Soviet Anti-Semitism Tarnishes Glasnost

THE cartoon is crude, grim and offensive.

It depicts a grotesque figure crawling out of a Star of David. A stern-faced soldier is poised to stab the person in the head with a bayonet.

``Brothers! Let's fight together with our enemy!,'' the caption reads.

``Who is this trouble-maker?'' it asks.``Do you know him? This is a Jew!''

``Jews bring bloodshed all over,'' the caption continues. ``They make preparations to put all Russians in slavery.''

An accompanying article states: ``Jews try to make all Russians alcoholics. They cause the food shortage. They use Christian children's blood for matzoh.''

The cartoon and article ran in January in Trud, the Soviet trade unions' newspaper.

Call it the dark side of glasnost: In the Soviet Union today, public anti-Semitism is increasing at a disturbing rate.

Mikhail Gorbachev's new policy of openness, which permits much greater freedom of expression, has unleashed a virulent anti-Jewish element in Soviet society.

A few more examples:

-- ``Kikes! Finally, the list of all Moscow's kikes is completed. We have tolerated you for a long time but we do not want to see your ugly kike mugs any longer. Get out! Consider this your first warning. Beware! Your lives and the lives of your curs (bastard children) are in danger.''

That's an excerpt from a leaflet distributed in Moscow by the ``Union of Liberation of Russia from Kikes.'' It was brought out by a Soviet emigre who arrived in the United States last month.

-- ``Chop off the tentacles of the Zionist octupus'' was the headline on a recent article in the Soviet monthly ``Molodaya gvardiya.'' Hardly a fringe publication, it's put out by Komsomol, the Soviet Communist Party youth organization.

-- ``Jews and their relations should be forbidden to submit theses, to acquire academic degrees and knowledge, to join the Soviet Communist Party, to be elected to the soviets (government councils), and to be named to leading positions in the party, the state and elsewhere.'' So declared an underground pamphlet published by Moscow's Energy Institute.

The leading anti-Semitic group in the Soviet Union is Pamyat (Memory), an aggressive, chauvinistic, Russian nationalist organization. It distributes anti-Semitic literature and holds demonstrations blaming Jews for many of the U.S.S.R.'s problems - including the nuclear accident at Chernobyl!

Encouragingly, last month criminal prosecutors in Moscow announced that they were beginning an investigation of Pamyat for possible violation of the Soviet law against ``incitement to hatred and to national and racial conflict.''

But it's unclear how hard Soviet authorities will come down on Pamyat. When the group disrupted a meeting of the Russian Writers Union recently, police arrested them inside the building - then released them outside, saying the writers had provoked the confrontation.

Such reports are of great concern to many members of Seattle's Jewish community. The Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, an umbrella group of nearly three dozen different community organizations, is working to ensure that Soviet anti-Semitism is not overlooked in the glow of the Goodwill Games, Seattle-Tashkent sister-city activities and other Seattle-Soviet contacts.

About 250 Soviet Jews now emigrate to the Seattle area each year, and the numbers are growing. Last year, a total of 71,196 Soviet Jews emigrated to the United States; 12,814 went to Israel. Those compare to 1986 figures of only 914 to the U.S., 220 to Israel.

``The demand for visas by Soviet Jews is just skyrocketing as the anti-Semitism level is rising,'' said Liz Gorman, a spokeswoman for the federation. ``They're being threatened by nationalists. They're just dying to get out.''

``Overall, the escalation of this kind of message is really getting through to individual Jews,'' added Judy Balint, chairperson of Seattle Action for Soviet Jewry. ``We are seeing the results of the climate, which are really a mass exodus. People who felt themselves relatively comfortable in that society two or three years ago are all feeling this. That's what's so disturbing: No Jew can really feel comfortable in the Soviet Union.''

Some Soviet emigres here confirm that things have gotten worse in many ways in the Soviet Union, even though official anti-Semitism has decreased and emigration restrictions have been relaxed.

Pavel Buzytsky, who emigrated in 1987 and now works for a local company involved in U.S.-Soviet trade, said: ``Anti-Semitism, which is a Russian tradition, is now much more apparent than it was under the repressive regimes of former Soviet leaders. It used to be like that all the time in history, but now you can see it more.''

Vladimir Silverstone, who emigrated here in 1979 but was able to bring his mother over from Leningrad only last year, said: ``Jews were never welcome in Russia. There is nothing new about that. We are dealing with a history of persecution of Jews that is at least 400 years old. Even the word pogrom comes from the Russian language.

``With the economic situation in Russia getting worse, traditionally, in times like that, all kinds of hate and violence against ethnic minorities come to the surface.''

With the pending unification of Germany, much concern has been focused on potential anti-Semitism in that country. Clearly more attention is due to the real anti-Semitism that is a fact of life in the Soviet Union.

Now that Mikhail Gorbachev has broadened the powers of his presidency, he should strongly condemn this persistent scourge. Americans who want to encourage closer U.S.-Soviet ties must do the same. To ignore the problem suggests that it is tolerable.

John Hamer's column appears Thursday on The Times' editorial page.