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Suburban marchers protest alleged incident
BY IRV LEAVITT
STAFF WRITER
About 450 people, mostly J*ws from the former Soviet Union, thronged Northbrook's Village Green Park Sunday afternoon to protest an alleged anti-Semitic incident involving three boys earlier this month.
Hundreds of people wore yellow Stars of David, in the forced fashion of European J*ws in the early days of the Holocaust, to bring attention to the April 5 incident in unincorporated Cook County east of Mission Hills, and to its relationship to Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ" film.
The incident that launched the rally seems to have started in the backyards of neighboring homes. T
e Ukrainian-born parents of a 9-year-old boy said another 9-year-old, the son of a neighbor family of Polish descent, threw a rock that struck their child's head, and also threw sandals that may have st
ruc
the boy and another child.
The vict
im's 36-year-old mother said her son told her the Polish child said, "I have always hated J*ws, and now I know why after seeing 'The Passion of the Christ.' J*ws killed Christ.' " She said her child said other anti-Semitic epithets also were hurled.
"We never expected anything like this in this country," said the Jewish child's father. The 39-year-old said Sunday he was happy to see so many people come to the park to lend support. "In Russia, everybody is against anti-Semitism, but nobody does anything about it."
The struck child's Ukrainian-born parents, who both now are American citizens, said two years ago the Polish boy and their child scuffled, but during that confrontation, religion
was not a factor. The parents said they tried to talk with the Polish child's parents about that confrontation, but couldn't exact a promise that further confrontations would be prevent
ed.
They sa
id because of that incident, they did not try to settle the issue of the April 5 fracas with
the child's parents face-to-face.
The incident became the talk of Russian-language "New Life Radio" in the following weeks, and was a well-covered story in "Svet," a newspaper published in weekly and daily forms.
"Svet" publisher Alex Etman helped organize Sunday's protest by obtaining special events permits Friday from both the village of Northbrook and the Northbrook Park District. Radio entertainers told listeners about Sunday's event.
Alex Tolmatsky, an attorney and host of "The Law and Us" on the radio station at 1330 AM, said Friday, "Hopefully, we're starting a dialog, getting together with civic and religious lead
ers, to find a solution where this is not going to happen in the future. A little education never hurt anybody."
He said he envisions the dialog to take place largely bet
ween J*
ws and m
embers of the Polis
h-American community.
The Polish-born parents of the other 9-year-old said Sunday in a telephone interview that they hadn't realized the incident ha
d become known throughout the area.
"My son, he was playing with the other boy, after he saw the most scary movie he ever saw, and he said, 'Do you know that the Jewish people killed Jesus?' And that's what happened."
The child's mother said she has had Jewish friends for years.
"This is not fair. This little guy did not want to hurt anyone."
The boy's father added, as his wife sobbed, "My boy says Jewish people are responsible for killing Jesus, after he sees it in a movie. How do they know my whole family is anti-Semitic?
"I have never done anyt
hing bad to anybody of any religion."
He said he had heard that the only violence involved in the April 5 incident was a thrown stone or stick.
"
That's
a big fire t
o start from this little th
ing in the back yard," he said of Sunday's rally.
The Polish-born mother said that she was asked Friday by Cook County Sheriff's Police to discuss the matter with the parents of the Jewish child. She said her family went to
the meeting, at the Maywood station of the Sheriff's Police, but the other family "didn't show up."
The Jewish boy's mother said late Friday she had agreed to the meeting, but decided Saturday she could not change her family's schedule to make it. She added she intends to meet with police later.
She said Sheriff's Police answered her call regarding the incident April 5, but told her family that no crime had been committed. A Sheriff's Police spokeswoman did not return calls.
The Jewish 9-yea
r-old said that since April 5, both boys continue to attend Glenview's Winkelman School without incident. He said he was not hurt April 5.
Many of t
he people who
came to Village
Green Park Sunday were concerned ab
out the incident being repeated. Minsk-born Irina and Felix Kagan of Deerfield carried signs marked "Teach your children to love, not hate" and "We can make the world ... better." Irina Kagan said, "We feel we need to do something.
"Anti-Semitism will keep going if you d
o nothing about it."
She and her husband said that state-sponsored anti-Semitism in the former Soviet Union had cost them jobs and other opportunities, and made them second-class citizens who were the target of slurs.
Referring to the Gibson film, Felix Kagan said, "Everyone can find in the movie what they want to."
Russian-born Fred Kanevsky of Highland Park disagreed. He called the incident "a result of this movie.
"It does
n't matter what Mel Gibson says. It doesn't matter what you say. It doesn't matter what I say. The proof of what this movie is, is that af
ter seeing this m
ovie, that little b
oy took a stone and hit a Jewish boy."
The rally was scheduled last week to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day as well as the incident earlier this month, and many who attended Sunday said what happened near Northbrook was reminiscent of events in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s.
Others listened to the strains of classical music and remembered the loved ones they'd lost during t
he Holocaust.
Skokie residents Fanya Martynova, 65, from Kiev, and Ernestina Ivanova, 66, from Odessa, began to cry as a recording of Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Piano Concerto No. 2" wafted over the park.
"It is very sad," Martynova said as she wiped a tear. "Many of our relatives died during the Holocaust."
http://www.pioneerlocal.com/cgi-bin/ppo-st...-04-277811.html
Suburban marchers protest alleged incident
BY IRV LEAVITT
STAFF WRITER
About 450 people, mostly J*ws from the former Soviet Union, thronged Northbrook's Village Green Park Sunday afternoon to protest an alleged anti-Semitic incident involving three boys earlier this month.
Hundreds of people wore yellow Stars of David, in the forced fashion of European J*ws in the early days of the Holocaust, to bring attention to the April 5 incident in unincorporated Cook County east of Mission Hills, and to its relationship to Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ" film.
The incident that launched the rally seems to have started in the backyards of neighboring homes. T
e Ukrainian-born parents of a 9-year-old boy said another 9-year-old, the son of a neighbor family of Polish descent, threw a rock that struck their child's head, and also threw sandals that may have st
ruc
the boy and another child.
The vict
im's 36-year-old mother said her son told her the Polish child said, "I have always hated J*ws, and now I know why after seeing 'The Passion of the Christ.' J*ws killed Christ.' " She said her child said other anti-Semitic epithets also were hurled.
"We never expected anything like this in this country," said the Jewish child's father. The 39-year-old said Sunday he was happy to see so many people come to the park to lend support. "In Russia, everybody is against anti-Semitism, but nobody does anything about it."
The struck child's Ukrainian-born parents, who both now are American citizens, said two years ago the Polish boy and their child scuffled, but during that confrontation, religion
was not a factor. The parents said they tried to talk with the Polish child's parents about that confrontation, but couldn't exact a promise that further confrontations would be prevent
ed.
They sa
id because of that incident, they did not try to settle the issue of the April 5 fracas with
the child's parents face-to-face.
The incident became the talk of Russian-language "New Life Radio" in the following weeks, and was a well-covered story in "Svet," a newspaper published in weekly and daily forms.
"Svet" publisher Alex Etman helped organize Sunday's protest by obtaining special events permits Friday from both the village of Northbrook and the Northbrook Park District. Radio entertainers told listeners about Sunday's event.
Alex Tolmatsky, an attorney and host of "The Law and Us" on the radio station at 1330 AM, said Friday, "Hopefully, we're starting a dialog, getting together with civic and religious lead
ers, to find a solution where this is not going to happen in the future. A little education never hurt anybody."
He said he envisions the dialog to take place largely bet
ween J*
ws and m
embers of the Polis
h-American community.
The Polish-born parents of the other 9-year-old said Sunday in a telephone interview that they hadn't realized the incident ha
d become known throughout the area.
"My son, he was playing with the other boy, after he saw the most scary movie he ever saw, and he said, 'Do you know that the Jewish people killed Jesus?' And that's what happened."
The child's mother said she has had Jewish friends for years.
"This is not fair. This little guy did not want to hurt anyone."
The boy's father added, as his wife sobbed, "My boy says Jewish people are responsible for killing Jesus, after he sees it in a movie. How do they know my whole family is anti-Semitic?
"I have never done anyt
hing bad to anybody of any religion."
He said he had heard that the only violence involved in the April 5 incident was a thrown stone or stick.
"
That's
a big fire t
o start from this little th
ing in the back yard," he said of Sunday's rally.
The Polish-born mother said that she was asked Friday by Cook County Sheriff's Police to discuss the matter with the parents of the Jewish child. She said her family went to
the meeting, at the Maywood station of the Sheriff's Police, but the other family "didn't show up."
The Jewish boy's mother said late Friday she had agreed to the meeting, but decided Saturday she could not change her family's schedule to make it. She added she intends to meet with police later.
She said Sheriff's Police answered her call regarding the incident April 5, but told her family that no crime had been committed. A Sheriff's Police spokeswoman did not return calls.
The Jewish 9-yea
r-old said that since April 5, both boys continue to attend Glenview's Winkelman School without incident. He said he was not hurt April 5.
Many of t
he people who
came to Village
Green Park Sunday were concerned ab
out the incident being repeated. Minsk-born Irina and Felix Kagan of Deerfield carried signs marked "Teach your children to love, not hate" and "We can make the world ... better." Irina Kagan said, "We feel we need to do something.
"Anti-Semitism will keep going if you d
o nothing about it."
She and her husband said that state-sponsored anti-Semitism in the former Soviet Union had cost them jobs and other opportunities, and made them second-class citizens who were the target of slurs.
Referring to the Gibson film, Felix Kagan said, "Everyone can find in the movie what they want to."
Russian-born Fred Kanevsky of Highland Park disagreed. He called the incident "a result of this movie.
"It does
n't matter what Mel Gibson says. It doesn't matter what you say. It doesn't matter what I say. The proof of what this movie is, is that af
ter seeing this m
ovie, that little b
oy took a stone and hit a Jewish boy."
The rally was scheduled last week to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day as well as the incident earlier this month, and many who attended Sunday said what happened near Northbrook was reminiscent of events in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s.
Others listened to the strains of classical music and remembered the loved ones they'd lost during t
he Holocaust.
Skokie residents Fanya Martynova, 65, from Kiev, and Ernestina Ivanova, 66, from Odessa, began to cry as a recording of Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Piano Concerto No. 2" wafted over the park.
"It is very sad," Martynova said as she wiped a tear. "Many of our relatives died during the Holocaust."
http://www.pioneerlocal.com/cgi-bin/ppo-st...-04-277811.html