July 10, 2006 - New York - The American Jewish Committee today released a report documenting the ongoing and pernicious spread of anti-Semitism at the Interregional Academy of Personnel Management (MAUP), Ukraine's largest private university. The report focused in particular on the role of Georgy Tshchokin, MAUP's president, in fostering a climate of hatred and incitement.

"The virulently and unambiguously anti-Semitic views being touted at MAUP, under the influence of its president, fly in the face of the remarkable renewal of Jewish life since 1991 in an independent and democratic Ukraine," said David A. Harris, AJC's executive director. "Tshchokin uses language eerily reminiscent of the infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which caused such grief to the Jewish people in the twentieth century."

Harris has visited Kyiv several times to advance Ukrainian-Jewish and Ukrainian-U.S. relations, most recently last month in the company of an AJC delegation to meet with top Ukrainian leaders. The issue of MAUP came up in each of the meetings, with Ukrainian officials acknowledging the seriousness of the problem and the need for appropriate action.

Among the recommendations made in the new AJC report, and presented by the delegation during its visit, are: (i) invoke existing anti-incitement laws against those at MAUP who, through publications, conferences and speeches, actively promote anti-Semitism or other forms of racial or religious hatred; (ii) investigate repeated reports of outside funding flowing to MAUP from several Arab countries and Iran to spread hateful and incendiary messages; (iii) review licensing and accreditation procedures for MAUP; and (iv) encourage leading politicians and other prominent personalities, many of whom have had some past academic connection to the academy, to distance themselves publicly from the language of hatred and bigotry.

Click for full PDF of An Incubator of Hatred: Pervasive Anti-Semitism at MAUP.

This is the eighth in a series of publications prepared this year by Maxine Kaye and Zev Nagel of the AJC staff.  The previous publications are:

A Diminished World Body: An Overview of the UN and Israel
Hatred Unmasked: Hamas Speaks             
Iran in its Own Words
Israel in the European Media: A Case Study, 2000-01
Rationalizing Terrorism: A Case Study of the Immediate Aftermath of 9/11
How Can There Be Peace in the Middle East?: A Study of Anti-Israel and Anti-Semitic Cartoons
Over a Barrel: How America's Dependence on Foreign Oil Endangers our National Security, Economy, and Environment

All are available in PowerPoint and on the AJC website.