Jewish Post, Indianapolis, Marion County, 22 November 1995 — Page 2

Vladimir Pozner said Russians are asking for 'good old days’

By GISELA WEISZ Vladimir Pozner, a current Russian television star who in 1986 had a TV program in the United States jointly with Phil Donahue and appeared on various other American TV shows, was the speaker on Sunday, Nov. 12, at the Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation for the Edward Block Forum Series. He related a visit with Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres: "TWo, or three years ago I had dinner with Peres and his wife and I said to him: 'Please help me! I was born to a French Catholic mother. My father was a Russian Jew and Mwas an atheist; didn't practice religion, didn't know the (Yiddish) language, and did not speak Hebrew. He always said that his culture was Russidlfi and his language was Russian. In my formative years I lived in the United States and a good part of my life in Russia; who am I?' "He gave me that look,"

Vladimir Pozner Pozner said, "with his big, big, ancient, ancient eyes and he looked me and said: 'Well, Mr. Pozner, if you don't know who you are, then probably you are Jewish!"' Prior to Pozner's talk, during dinner, he was asked about anti-Semitism in Russia. "Anti-Semitism has very old roots in Russia," he said. "We know about the Jewish Pale. The largest emigration from the former Russian empire to the United States came after the pogroms of the 1890s.

"Anti-Semitism exists. . . did exist... but the difference between today and the Soviet period is that the Soviet government had anti-Semitic horrors, but one never heard antiSemitic invectives. Yes, if you were Jewish, you knew of course it was more difficult for you or for your child to get a job in the foreign service, or in the military. You knew that it was more difficult for you, or for your child to get a high party position. But you did not fear specifically for your life because you were Jewish. "Today I feel that there is no anti-Semitism at the government level," he said. "But there is a lot of anti-Semitism on the street level. Today there are parties and groups, much like the neo-Nazis, or the KKK, or others. These, in Soviet Russia, were never allowed to exist. Now they are out there and they are very loud and very vocal. And they use all the words and a lot of Russian Jews and not only the

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Russian Jews are frightened by their breadth of activity, which was not the case." Pozner attributes these activities, however reluctantly, to the prevalent new freedom of speech. "Some people would say that it should not be allowed, but since we (in Russia) have democracy and freedom of speech, we have (open) antiSemitism!" About religion, he said that " yes, there is a resurgence of religion. Now you carry a cross not under your shirt, but on the outside, where everyone can see it. " Mr. Pozner said that the president of Russia, Mr. Yeltsin, makes a point to congratulate the patriarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church. A lot of people go to m xxmmmm 4** , m Town Crier

By G.M. COHEN We welcome the decision of the Boms Jewish Studies Program of Indiana University to schedule a program on a Jewish topic at the IUPUI local campus at the University Place Conference Center and Hotel. Unless we are mistaken, the annual Joan and Samuel New Institute programs have heretofore been scheduled in Bloomington, but now the local Jewish community, which is actually starved for intellectual Jewish programs with outside speakers, will have this opportunity. The five speakers are all

church now, because it is one of the things to do, it is fashionable, he said. He does not believe that there is a real, sincere resurgence of religion, however. He gave his opinion about religion after the change to the less totalitarian government: "I doubt that many, many people, masses of people, who today say they are atheists, could be tomorrow suddenly religious. I think it (becoming religious) is a very gradual process." Pozner thinks, however, that there will be a revival of religiousness, because people have to have something to believe in. "Very difficult to exist without some kind of faith," he said. Pozner strongly predicts Continued on page 7

faculty members of the Boms Jewish Studies program at I.U. and they are Profs. John Efron, Jeffrey Isaac, Benjamin Nathans, Derek Penstar and Steven Weitzman. The program is set for Saturday night and Sunday, April 28, of next year. The subject will be "Judaism, Crisis and Ethics," and will take up such questions as "What do Jews think about the 'Contract with America,' Crime and Poverty and the Right to Life versus the Right to Choose?"

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