This is an editorial in the March 18, 1921 edition of the B’nai Brith Messenger discussing the pogroms in Ukraine. The author, Rabbi Leon Harrison, describes the atrocities that were taking place in the Ukraine and asks the readers to write to their congressmen and demand that the United States protest the pogroms.
The article begins with a description of the atrocities, and the writer mentions the terrible slaughter and torture of Jews in specifically Beditchev, Bobri , and Obrutch. He reports that:
"This is not simply the wanton outburst of mob passion, but the wholesale crime of a nation – a deliberate attempt to exterminate an inoffensive race."
Telling his American Jewish audience that if they are silent, as Cain was when he asked “Am I my brother’s keeper?,” they will be complicit in the deaths, Harrison appeals to their sense of Jewish unity:
"They are being murdered because they are Jews, because they are what we are, because our blood runs in their veins, because our beliefs are their beliefs. And we suffer with them, we sorrow with them: and please God win a victory for them of justice and sheer humanity that will protect the blood of the innocent and keep alive a helpless people."
At the end of the article, he says that the mistreatment of the Jews is even worse since it comes in the aftermath of the “Great War” (World War I), which is a time of peace for everyone else. Moreover, Jews joined their countrymen in defending their countries during the war and do not deserve to be treated in this way:
"All the civilized nations have proclaimed “peace, peace” but there is no peace. No peace for the tortured Jew in Poland, no peace for our poor hunted brothers in the murderous Ukraine. What kind of peace is this in which the Jew at least suffers more than in war? Has he not played his part in battle? Has he not defended the flag of his country, stood in the trenches and fought in man-fashion by the side of his fellow-countrymen?"
Harrison continues by detailing the contribution of Jews to the armies around the world, including the American and Russian Armies, and concludes:
"How many hundreds of thousands fought for Russia? Who can tell how many Jewish lads died the death of Heroes in the Russian ranks…. And this is their rewards. … we suffer twice, once because we are men and once because we are Jews."
Faced with this terrible situation, American Jews must, according to the writer, protest and appeal to their representatives in Congress and the Senate, since the whole purpose of the United States and the American people is to support the persecuted in the world.
This editorial was written in response to the pogroms that took place in Ukraine from 1917 to 1921, in which it is estimated that 70,000–250,000 Jewish civilians were tortured and murdered.
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Pogroms 1917–1921 – The word pogrom comes from a Russian word meaning to destroy or demolish violently. First used to describe anti-Jewish riots in the Russian Empire at the end of the nineteenth century, it has become a generic term to describe collective violence against the Jews. During the Russian Revolution and the ensuing Russian Civil War it is estimated that between 70,000–250,000 Jewish civilians were killed and many more were tortured and wounded; in Ukraine itself more than 100,000 Jews were murdered. The pogroms erupted in Northwest Volhynia and spread to many other regions in Ukraine and around the Russian Empire. Sites of extraordinary atrocities included Sarny, Ovruc, Tetiev, Vashlikiov, Dubovo, Kiev, and Proskurov. In addition to the classical anti-Semitism, the excuse for the pogroms was retaliation for the Bolshevik uprisings that were believed to be led by Jews.
Jewish Community of Ukraine – Jews first arrived in Ukraine in the ninth century seeking refuge from Byzantium, Persia, and Mesopotamia. Jews were allowed to practice Judaism openly and prospered during this period. In the 1500s, a large influx of Jews from Western Europe arrived in Ukraine, which became an important centre of Jewish life. However, in the ensuing periods, anti-Semitic sentiment grew in Ukraine, and the Cossack uprising of 1648 resulted in the murder of over 20,000 Jews and the departure of many others to more tolerant countries. At the end of the eighteenth century, Ukraine was made a part of the Russian Pale of Settlement. Although this was a difficult period for Ukrainian Jews, new ideas and organisations developed such as Hasidism, the Haskalah (the Jewish enlightenment), and Zionism. As a result of the Russian Revolution in 1917, the Pale of Settlement was dissolved and hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian Jews moved to other parts of the Soviet Union. Under communism, Jewish and Zionist activity moved underground as the party did not allow such activity. During the Holocaust, it is believed that a million Jews were killed in Ukraine, including those killed in a large massacre at Babi Yar and others murdered by the Einsatzgruppen. The Germans were joined by Ukrainian collaborators, and according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, “Ukraine has, to the best of our knowledge, never conducted a single investigation of a local Nazi war criminal, let alone prosecuted a Holocaust perpetrator.” After the war, Jews who returned to their former homes in Ukraine were met with hostility by the local population. In the 1980s and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, many Ukrainian Jews emigrated to Israel and other countries. Currently, Ukrainian Jewish life is being rebuilt, with various Jewish denominations active. Today, the Jewish community of Ukraine is the fourth largest Jewish community in Europe and the eleventh in the world, with an estimated population of up to 140,000 people.
B’nai Brith Messenger – The B’nai Brith Messenger was a Jewish newspaper published in Los Angeles, California from 1897–1995. It was named after the largest Reform congregation in Los Angeles and was published twice a month until the 1920s when it became a weekly publication. The newspaper chronicled a period of tremendous growth in the Los Angeles Jewish community.
