Jews in former USSR and sex offenders in modern US the same?
A comparison between the living conditions of Soviet Jews and Sex
offenders in the USA
(Fima Estrin is a former Soviet Jew and Political and Human Rights
refugee, and is now a sex offender registrant in Minnesota.)
First of all I should clarify some terms. Some people told me that
Jews were hated for what they were, and "sex offenders" are hated for
what they did. This is not true. Here is article The Protocols of the
Elders of Zion
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/protocols.html
You can read 'The libels that the Jews used blood of Christian
children for the Feast of Passover, poisoned the wells and spread the
plague were pretexts for the wholesale destruction of Jewish
communities throughout Europe. Tales were circulated among the masses
of secret rabbinical conferences whose aim was to subjugate and
exterminate the Christians, and motifs like these are found in early
antisemitic literature.'
Jews were accused with the same thing as Modern America Sex Offenders
- harming kids.
What ordinary US citizen can think when he hear these 2 terrible
words: Sex Offender.
He may only think about child murder, as our press and TV report every day.
In fact most American Sex Offenders never did such terrible crimes,
and I think are a victims of social order to
create a group similar with Jews to blame, because there are no more
group to do such thing in US.
As a former Soviet citizen and Soviet Jew, I experienced a huge
discrimination in the USSR. All Soviet citizens had passports with a
record of nationality in them. Some people had Russian nationality,
some Ukranian nationality, and some, like me, had a Jewish record on
the first page. We needed to show a passport when applying for jobs,
getting housing, or entering University. And when you had a Jewish
record it was like being a registered sex offender in the US today.
Jews were pariahs in the USSR. You should not tell anybody you were a
Jew. Some Russian people would beat you. Silently, the Soviet
government supported this. When I was a child, some neighbors knew we
were Jews, so they sent their kids to fight with me. I was beaten many
times, just because of the Jewish Scarlett Letter. The Soviet Police
were responsible for maintaining the passport system, and
putting the Scarlett Jewish ID there. This looks just like the
situation for sex offenders in many states today. When their neighbors
learn a sex offender family has moved next door, the sex offenders and
their families are hassled, possibly their houses attacked, and some
sex offenders have even been killed.
After graduating from high school I was going to Leningrad University.
A University worker asked for my passport. He made a note about
nationality, and told me there are too many
Jews here. As a result I got an F on my first test, and could not
enter University. I was an A+ student in high school. When I tried to
go to a technical college, they again noted my Jewish record.
As a result I got C's and B's on tests, but they allowed me in. I was
all A student in college. Jewish people were not allowed to go for
PhD, so after graduation I was going to try to work in a Military
Industry plant. When I came to Human Resources, the first thing they
asked me was, 'Are you a Jew?' And then they did not want to give me a
job, but finally had to give me the worst position. Each time I was
looking for job, HR asked for a passport, and looked for the Jewish
record.
This is very similar to the employment situation for sex offenders
in the USA. Human Resources will look for a sex offender record, and
then you will not be hired, or you will be kicked out if you already
have been hired. Last year I got a a low level job repairing some
hardware. I worked just one day and then was kicked out when HR got
the background investigation result.
What is the difference between my past Jewish pariah status and now my
sex offender pariah status? I am unemployed for 6 years, since 2002.
In 1996 I thought I had enough in the former USSR. I had relatives in
the US, and sent them an application for entering the US. The US
embassy invited my family for an interview in Moscow. I explained to
them all the discrimination I had experienced. I remembered that one
of the US officers interviwing me asked me if I could practice my
religion. My answer was: ¨Synagogue¨ here is a very bad, illegal word,
so what are you talking about?'
I got refugee status based on human rights´ violations in the former
USSR. My family moved to the US. But in the US I did not escape the
Scarlet Letter, I got another one! I was branded ¨sex offender.¨ There
are many articles about how this happened to me. You can find all of
them here
http://estrinyefim.newsvine.com/_news/2007/06/23/798199-internet-porn-hysteria
As you can see from this article, the situation for Jews in the USSR
was exactly the same as the situation for sex offenders in the year
2008 in the USA!
All govenments in all ages need enemies! They try to create a class of
pariahs to blame for everything, and divert people attention from the
real problems.
I consider my situation in the democratic USA much worse and even more
dangerous than my situation had been in the former USSR. More
dangerous, because, although I suffered discrimination, the Soviet
government never used their Criminal Justice system as an instrument
of repression against me.
Fima Estrin