COMMENTARY: The Globalization of Hate: David Duke in Russia

c. 2000 Religion News Service (Rabbi Rudin is the senior interreligious adviser of the American Jewish Committee.) (UNDATED) Of course it had to happen someday. In an age of global markets and increasing Russian-American cooperation in space technology and other important fields of human endeavor, it was only a matter of time until anti-Semites and […]

c. 2000 Religion News Service

(Rabbi Rudin is the senior interreligious adviser of the American Jewish Committee.)

(UNDATED) Of course it had to happen someday.


In an age of global markets and increasing Russian-American cooperation in space technology and other important fields of human endeavor, it was only a matter of time until anti-Semites and racists in the United States and Russia joined forces to promote their obscene agenda: worldwide bigotry.

David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan leader, has made two recent visits to Moscow to push the Russian translation of his new book, “Ultimate Supremacism: An Examination of the Jewish Question.”

While in Moscow last August, Duke met with Albert Makashov, a politician who is notorious for his ultra-nationalistic xenophobic rhetoric, and with Alexander Prokhanov, chief editor of the anti-Semitic Zavtra daily newspaper.

Duke, anathema to both major U.S. political parties, failed as a Republican to win several gubernatorial and congressional races in Louisiana, but he may be more successful as a noncandidate in Russia.

He delivered a speech last summer near the Kremlin to a cheering crowd of racists, praying that “Mother Russia be strong, free and always white.”

He expressed great delight that his anti-Jewish, anti-black book will appear in a Russian edition even before it is out in English. And though Duke’s new book has not yet appeared in Moscow stores, it’s reassuring to know the Russians are running ahead of the United States in at least one thing: publishing racist trash.

Historically, Russian anti-Semitism, both under the czars and the Communists, was especially virulent. Indeed, “pogrom,” the word universally used to describe murderous state-sponsored assaults upon Jews, is a Russian term.

Unfortunately, hatred of Jews and Judaism has not abated since the demise of Communist rule. In a troubling throwback to czarist times, nationalist anti-Semitic organizations abound and their hate-filled literature is freely sold in Russia. Physical attacks upon synagogues and individuals have created a tense climate and because of that instability, many Russian Jews have immigrated to Israel and other lands of freedom.

Sadly, some members of the Russian Orthodox Church hierarchy have publicly expressed belief in a discredited theory asserting the last Russian royal family, the Romanovs, may have been executed in 1918 as part of a Masonic-Jewish conspiracy.


No wonder Duke happily returned to Moscow in December and told a TV interviewer: “It’s not about hating other people; I don’t hate other races, I don’t hate other peoples. But I feel great love and appreciation for our European culture.”

Duke, the founder of something called “The U.S.-based National Organization for European American Rights,” quoted from his new book and told his Russian audience: “… our supremacy must be announced. We are Aryan. … Russian people also have a much greater knowledge of … the dominant Jewish role in orchestrating the immigration and multiculturalism that is undermining the West.”

It is no accident Duke deliberately employed the word Aryan. It is a term the Nazis officially used to describe members of the so-called “master race.” The word became an ominous verb during the Hitler years when Jewish-owned homes and commercial establishments were stolen from their owners under the Nazi legal system. That kind of thievery was euphemistically called “aryanizing” property.

Sergrei Kovalyov, a former Russian human rights commissioner, said Duke’s book would increase “unfortunate” tendencies toward bigotry and prejudice in Russia, and has vigorously condemned Duke’s visits. “Racial hatred is getting widespread in our society lately,” Kovalyov warned.

As befits one of the world’s leading bigots, Duke has established his own Web site where he effusively praises “Mother Russia” as the champion of the white race.

The former KKK leader wants his Internet efforts to begin a domino effect of “racial awareness” (read racial hatred) throughout the world.


Not many years ago, some American elected officials and religious leaders advocated a tactic of “quarantine” for bigots like Duke. They believed that denying racists media attention or public notice would isolate them and greatly weaken their poisonous messages of hate.

Perhaps such a policy was once effective, but quarantine is no longer remotely possible in an age when the Internet, e-mail and faxes easily cross national boundaries. The most effective response to Duke and others like him is to remove the rock of indifference and publicly expose the anti-Semites and racists underneath who thrive in shadows and darkness.

Hopefully, the Russians will reject Duke’s ugly teachings just as the overwhelming majority of Americans have done.

DEA END RNS

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