Posts Tagged ‘ucsj’
Soviet Jewry activist sees fight unfinished
For Larry Lerner, there’s a clear connection between a lonely Russian child hoping to find a home with adoptive parents in the United States in 2013, and a doggedly determined refusenik in the 1980s, dreaming of freedom in Israel.
Lerner, who lives in Warren, sees them as part of the same push-and-pull effort that engaged American Jews in the decades-long Free Soviet Jewry movement.
“You can’t get people in this country to support the fight for human rights these days,” the retired attorney told NJ Jewish News in a recent interview. “But this kind of fight is never over. You have to keep at it, monitoring what’s going on, and working to raise awareness.”
And keeping at it is what he does, as president, since 2009, of the Union of Councils for Jews in the former Soviet Union (UCSJ). One of the most important organizations in the heady struggle for Soviet Jewish emigration, UCSJ now hopes to re-engage the American-Jewish community in the broader struggle for justice and human rights in Russia and the rest of the former Soviet Union.
According to the Human Rights Watch annual report, 2012 was “the worst year for human rights in Russia in recent memory,” with Vladimir Putin’s government imposing new laws to limit public assembly, restrict access to the Internet, increase fines for protesters, and recriminalize libel. Nongovernmental organizations that receive foreign funding must register as “foreign agents.”
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U.S. clergy back Magnitsky bill
U.S. religious figures have supported the so-called Magnitsky bill imposing visa and financial restrictions on a number of Russian officials, which is due to be debated in the U.S. Congress on Tuesday, Hermitage Capital said.
The letter sent to the Congress by nine religious organizations says that the passage of this bill will help prevent repressions against fighters for religious freedom, the company spokesperson told Interfax on Monday.
According to the letter, the possibility to visit to the United States is a privilege, and foreign officials involved in abuse, murders, restriction of religious freedoms and trampling on other people’s rights, must be deprived of this privilege, the spokesperson said.
The authors hope the sacrifice made by Sergei Magnitsky will not be in vain and will lead to a new important tool in fighting against the trampling on human rights globally, the Hermitage spokesman said.
The document was signed by religious groups representing various faiths, including the United Macedonian Diaspora, the International Religious Liberty Association, the American Islamic Congress, the Hindu American Foundation of Hindus, the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews and the Human Rights Law Foundation, he said.
Earlier, the U.S. Senate Committee on International Relations announced its decision to consider on June 19 the Magnitsky bill, which could impose visa and financial restrictions against a number of Russian officials. The bill is already among the documents due to be voted upon on June 19, the committee told Interfax. быстрые займы на карту hairy girl www.zp-pdl.com https://zp-pdl.com buy over the counter medicines
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Key religious group supports human-rights measure linked to Russia trade
Support for linking a human rights measure to an upcoming Russia trade bill got an important boost Monday when a key Jewish rights group announced it is backing the bill.
Normal trade relations with Russia is currently conditioned on Russia allowing its Jewish citizens to emigrate. It is subject to an outdated measure known as the Jackson-Vanik amendment, which was applied in the mid-1980s and which no one thinks is still relevant.
The Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union, which backed the initial Jackson-Vanik tie, is now advocating for a new human-rights measure meant to punish those responsible for the death of Russian whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky.
The bill, which would subject Russian human-rights abusers to financial sanctions, is opposed by some in the business community who worry it will inadvertently subject U.S. firms that do business in Russia to penalties.
UCSJ joined other religious group on a letter last week to members of Congress urging them to support the Magnitsky bill.
“Among other things, we support this legislation because it specifically targets officials who abuse human rights with effective travel and financial sanctions,” the groups said.
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