Zhirinovsky Confirms Jewish Roots
July 18, 2001
By ANNA DOLGOV
MOSCOW (AP) - He is Russia's best-known ultranationalist, a flamboyant
politician who praised Adolf Hitler and accused Jews of provoking the
Holocaust - all the while staunchly denying his own Jewish roots.
Now Vladimir Zhirinovsky has confirmed that his father was Jewish, and
says many of his relatives perished in the Holocaust.
``My father was a Jew, a Polish Jew,'' the 56-year-old Zhirinovsky wrote
in his book published this week. ``His name was Volf Isaakovich
Eidelshtein.''
Public records found by a reporter in 1994 showed that Zhirinovsky was
given the name Eidelshtein at birth, but changed it when he was 18.
But the nationalist member of parliament had long insisted the documents
were fake and said the find had ``nothing to do with reality.''
``Only Russian, all (my) family is Russian,'' he told The Associated
Press in 1994.
His behavior suggested that if he were Jewish, he was doing his best to
forget his origins. Zhirinovsky has accused Jews of bringing Russia to
ruin, taking Russian women abroad for prostitution, and selling healthy
Russian children and transplant organs to the West.
This spring, he refused to honor a moment of silence for the Nazis'
Jewish victims, saying Russia's lower house of parliament should not
stand in their memory when there were millions of other Nazi victims
including Russians.
After a campaign built on firebrand nationalism, Zhirinovsky's party won
nearly a quarter of the national vote in a 1993 parliamentary election,
prompting tens of thousands of Russian Jews to apply for foreign visas
in case they would have to flee the country, Jewish activists have said.
But Zhirinovsky's popularity has faded in recent years, and his latest
acknowledgment could be an attention-grabbing device, typical of the
politician known for his sensational statements, fiery speeches and
maverick ways.
The chief rabbi of Russia's Federation of Jewish Communities, Berl
Lazar, also suggested that Zhirinovsky could be following a recent trend
among Russia's Jews to advertise their roots, after decades of choosing
to hide them amid official discrimination and popular harassment.
Acknowledging one's Jewish origins has become a kind of fashion in
Russia, Lazar said - a fashion that appears to have been advanced by
President Vladimir Putin's demonstration of support for Jewish
communities and his attendance of Jewish events.
``People today are proud to come out and say: 'Yes, I am Jewish,'''
Lazar said in a telephone interview. ``We see it throughout the country.
Thousands and thousands of people who knew they were Jewish and were
hiding it ... are opening up their closets.''
Yet, Zhirinovsky's acknowledgment of his origin is halfhearted at best.
In the book, titled ``Ivan, Close Your Soul,'' Zhirinovsky repeatedly
states he considers himself an ethnic Russian, and is proud of that.
He also makes no attempt to apologize for his anti-Semitic harangues,
and dwells on his pet themes of Jewish domination of the world's
politics and finance.
``Why should I reject Russian blood, Russian culture, Russian land and
fall in love with the Jewish people only because of that single drop of
blood that my father left in my mother's body?'' he writes.
Russia has a long history of anti-Semitism, both during the czarist and
Soviet eras, and there have been incidents of vandalism and isolated
violence aimed at Jews in recent years.
But polls indicate that hostility toward Jews has ebbed as Russian
nationalists have found other targets for their anger - primarily
Chechens and other often dark-skinned natives of the Caucasus Mountains
region.
Serbian News Network - SNN
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