Ukrainian Youth Strike a Blow against Hate Crimes

Hate crimes are repulsive and shouldn’t be tolerated by anyone, anywhere. Hate crimes are painful when they occur close to home because they tend to cast an accusatory pall over everyone. They are painful and detestable when they occur with impunity in Ukraine, whose culture and diaspora have been targets of persecution and hate crimes in Russia.

The term hate crime came into common usage in the United States during the 1980s but it’s not endemic to America. It pertains to the violence of intolerance and bigotry, intended to hurt and intimidate someone because of their race, ethnicity, national origin, religious, sexual orientation, or disability.

A recent example of a hate crime against Jews in Ukraine occurred a couple of weeks ago in the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil. Ironically, a similar wrongdoing took place at the same time in Greece though the two incidents were not related.

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA), among others, wrote about the vile desecration of a Holocaust memorial on the south side of Ternopil. The agency wrote on March 27:

“Nazi symbols were spray-painted on a monument to Holocaust victims in Ukraine that was erected near their mass graves.

“The letter X was painted on the Star of David emblazoned on the monument near the western city of Ternopil. A swastika was drawn on the Hebrew-language section of the monument and the SS symbol on the part in English.

“Police have no suspects in connection with the incident, which occurred earlier this month.

“Eduard Dolinsky, the director of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, described the vandalism in a post Friday on Facebook.”

The JTA focused merely on this odious crime in its news story. But it failed to do an appropriate follow up, which would have revealed a bright side to this story. Members of the Ternopil branch of the Ukrainian Youth Association took it upon themselves to clean the Holocaust monument, thereby contributing in a little way to eradicate the ugly face of hate crimes and blow away the accompanying cloud of civic apathy.

The Ukrainian Youth Association, known by its Ukrainian-language acronym “CYM,” was established in Ukraine in 1925. Its leadership was annihilated during Stalin’s wave of terror against the Ukrainian nation and, consequently, the membership dissolved or went underground. The organization was revived in Western Europe after World War II, in 1946, and in the United States in 1949.

It finally returned to Ukraine after the re-establishment of national independence in 1991 to resume its civic work of raising national awareness. The Ternopil branch was formed in 1995.

Learning about their righteous effort in a brief post on Facebook, I contacted the head of the branch, Lesia Holyk, for details.

Lesia told me that Volodymyr Birchak, a member who is a historian and journalist, told her about the desecrated Holocaust memorial.

The monument is located in a section of Ternopil, which was the site a Jewish cemetery. According to local memory, the graveyard was bulldozed in the 1950s to make way for new residential housing.

Lesia said the membership didn’t know if common hooligans, drunkards or Russian provocateurs vandalized the shrine.

“The only thing that we were sure of was that we had to undertake this task before the week starts. From Friday morning, when we first learned of the graffiti, to Sunday, when we began the work, we had had enough time to prepare,” she recalled.

Four members of the organization participated in the cleanup: Andriy Pushkar, Vitaliy Dziubak, Maksym Pushkar and Lesia.

“When the adults couldn’t reach to the top of the monument, my father placed me on his shoulders and I cleaned the paint from the highest spots,” Maksym explained. (See photo)

Due to the material of the monument and the consistency of the paint, the job was difficult but the stalwart youth resorted to trial and error to determine the right cleanser. Ultimately, they found that a regular kitchen Brillo-type scrubbing pad, some water and muscle worked best. Lesia said the cleanup took less than an hour and soon the youth resumed their Sunday membership activities.

“We believe that youth must be actively involved in resolving these situations because this is our history, our memory and our responsibility,” Vitaliy opined.

At a time when youth is depicted as delinquents, destroying public and private property, the members of the Ternopil branch of the Ukrainian Youth Association clearly set the bar of decency at a higher level. However, even in independent Ukraine, their brave and selfless gesture could leave the youth at the mercy of the vandals regardless of who they are. The “CYM” members’ deed may not be worthy of a “Righteous Gentile” distinction, but in the annals of combating ethnic hatred, their scrubbing pad, some water and courage deserve proper recognition and a hardy well done.