By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz , BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS
In the long history of Jews in Russia, the government has rarely been an ally, and often been the source of persecution. Current Russian president Vladimir Putin, however, is a powerful exception, with Jews playing a significant role in his personal history and his inner circle. With the Russian army a major player in the potentially explosive multi-national puzzle unfolding in Syria, this personal element could become an important, perhaps decisive, factor in how the conflict unfolds.
At the International Assembly of Chabad Representatives in 2007, Russia’s Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Berel Lazar, often referred to as “Putin’s Rabbi”, told a remarkable story about the Russian leader, which he heard from Putin himself.
“When he was a young child, he grew up in a very poor family. His parents were always out at work. He was fortunate that the next door neighbor was a Hasidic Jewish family, and they always made sure to invite him over,” Lazar explained. “They were extremely kind to him, and he realized that not only were they kind to a child that wasn’t theirs, not only were they kind to a child that wasn’t Jewish, but they were kind to a child in a time and place when it was dangerous to do that.”
The family in Lazar’s story was that of Anatoly Rakhlin, Putin’s high-school wrestling coach, a man he considered to be a father-figure and at whose funeral he cried. Putin described the family in his autobiography, First Person.“Thirty years later, because of the gratitude he felt for that family, and for the respect he felt for the Jewish people as a whole, as deputy mayor of the city of Leningrad, he granted official permission to open the first Jewish school in the city.”
“(They were) observant Jews who did not work on Saturdays, and the man would study the Bible and Talmud all day long,” he wrote. “Once I even asked him what he was muttering. He explained to me what this book was and I was immediately interested.”
Putin’s Jewish connection was not an anomaly limited to his childhood memories. In 2005, when Putin made an official visit to Israel, he visited his high-school teacher, Mina Yuditskaya Berliner, who lived in Tel Aviv. He even bought her an apartment in the city when he heard she was living in poor conditions.
Arkadi and Boris Rotenberg were his judo sparring partners under Coach Rakhlin, and remain his close friends to this day. The Rotenberg’s are billionaire contractors, and the relationship is mutually beneficial, with the Rotenberg brothers getting government contracts worth many billions of dollars.
In fact, Putin has surrounded himself with rich and successful Jews, such as Moshe Kantor (net worth $2.3 billion), Lev Leviev (net worth $1.5 billion), Roman Abramovich (net worth $9.1 billion) and Victor Vekselberg (net worth $13.6 billion). They are all close friends and confidantes of the Russian president, and they are all quite openly Jewish.
On the Jewish New Year, celebrated in September, Putin sent a holiday greeting to Rabbi Lazar, wishing the Russian Jewish community a “sweet and happy New Year.”
“For centuries, Jewish values inspired lofty ideals,” Putin wrote. He said that these values enhanced “relations among different peoples…through charity and education, all in the interest of the public good.” In a direct manner, he pledged “fierce opposition to any manifestation of anti-Semitism and xenophobia.”
Putin puts his money where his mouth is and donated a month of his salary as president to the Jewish Museum in Moscow. His name is proudly listed on the museum wall as a donor.
Perhaps due to his connection with Jews on a personal level, Putin can be said to view Russian Jews as first and foremost good Russian citizens. This has already had international repercussions. When Putin met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in September to discuss the developing situation in Syria, the meeting produced positive results, with Putin expressing his strong connection with Israel.
“We never forget that in the State of Israel reside many former Soviet citizens, and that has a special implication on the relationship between our two states,” Putin stated. “Every Russian action in the area has always been very responsible. We are aware of the artillery against Israel and we condemn it. “
In 2011, at the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress in Moscow, Putin said, “Israel is, in fact, a special state to us. It is practically a Russian-speaking country. Israel is one of the few foreign countries that can be called Russian-speaking. It’s apparent that more than half of the population speaks Russian.”
In 2014, Putin was one of the few political leaders who supported Israel’s Operation Protective Edge, saying at a meeting with representatives of the Rabbinical Center of Europe to fight anti-Semitism and xenophobia, “I support Israel’s battle that is intended to keep its citizens protected.”
Putin is a powerful player in the explosive situation in the Middle East. There are clearly political and military considerations that cause him to look upon Israel as an ally, but it might be the personal connection he has with Jews that has led him to be the most pro-Israel Russian leader the world has seen in a long time.
A free Russia loves Western civilization while a Marxist American president obviously loathes it. Russia promotes Christian values while Obama loathes them, too. Putin? He just makes sense, and so does Trump.
The Russian dezinformatsiya section of the successor to the KGB is just as good at glorifying someone, as they are in demonizing. See: Disinformation by Major General Ion Pacepa.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/392347/brand-new-russia-same-old-disinformation-ion-mihai-pacepa See also: Russian Footprints http://www.nationalreview.com/article/218533/russian-footprints-ion-mihai-pacepa
Josef Goebbels.
@ babushka:
So to which one do you assign more credibility?
@ ArnoldHarris:
Yes – I too had Russian grandparents. I’ve met quite a few Russian Jews here in Toronto, and while I don’t fit into the “Russian Clique” I admire their way of doing things, and (from afar) their underlying culture (sometimes).
They are also big on firearms – and know how to use them.
@ ArnoldHarris:
When I wrote that lead sentence, my fingers were working faster than my editing. It should have read:
Arnold Harris, Outspeaker
babushka Said:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YjgfrDdQPJA/UVGCFXTXEUI/AAAAAAAAB1Q/sxijuSYBtSA/s1550/Love-Hate-Quotes.jpg
To hear Obama tell it, he is the first Jewish president and possesses a love for Israel that is infinitely deep. Now we learn that Putin loves Israel more than life itself. It must be gratifying for Israelis to be universally adored.
What is it about modern anti-Semites that compels them to feign affection for the objects of their hatred? At least Hitler didn’t reminisce nostalgically about his profound emotional connection to the Jewish people. There is something to be said for Jew haters who are sincere in their Jew hatred. They are scum, but at least they are not phony scum.
@ bernard ross:
AOK Yankee boy
honeybee Said:
Why is anyone surprised that President Hussein is not enthusiastic about limiting muslim immigration to the US or fighting muslim terror? It is incredible to me that americans complain about his lack of focus as if he were merely a “pussy”.
It looks like america still does not get the significance of their having elected a guy named Hussein to be their President … after 911. to paraphrase Bill…. “its the muslims, stupid”. ONly Mr. foot in mouth has shown the capability of identifying the problem and the solution in a common sensical and accurate manner, in one sentence…until we figure out the hatred of muslims for americans we need to keep them out….duh, what happened to the other BS artists? Jeb said Trumps statement was “unhinged” so Jeb is trying to continue the fraud that dubya started wrt the “religion of peace”. Some folks are beginning to get it but their heads are real thick.
bernard ross Said:
http://www.breitbart.com/video/2015/12/07/ralph-peters-on-obama-speech-this-guy-is-such-a-total-pussy-its-stunning/
bernard ross Said:
Compare to Obama.
So, Putin is a Mentsch?
Russia, backed by China and Russia, will be the great power that dominates southwestern Asia, including the Middle East. When ISIS is obliterated, it shall accomplished because Russian will power, Russian armaments, and Russian soldiers will make it happen.
And one of Russia’s targets is Turkey, as it has been for almost 600 years. Another is Iran, because a long-term goal of all Russian goverments has been a land connection from southern Russia to the Indian Ocean, and the year-around port — or ports — that they shall one day build there.
When Stefi and I lived and studied in Jerusalem before and after the Yom Kippur War, we met Soviet Russian Jews who had come to Israel long before the emigration gates from their old homeland opened wide. These were people who longed for their Russian homeland, despite its iniquities under the rule of the USSR.
For me, Russia was the land of the birth of my paternal grandparents — never to be forgotten for that, and also for the memory of the 500,000 Jewish soldiers — women as well as men — and the more than 100 of Iosif Stalin’s Jewish generals — who played their role in crushing the life of Adolf Hitler’s eastern front armies.
Say whatever you want about all that; I love Russia — my distant ancestral homeland — as well as I do the United States of America of my birth and the State of Israel of my equally beloved Jewish nation.
Arnold Harris, Outspeaker