When Victims Rule (pdf)

GOVERNMENT (PT. 2)
“The [Russian economic] crisis also explains why Boris Berezovsky
and his six prominent Russian bank allies, who, according to Berezovsky’s
own account, first made President Boris Yeltsin’s reelection
possible, then arranged the promotions of presidential Chief of Staff
Anatoly Chubais and First Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Potanin.
Berezovsky runs a conglomerate that includes Russia’s Channel 1 television
network. He boasts of controlling most of the independent television
stations and newspapers.” [HELMER, p. 44-45]
Any addressing of Jewish political empowerment in Latin America must inevitably
consider the implications following 1998 observations by professor Judith
Elkin, whose specialty is the Jews of Latin America:
“Following formation of the state of Israel, Yiddish was replaced by
Hebrew in most Jewish schools, and Israel became the preferred locus
for teacher training. Financial subsidies for Latin American schools
were allocated by the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency.
Zionism conquered the schools on the way to conquering the
[Jewish] communities as a whole … [ELKIN, 1998, p. 176] … Organized
Jewish life came to revolve around Zionist activities: the sale of Israel
Bonds, celebration of Israel Independence Day, the training and
hiring of Hebrew teachers, and so forth … Jews living in Latin America
are occasionally able to apply political leverage in support of the government
of Israel … The close relationship between Latin American Jews
and Israelis sustain the suspicion among nacionalistas that Jews’ extraterritorial
loyalties exceed the bounds of patriotic propriety. The accusation
of double loyalty dogged the communities from the start, and
continues today.” [ELKIN, 1998, p. 232-233]
The potential of Zionism empowered in Peru? There are only 3,000 Jews in
Peru, a land of 27 million. [PERELMAN, M., 4-20-01] But when Sally Goodgold
followed a fellow Jew identified with the last name of Golden to meet the Prime
Minister of Peru, Ephrain Goldenberg, in 1997 at the Museum of Natural History
in New York, she noted that “he joked about ‘all the Golds’ at this ‘Gold of
Peru’ event … The prime minister bent down and said to me, ‘Madame, … my
mother [co-founded] Hadassah [the women’s international Zionist organization]
of Peru.” [LEON, 9-26-97, p. 13] “In a meaningful symbolic act,” notes Judith
Elkin, “Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori [of Japanese ancestry]
prepared for Efrain Goldenberg’s swearing in as prime minister by removing the
crucifix that usually presides over such ceremonies.” [ELKIN, 1998, p. 278] (A
Jewish heir to a mining fortune, August Salcedo, was Peru’s president from 1906-
1912, and again from 1919 to 1930.) [SACHAR, H., 1985, p. 268]
As Jewish historian Howard Sachar notes about the modern Jewish community
in Peru:
“[It] is a tightly knit, quite ethnocentric community, with a remarkably
lower record of intermarriage than in most other Latin American
nations.” [SACHAR, H., p. 269]
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