"The last warning about the return to the scoop." Russia wants to close the Jewish agency "Dog"

The Russian authorities want to close the Jewish agency "Dry". A lawsuit to eliminate the Moscow organization, which helped Russian Jews with repatriation in Israel, at the request of the Ministry of Justice will begin to be considered on July 28.

For the first time, a message about the possible liquidation "dry" appeared in early July. The Jerusalem Post wrote that the Russian authorities demanded immediately to stop the organization due to alleged violation of Russian privacy laws. At the same time, journalists write that allegedly in a letter of the Ministry of Justice, in addition to this claim, it is said that when organizing the departure of Russian Jews, "is preferred by the repatriation of Russian citizens engaged in scientific activity and entrepreneurship" and this "in the most serious way is hit by scientific potential and entrepreneurship in the Russian Federation."

Representatives "dry" earlier refuted this message, saying that they did not receive any documents with the requirement to terminate the activity. The President of the Russian Jewish Congress, Yuri Kanner, called publications speculation and claimed that the agency would hardly be closed, as it works around the world.

However, on Thursday, July 21, the Basmanny Court announced that the Ministry of Justice wants to eliminate the Moscow legal entity "dry" due to violation of the law during the "implementation of activities".

In Russia, the organization has nine representative offices, one of them in St. Petersburg. Whether the liquidation of other organizations will affect and whether the closure of the Moscow legal entity will affect the activities of other representative offices is unknown. The Russian courts have not yet received claims for the liquidation of legal entities "dry" in the regions.

A participant in the Zionist movement in the USSR in the 1980s, a refusenik, an Israeli writer and spokeswoman "Daudis, David Shekhter says that the agency helped" absorb and bring repatriates to Israel. "

- In Russia, "Dry" was not engaged in the stimulation of aliya ( repatriation. - SD ). "Dry" helps to repatriate, but in no case he does not engage in agitation for departure, says Shekhter.

One of the members of the regional Jewish communal center ( at the request of the interlocutor, his name is not given in the text.-S.R.) told the North. Realiy that they “dry” “” repeatedly ran into some legal nit-picking, but “each time they somehow raised it.” According to the interlocutor, the claim for liquidation is not related to some real claims and this is all political games. ”

"Dry" has been working in different countries of the world since 1929. In Russia, he was able to start his activities only during perestroika, when a large Aliya (mass repatriation of Jews to Israel. - S.R.) from the USSR began.

Formally, this is an independent structure, but in reality it is “close to the Israeli government,” the interlocutor of the North Realia clarifies. At the same time, “dry” does not resolve the issues of granting the right to repatriation to Israel, but helps those who received this right. The agency not only pays for tickets to Israel to repatriacas and helps them in solving various organizational issues during repatriation, but also organizes various programs that helps already left for Israel, among them the “first house in their homeland”, a training program in Israel of high school students “KDAM NAAL”.

With the help of "Sokhnata" from Moscow to Israel in 2015, Moscow journalist Yuri Shulga with two children and his wife moved. They planned the move back in 2014. According to Shulgi, even then the family believed that "there is no point in remaining in the country, and foresaw the situation that is happening now."

- "Dry" took care of the flight for us: paid us tickets and baggage. It was significant help, because we rode almost without money. At the airport we had an advantage. On international flights, the surcharge for it is very large, and this problem also solved “dry”. We were paid a taxi in Russia from home to the airport. When you come to Israel, you are paid for travel to the place of residence. We drove through the "Dog" program "First House at Home" - this is the program of a Jewish agency for young families in Kibbutz. They arranged us in Israel, decided where to bring us and how. If they are now closed, then all the people who are now going to repatriate will have to fly at their own expense and will be deprived of important assistance on the spot, ”says Shulga.

The author of The Theater series “Office BL ******, actor of the famous Russian series“ Fizruk ”,“ Interns ”,“ Former ” Roman India emigrated to Israel in 2018“ Due to 2014 ”( Russian occupation by Crimea and the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.-S.R .). "Dry" also helped the family of the novel with the solution of various organizational issues during departure.

- As an accompanying organization, it was an important help, because we were scared, of course. The unknown scarecrow, and the support of "dry" in this situation was very important. In addition, the "Don" has an "integration" camp, which back in Moscow helped our child with an autistic spectrum. "Dry" and other organizations - this is such a support for repatriation that is necessary. Different programs are "dry", of course, important. Of course, people can handle it without them, but it will be harder. In my opinion, the closure is “dry” - this is the last warning about the return to the scoop.

The writer Viktor Shenderovich, who received Israeli citizenship a year ago, is sure that the Russian authorities have already returned to Soviet practices in many ways.

- There was a glorious tradition - the Soviet Union traded Jews. The topic of the release of a Jew from the country was a point in negotiations. Putin returns to this practice - the trade of Jews. She is proven, Soviet. And in order for the Jews to be released, Russia will demand some political concessions. To what extent will they close the exit? They can do it. There are no laws in Russia that they will decide - it will be. But the fact that trade in Jews is the old Soviet fun, to which Putin returned, is obvious, - Shnderovich commented.

It was almost impossible to make repatriation in the Soviet years. Thousands of people in the USSR for years and decades “sat in refusal”, could not leave the country to Israel, but also lost their jobs in the USSR, were persecuted by the authorities as unreliable “renegade”. The consequence of such a policy of the Soviet authorities was the famous Leningrad "aircraft business" when on June 15, 1970, several Soviet Jews tried to seize the plane to emigrate from the USSR to Israel. The participants in the action were arrested before landing on an airplane and sentenced to a long time for imprisonment. These events are considered an important milestone in the movement of Soviet refuseniks in the struggle for the right to emigration.

One of the leaders of the movement of “refuseniks” and activists for the right to study the history, language and traditions of the Jewish people in the USSR, the author of the book “ Three Wives ago ” Aron Munblit told North. Realiy that “refuseniks” were then divided into two types.

- The first is the so -called regime considerations. These are people who served in the Soviet Army or worked in closed enterprises. The second type is the so -called household refuseniks. They could refuse, for example, due to the insufficient degree of Jewish kinship, the inability to prove kinship with the Jews. But all this was rather not reasons, but reasons for refusing to leave. This is our separate story - the struggle for leaving and the struggle for a positive Jewish identification, which was connected with the desire to study Hebrew, history of the people, culture, and traditions. There was no law in the Soviet Union that would prohibit this. But many of those who fought for it, who fought for the right to leave for Israel, were seriously injured.

Munblit himself served in the Soviet missile forces and, according to the then laws, could not leave the country for five years after demobilization. But he was not released from the USSR for 15 years. Munblit spoke about his desire to leave for Israel openly.

- For this, in Soviet newspapers I was called "a famous Zionist anti -Soviet." The first five years after demobilization, I did not apply for travel to Israel, I knew that it was pointless. But then they did not let me out for another 10 years and released me only 15 after I served. I left at the beginning of the 87th year. But from the 87th to the 89th, they released all the long-term “refuseniks,” says Aron Munblit.

Munblit notes that over the past 30 years, there have been no mass failures in the exit of Jews from Russia: “attitude towards Jews has changed”, Israeli cultural centers, such as “native” and “dry”, opened in Russia.

- With the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Israel tried to balance for a long time. It was believed that Tel Aviv could even become a platform for negotiations on a peaceful resolution of the conflict. The former Israeli Prime Minister Bennett tried to express himself more restrained, but Yair Lapid, who replaced him, was still a Minister of Foreign Affairs, spoke hard about the war, says Munblit. He suggests that the criticism of the Israeli of the Kremlin’s hostilities and became one of the reasons why the Ministry of Justice filed a lawsuit to close the agency “dry”.

In early May, the Russian Foreign Ministry accused the Israeli government of supporting the "neo -Nazi regime in Ukraine." Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke of Hitler's Jewish roots. According to media reports, Vladimir Putin personally had to apologize for Lavrov’s statement.

In early summer, Pinhas Goldschmith, who served his post for three decades and sharply criticizing Russia against Ukraine, was resigned from the post of chief rabbis of Moscow. Having left, he stated that Moscow wants to "again make Jews not dehumes, as in the days of the USSR."

Meanwhile, after the Ministry of Justice appeal to the Chancellery, the Prime Minister of Israel said that she would send a joint delegation of the head of government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice and Integration to Russia to ensure the continuation of the Jewish Agency.

- When it came to the fact that they would “dry” in Russia, this caused a very lively response from Israeli citizens. "Dry" is not just an important organization. She is symbolic. “Dry” symbolizes the right of the Jews to return, and any attempts to close it are perceived as attempts to deprive Jews of the right to return to the historical homeland, ”says Arkady Mayofis , the founder of the Tomsk TV-2 television company, who left Russia in Israel in 2015 after the destruction of the TV channel by the Russian authorities.

With the possible closure of "dry" in Russia, Russian Jews will not lose the opportunity to repatriate to Israel, Majofis is sure:

- “Dry” in this chain of repatriation played an important, but still auxiliary role. And of course, state structures remain that will ensure the execution of this right for Russian Jews. It’s just that many programs will close with the “dry” that helped people return to the historical homeland more painlessly, ”says Mayofis. - The Russian authorities, apparently, perceived it as the fact that they "dry" contributes to the leakage of the brain. If you look at who is leaving Russia now, then, from my point of view, for Russia is really a disaster. Because young energetic people with higher education, with scientific degrees, with knowledge of languages, leave. They leave not only to Israel, to all other countries. This is in no way connected directly with the activity of "dry", because those who leave for Turkey, for example, "dry" do not help. In general, the flight of people from Russia, in Israel, is also related With the actions of the Russian authorities, not "dry." But this initiative of the Ministry of Justice coincided with the fact that Israel took a more specific position against Russia's aggression in Ukraine. The Russian authorities now, on the one hand, confusing the cause with the investigation, are trying to stop the flow of those who are leaving for Israel. And on the other hand, it is possible to punish the Israeli government for a more unambiguous position regarding the war, ”says Mayofis.