their strong reactions to the controversial results. Many Jews, pleased with the status quo, backed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, who was backed by the government in Sunday’s runoff vote. “I voted for stability in Ukrainian society,” said Pyotr Rashkovsky, head of the Association of Jewish Communities of Small Towns of Ukraine, which unites Jewish groups in a dozen former shtetls in the central part of the country. “I know that most Jews in my region also supported Yanukovich.” But others echoed the sentiments of the estimated 100,000 to 200,000 Ukrainian voters who took to the streets of Kiev on Monday after Yanukovich was declared the winner over the liberal opposition candidate, Viktor Yuschenko. “After the total falsification of the results of the presidential elections, the people demand to announce Yuschenko the next president,” said Eduard Gurvitz, a Jewish member of Parliament and former mayor of Odessa who supported Yuschenko. The choice of the new president will certainly influence Ukraine’s future for the next five years and may prove crucial for Western and Russian strategic interests in Eastern Europe. According to the Central Elections Commission, Yanukovich won about 49.4 percent of the vote and Yuschenko received 46.7 percent. In the first round of voting on Oct. 31, Yuschenko led Yanukovich by less than 1 percentage point, according to the official results. Opposition leaders blamed election officials for manipulating the vote count and claimed Yuschenko won. International observers said the vote failed to meet democratic standards — and the United States threatened sanctions unless problems were rectified in the post-election period. Many of the problems seemed to revolve around allegations of double voting — that Yanukovich supporters from outlying areas were bused into Kiev to vote for a second time. “I believe this was a fair and unbiased count by the CEC,” said Yakov Dov Bleich, the chief rabbi of Kiev and Ukraine. “But as far as I know, there was a number of violations at some polling stations” on the part of both candidates’ representatives and observers, he said. Many Jews are believed to have voted for Yuschenko and generally followed the nationwide pattern with the younger, urban and better-educated voters favoring the opposition. But with no valid data in existence, some observers believe probably as many, if not the majority, of Jews still backed Yanukovich — partly because they feared the rising Ukrainian nationalist sentiment. Many Jews were afraid of speaking openly about their choice even after casting their vote, as were many Ukrainians. Up to 40 percent of respondents refused to talk to those conducting exit polls, local media reported. “People are afraid of the authorities,” one Jewish voter in Kiev said. “And many Jews may have found themselves even in a more difficult situation knowing that many wealthy Jews sponsoring Jewish community programs support the authorities and particularly Yanukovich.” Indeed, some of the leading domestic sponsors of Jewish life in the region backed Yanukovich, reflecting the fact that many Jewish big business owners have played a prominent role in Ukraine’s economy during the current regime. Yuschenko received moral support from the United States and some European Union capitals, while Yanukovich was backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The records of both candidates on issues of international policy provide a more nuanced picture than that of one leaning toward Russia and the other toward the West. President Leonid Kuchma and Yanukovich dispatched a Ukrainian battalion to Iraq to fight alongside the coalition forces, while Yuschenko took a more restrained stand toward the U.S.-led war. “The United States may not like this, but it supported Yuschenko mostly out of the principle because he is much closer to the West and democratic values,” said Mila Milner, a Jewish human rights activist in Kiev. “Yuschenko’s presidency could bring Ukraine closer to NATO.” For many of Ukraine’s Jews, estimated at between 250,000 and 500,000 persons, the election was a difficult choice between the liberal Yuschenko, who in the past has allied himself with politicians openly expressing anti-Semitic views, and Yanukovich, who has displayed authoritarian traits but has promised stability, which appeals to Jews in a region where instability has historically led to anti-Semitism. Although Ukrainian Jews divided their support between the leading candidates, there were many Jews who voted against both candidates — an option allowed under Ukrainian law. “I voted against both candidates. I don’t see a national leader with a good team today,” said Arkady Monastyrsky, director general of the Jewish Foundation of Ukraine. Interviews with other Jewish voters showed that many of the active members of the community took a similar action in a society that appears to be tired of political campaigning. Some Jews said they believed Yanukovich would be better at fighting anti-Semitism and xenophobia — partly because of his past statements on Jews and Israel, and partly because of Yuschenko’s mixed record on Jewish issues. “I’m sure that Yanukovich is able to prevent” radical nationalism from developing in Ukraine, said Aleksandr Naiman, a leader of the Ukrainian Anti-Defamation League, a group not related to ADL. Some observers said they feared the outcome of the vote could distance Ukraine from the West, which could prove problematic for issues of Jewish concern. A possible international isolation of Ukraine “after this dirty election could lead to an alliance with the Arab countries, which would worsen the Ukrainian-Israeli ties,” a longtime Jewish leader and former Communist dissident, Josef Zissels, predicted. Bleich disagreed, saying he did not expect “many changes in Ukraine’s foreign policy” and believed “Yanukovich will not change basic policy toward Israel.” At the end of September, Yanukovich visited Israel. He met with President Moshe Katsav and members of the Ukrainian community in Israel to discuss the issues of dual citizenship and payment of pensions to Jewish pensioners from Ukraine now living in Israel. But only 3,106 out of nearly 40,000 eligible Ukrainian voters in Israel cast their ballots. One Jewish leader said that although the result of the vote may not please all Ukrainian Jewish voters, Jews don’t have to be especially concerned about Yanukovich. “I voted for Yuschenko. Jews in Ukraine are more sympathetic to Western-style liberalism that the average Ukrainian,” said Zissels, echoing the views of many Jews in Kiev, Ukraine’s capital. He said he personally believed that “life in Ukraine under Yanukovich will be bad.” But, Zissels said, the many Jews who supported Yanukovich “are ready to live within the system of power Kuchma has built. The life in Diaspora has taught Jews to be loyal to the authorities.”