MYRON KUROPAS (Interview #21 pt 1) critical Ukrainian-American view of the American Jewish community

Описание: Myron Kuropas (Interview #21 – part 1 of two parts – 4 hours long) / a critical Ukrainian-American perspective on the Jewish community establishment

Myron Kuropas (who died in 2024) taught at Northern Illinois University and was a special assistant for ethnic affairs for President Gerald Ford. He was later a legislative assistant for Senator Bob Dole. Kuropas also served as the Vice President of the Ukrainian National Association in the U.S. and a columnist for the American-based Ukraine Weekly. His books include The Ukrainian Americans: Roots and Aspirations, 1884-1954, and Ukrainian American Citadel: The First Hundred Years of the Ukrainian National Association, among other publications.

The complaints in this interview are, essentially, the result of Kuropas’ 20 years of experience in trying to negotiate – on behalf of Ukrainian-Americans -- with the Jewish community, an effort which he assesses as a failure. Ultimately, Kuropas was publicly accused of being an antisemite by two Jewish Congressmen, Rahm Emanuel and Henry Waxman, after he was appointed to be in a White House delegation to a Ukrainian president’s inauguration. (This charge was rooted in his argument – in Kuropas’ review of Jewish author Norman Finkelstein’s book The Holocaust Industry – that some in the Jewish community were exploiting the Holocaust for personal and political gain). Apparently unbeknownst to his accusers, Kuropas had earlier been awarded a special plaque/certificate by the American Jewish Committee for meritorious work on inter-ethnic relations (he also had a very close friend in the AJC) and had even once been flown to Israel for a courtesy visit by that same organization. Kuropas had to endure widespread media publicity about the charge of antisemitism against him. An unsuccessful attempt was also made to get him fired from the faculty at Northern Illinois University (because of alleged antisemitism, a charge for which there was deemed to be no evidence).

This interview represents yet another perspective that you NEVER hear. In this very long (4 hours! In two parts) and wide-ranging discussion, Kuropas openly, honestly, and freely addresses a range of issues, focusing largely on his years (around 20) of exasperation in dealing with the American Jewish community, particularly those who spoke for it, including what he believes to be hypocrisies and double standards.

His observations include: his experience of the collapse of Ukrainian-American and Jewish-American dialogues, the difficulties in having reasoned exchange with the Jewish community, Jewish stereotypes and vilification of Ukrainians, “Jewish power,” the “Holocaust Industry,” the Holodomor (the Ukrainian disaster during World War II and under the Soviets) and its marginalization, forbidden topics like Jewish involvement in the Russian mafia and in the rise of Soviet communism and concurrent oppression of Ukrainians, including leadership in this by Lazar Kaganovich. (This man was Jewish and the subtitle of Kaganovich’s own nephew’s book about his uncle calls him: “The Soviet Union’s Architect of Fear.”)

Kuropas also discusses his outrage that non-Jewish Ukrainians raised a million dollars to fund a chairmanship for Ukrainian studies at Harvard University and a Jewish individual was appointed to the post, controversy around a “Human Rights” museum in Winnipeg, Canada, the much-publicized trial of Ukrainian-born John Demjanjuk who – as a blue collar worker in the U.S. -- was accused of being a Nazi concentration camp guard (innocent in Kuropas’ view), and Kuropas’ disdain for the U.S. government’s Office of Special Investigations (created to hunt down alleged Nazis in America), among other issues. (The Israeli Supreme Court ruled that Demjanjuk be freed after a much-publicized “show trial” in Israel. Demjanjuk’s Jewish/Israeli lawyer, Yoram Sheftel, wrote a critical book about the injustices against his client in that case.)

In spite of all this, accused “antisemite” Kuropas -- late in the interview -- here says that he supports Zionism, largely because it echoes other areas’ – including Ukraine’s – struggle for nationalism. However, in his view, the state of Israel has ultimately manifested a “triumphalism of a very negative kind.”

If you can help support this channel: https://www.givesendgo.com/GMRRD