Subject: Please don't use sci and scj to "report antisemitism".

From: [email-masked] (dmitry pruss)
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 1994 16:04:19 GMT

In soc.culture.israel, [email-masked] (Otto de Voogd) forwarded
a quote from my soc.culture.baltics post with a following comment :

>>Well you know if you ask 3 Jews a question, you'll end up with 4 opinions,
>>at least 3 of them being diametrally opposite. If that makes you
>>uncomfortable, then there's a patented way to make them feel the same: to
>>get rid of them. Monument-building is optional. 
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>Now you've really done it! You're living in the US right? I hope they will
>fry you for this! If there is one thing I can't stand in this world and for
>which I have ZERO TOLERANCE it's a fucking Anti-Semetic Neo-Nazi!

Hi Otto, I've replied to your personal mail already. What I didn't know
is that you not only posted it to scb, but also sent a separate copy to
soc.culture.israel. Please be advised that joking about the Holocaust is
_not_ recommended in s.c.i. Your inconsiderate forwarding costed people
there a lot of lost time and nervous energy, since your technique of
quoting out of context worked just fine to make them feel awfull.

Your apologies will be accepted. 

I also apologize for the bitter feelings I inadverently woke up. For anyone
interested in seeng the quote in the real context of the discussion, a few
excerpts follow: 

I should note that in s.c.baltics (where I wrote it) a lot of irony
goes unmarked, particularly between the friends-opponents
who've known one another for years (as it is the case
with me and Gustav Akk). Earlier in the thread (which started from Otto's
flamebait "the Russians should learn from the Germans - the latter were
deported from Holland in '45 and when they come as tourists these days,
they don't dare to speak German" (not an exact quote, don't sue me), and
went ahead to discuss deportees, returnees and refugees), I quoted
an article from the Wash Post about continuing resentment
among some of Estonian Jews _despite_ all positive developments: 

-----------begin quote 
Newsgroups: soc.culture.baltics
From: [email-masked] (dmitry pruss)
Subject: Re: Could Russia learn from Germany? (was: Ivangorod/Jaanilinn and Petseri/Petshory)
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
References: <[email-masked]> <[email-masked]> <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 22 Sep 1994 00:20:42 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] writes:
> [email-masked] (dmitry pruss) writes:

[big deletion] 

>And finally, you are trying to imply that there is a significant exodus
>of people from Estonia to Israel 

Yeah, it already came to me that I should have written about all 3
countries here, since Jewish emigration originates mostly in Latvia and
Lithuania. Yet there's a resentment among the little Estonian Jewish
community too - I can refer you to the article in the Wash Post earlier
this month about 8/31 opening a memorial on the site of 1944' massacre of
(W European) Jews near Tallin. Basically it mentioned the older-generation
Jews who thought that the govt. uses them as trading chips and makes them
to change their language - from Russian to Hebrew and Estonian - in their
old age. Why is it so, a retiree stated, that we have to laern Hebrew to
be respected? If we have to do it anyway, wouldn't it be easier to do it in
Israel? Didn't our long life, full of honest work, earned us a right to be
what we are? 
-------end quote

(Note that I didn't comment the paper). Gustav replied along
the line "what a funny people you're, when you're killed
you're unhappy and when monuments are erected in your honor
you're unhappy too" - this also might be perceived as an
bad antisemititic joke, but I knew Gustav too well to overreact.

---------begin quote 
Newsgroups: soc.culture.baltics
From: [email-masked] (Gustav Akk)
Subject: Re: Could Russia learn from Germany? (was: Ivangorod/Jaanilinn and Petseri/Petshory)
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
References: <[email-masked]> <[email-masked]> <[email-masked]> <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 22 Sep 1994 14:22:48 GMT

dmitry pruss <[email-masked]> wrote:
>
>Yet there's a resentment among the little Estonian Jewish
>community too - I can refer you to the article in the Wash Post earlier
>this month about 8/31 opening a memorial on the site of 1944' massacre of

  Or in other words: if one massacres Jews he is not right, and
  if one builds them a monument - he is not right either.
  Makes you wonder what do they want....

Gustav
----------- end quote

To that I wanted to answer that one cannot make all the Jews happy with one
action along one line - that there always is a spectrum of contradicting
opinions among us the Jews, at least as long as one doesn't ask our opinion
about massacres. Alas, this part didn't look nice out of context - and that
was how Otto used it in his s.c.i. "report".

And last note, personally to Otto: I gave you the address of my Director to
write a complaint. Please check the ZIP code - it should be 20892 (I could
have mistakedly typed the ZIP code of my home...)

Shalom,
			D  "some tolerance never harms...
			but it doesn't come without brains"

---

From: [email-masked] (dmitry pruss)
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 1994 16:04:19 GMT

-----------begin quote 

[big deletion] 

---------begin quote 

Gustav
----------- end quote

Shalom,