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9/28
May 2002
5762 Iyar

WHO KNOWS HOW - ACTS.
WHO DOES NOT KNOW - ADMONISHES
LEONID SAPOZHNIKOV
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For a good fourteen years I happen to be a participant of, at first, a national renaissance in the period of perestroika when not only Jews, but all other peoples of the great states USSR as well got an astonishing opportunity to choose, whereas at present I am a subject of the Ukraine's Jewish life that differs little from the life of thinned Jewish communities in Eastern Europe.

Being in the thick of the things I also believed in genuine sincerity of people who were propounding the opportunities for a national renaissance in the benevolent family of fraternal peoples. Could it have been otherwise? Such eminent men of Ukrainian culture demonstrated such astonishing benevolence... And the Jews were in the midst of this benevolence... They often were known to nobody but somehow became leaders... Then a question arose, "Who is who?". Thus, I got acquainted with wonderful people from different cities. It was often quite unclear what many of them were striving for, beside warm positions in the boards of Jewish organizations. Among them was Alexander Zalmanovich Burakovsky, the author of a number of publications in the Kiev magazines and newspapers. He lives now in New York, and at that time he was, probably, one of the most decent and cautious men in the Jewish street.

But this is an opinion about a man of those times. The appearance of this article is caused by recent publications of A.Burakovsky in the "Jewish Observer" newspaper. The author tries... to admonish the Jews of Ukraine how they should live. Alexander Zalmaonvich! From New York, which is safe even under present complicated conditions, you may allow yourself to write something to the Jews in Ukraine. But, believe me, those who will respond you desire only to show off in the Jewish public, to see one's name next to a famous one, to pronounce something not being responsible for these words. This is, unfortunately, a very frequent phenomenon of our reality.

There are, though, reasonable and decent people in the Jewish community who are practically unable to influence on the events. They do a lot of useful things, create centers of culture, conduct research works necessary, to the community, write articles and books and tell nobody how they should live. But there are also those on the contrary.

Who knows how - acts, who does not know - admonishes.

"Shabat", Berchad, Vinnitsa region
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