By Janet Ekstract
ISTANBUL- On Monday, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov received a plethora of backlash from major Jewish organizations, U.S. officials, Israel and Italy’s prime minister after his comments on an Italian TV show where Lavrov claimed that Hitler “had Jewish blood.” According to CNN, Lavrov’s comments in reference to Ukraine President Zelensky were: “He puts forward an argument: what kind of Nazism can they have if he is a Jew. I may be wrong, but Hitler also had Jewish blood. It means absolutely nothing. The wise Jewish people say that the most ardent anti-Semites are usually Jews.”
World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder told the press that he joins Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid in “deploring Foreign Minister Lavrov’s unfortunate comments as being beyond any legitimate and permissible rhetoric. Comparing any Jew, let alone Ukrainian President Zelensky to Hitler is beyond the pale, and accusing Jews of antisemitism feeds into the agendas of the worst antisemites and neo-Nazis.”
Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, the son of a Holocaust survivor, called Lavrov’s statement “unforgiveable and scandalous and a horrible historical error.” Lapid further stated: “The Jews did not murder themselves in the Holocaust.” He added: “The lowest level of racism against Jews is to blame Jews themselves for antisemitism.” Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett condemned Lavrov’s comments in a reply: “Using the Holocaust of the Jewish people as a means to score political points must be stopped immediately.” Bennett added: “His remarks are not the truth and their content is unacceptable.”
Meanwhile, on Monday, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi called Lavrov’s comments on Jews “obscene” and compared Lavrov’s Italian television appearance to that of a political rally speech. Lavrov received swift backlash from Ukrainian leaders, specifically Presidential Adviser Mykhailo Podolyak who said the remarks were “evidence of Russia being a successor to Nazi ideology.” In a tweet, Podolyak said: “By trying to rewrite history, Moscow is simply looking for arguments to justify the mass murders of Ukrainians.”
U.S. officials also condemned Lavrov’s remarks with U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer labeling the remarks “sickening.” Schumer said: “Foreign Minister Lavrov did what many others who now reside in the dustbin of history have done before him: resort to antisemitism to defend his nation’s actions.” Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish official in the U.S., said he was particularly upset at Lavrov’s untruth about Hitler being from a Jewish bloodline.
In comments directed at Lavrov, Schumer further stated: “Mr. foreign minister, you’re fooling no one. The war crimes committed by Russia are as plain as day for the world to see, and to justify Russia’s violence with appeals to antisemitism is sickening. It is dangerous.” There was outrage from a number of top U.S. officials from the office of the U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism as well as Jewish establishment organizations and top Jewish leaders. The Anti-Defamation League called Lavrov’s remarks “a transparently desperate” effort to “justify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” noting that the “misuse of Nazis, Hitler and the Holocaust must stop.” The U.S. Special Envoy’s office to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism pointed out that this isn’t the first time that Russia has “cynically accused its neighbors of neo-Nazism and fascism as cover for its own provocations and human rights abuses.” It added, “not only are the Kremlin’s accusations against Ukraine false, its disinformation detracts from real and critically important worldwide efforts to combat antisemitism, Holocaust distortion and denial, and other dangerous forms of racially – or ethnically-motivated violent extremism.”
