By ALEXANDER DOLITSKY
When I arrived to the United States on February of 1978 as a political refugee from a socialist country, I never thought that America would attempt to destroy itself from within with the radical neo-Marxist ideology (i.e., critical race theory, white privilege doctrine, systemic racism, and Black Lives Matter) and the new progressive bumper stickers—“systemic fixing” and “collective justice.”
I certainly did not expect the public comments on Sept. 11 from State of Alaska Representative, and a former high school history teacher in Juneau, Sara Hannan (D-Juneau). Speaking on the House Floor, she suggested that Nazis’ experiments on Jews during the World War II somehow benefited science and humanity.
My grandfather, Roman Umansky, was brutally killed by Nazis in 1941 in Kiev, Ukraine. I never met my grandfather and many of my uncles and aunts. Nearly 25% percent of my family were executed by Nazi experiments, or on the battlefields; and six million Jews (50% percent of the entire Jewish nation) were executed by Nazis in the six years of the war.
I am puzzled and astonished: How a former history teacher could make such an offensive and inappropriate statement? And why were Alaska’s Jewish communities silent? Why didn’t they condemn Hannan’s ridiculous statement?
They certainly were vocal when Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson, on Oct. 1, made a much less offensive statement by comparing a mask mandate with the Holocaust.
He later issued the following statement: “I understand that we should not trivialize or compare what happened during the Holocaust to a mask mandate and I want to apologize for any perception that my statements support or compare what happened to the Jewish people in Nazi Germany, that was one of the most evil and darkest times in our world’s history.”
On Aug. 25, 2020, the Juneau Assembly passed an ordinance in creating a Systemic Racism Review Committee to investigate institutional racism in Juneau, including possible institutional anti-Semitic occurrences in Juneau. To my knowledge, the committee had no success in their uncovering institutional racism and institutional anti–Semitism in Juneau. Perhaps Sara Hannan’s offensive statement on the House Floor could be a good first project of the committee.
My close friend, in our private correspondence, had this to say about Rep. Sara Hannan’s comments about Nazis’ experiments on Jews:
“Not at all surprising, given that she [Rep. Hannan] is a Democrat politician. Same goes on at the national level with Jewish leaders and the Democrats. So, you need to ask yourself, what is the basis for the continuing alliance of the Jews with the Democrats. Is it just a historic thing? Or is there something continuing? And what was the historic connection to begin with? Maybe you already know the answer to that one; I don’t. But the Democrats, especially the far–left side, are not only turning their backs on the Jews today (both American and Israel), but are actively accusing them of being racists and intolerant of Palestinians and Arabs. The left is overtly active in trying to cut all American aid and support of Israel and shift it to the Palestinians instead. Even ‘centrist”’ Democrats are embracing Islam and are silent on the anti–Jew/Israel demands from the left. If I were a Jew, I’d certainly wonder about what’s going on and why; and I’d certainly question my being a Democrat if that’s what I was.”
Sometime in the early/mid–October, I was removed from the Juneau Jewish Congregation Sukkat Shalom online group; the administrators have not provided me with a reason of my removal from the group; and I will not ask. I suspect it was done because of my writing for the conservative newspapers and blogs on essential and controversial issues facing our nation.
Well, so much for tolerance, freedom of speech and inclusiveness by my fellow Americans at Sukkat Shalom—true hypocrisy at its finest! Today, I am “Uncle Tom” to the Juneau Jewish community—and so be it!.
Again, my close friend, in our private correspondence, observed it as follows:
“As for your ‘friends’ at the Juneau Jewish Congregation—I think it is an amazing example of how even well–educated and intelligent people can be so blind to their own hypocrisy as long as it fits with the thoughts of the whole group. I’m sure that virtually ALL those people consider themselves and each other as very liberal, open–minded people who value free speech and independent thinking very much. Yet, not only have they excluded you for entirely the opposite of that reason (i.e., they disagree with your thinking and your saying what you think), they apparently are not even aware of how hypocritical they are in doing so! If these well–educated, critical thinkers and leaders of their communities (certainly in their own minds they are) can behave like that so easily, it is really disturbing to realize how easy it must be for less critically thinking people. Yet, another example that George Orwell’s 1984 dystopia is not such an improbable future at all.”
Historically, the main reason leftism is radicalized in America today, and accelerating among our youth, is because young people of the post–Vietnam war generation had never experienced economic hardship and/or oppression by a totalitarian regime; they have been intensely subjected to political correctness, wants, and irrational and wasteful handouts instead of hand–up.
Far–left progressives are not as they think of themselves—liberal or open minded. In fact, they are illiberal and intolerant deflationists—i.e., I am going to serve you a ball of soup once a month at your place, as long as you don’t crash into my ocean–front home to ask for a real substantive help for your well–being.
Far–left progressivism is now a religion to some groups; and they possess the typical zeal and emotional attachment to a far-left dogma—socialism and neo-Marxism—which blinds them to having a rational and open mind. Indeed, they are hypocritical fools!
The cry of the poor is not always just. The best revenge against hypocrites and leftists is to live well and prove them wrong.
American leftism—true hypocrisy at its finest!
Alexander B. Dolitsky was born and raised in Kiev in the former Soviet Union. He received an M.A. in history from Kiev Pedagogical Institute, Ukraine, in 1976; an M.A. in anthropology and archaeology from Brown University in 1983; and was enroled in the Ph.D. program in Anthropology at Bryn Mawr College from 1983 to 1985, where he was also a lecturer in the Russian Center. In the U.S.S.R., he was a social studies teacher for three years, and an archaeologist for five years for the Ukranian Academy of Sciences. In 1978, he settled in the United States. Dolitsky visited Alaska for the first time in 1981, while conducting field research for graduate school at Brown. He lived first in Sitka in 1985 and then settled in Juneau in 1986. From 1985 to 1987, he was a U.S. Forest Service archaeologist and social scientist. He was an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Russian Studies at the University of Alaska Southeast from 1985 to 1999; Social Studies Instructor at the Alyeska Central School, Alaska Department of Education from 1988 to 2006; and has been the Director of the Alaska-Siberia Research Center (see www.aksrc.homestead.com) from 1990 to present. He has conducted about 30 field studies in various areas of the former Soviet Union (including Siberia), Central Asia, South America, Eastern Europe and the United States (including Alaska). Dolitsky has been a lecturer on the World Discoverer, Spirit of Oceanus, andClipper Odyssey vessels in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. He was the Project Manager for the WWII Alaska-Siberia Lend Lease Memorial, which was erected in Fairbanks in 2006. He has published extensively in the fields of anthropology, history, archaeology, and ethnography. His more recent publications include Fairy Tales and Myths of the Bering Strait Chukchi, Ancient Tales of Kamchatka; Tales and Legends of the Yupik Eskimos of Siberia; Old Russia in Modern America: Russian Old Believers in Alaska; Allies in Wartime: The Alaska-Siberia Airway During WWII; Spirit of the Siberian Tiger: Folktales of the Russian Far East; Living Wisdom of the Far North: Tales and Legends from Chukotka and Alaska; Pipeline to Russia; The Alaska-Siberia Air Route in WWII; and Old Russia in Modern America: Living Traditions of the Russian Old Believers; Ancient Tales of Chukotka, and Ancient Tales of Kamchatka.
Read: Neo-Marxism and utopian Socialism in America
Read: Old believers preserving faith in the New World
Read: Duke Ellington and the effects of Cold War in Soviet Union on intellectual curiosity
Read: United we stand, divided we fall with race, ethnicity in America
Read: For American schools to succeed, they need this ingredient
Read: Nationalism in America, Alaska, around the world
Read: The case of the ‘delicious salad’
Read: White privilege is a troubling perspective
Read: Beware of activists who manipulate history for their own agenda
This question earned me 30 days in Faceplant Jail. “If we applaud the vaccine mandates, can we also applaud Texas for their laws on abortion? Since it’s our bodies, but not our choice? ????? Didn’t think so. Let’s go Brandon!”
Covidian Cult, yet few see it…..
You can thank the National Brainwashing Institution we call the Education System and the Narcissistic/self-centered rearing that many Americans received.
In other words, there is no Kombiya. Only War, racism and want. Embrace it as it is fact. Always has been and always will be. Merry Christmas and long live the British Empire and America. Semper Fi.
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What? No idea how you got that from the opinion piece, or what it exactly means for that matter.
Always enjoy reading your articles Mr. Dolitsky!!
Criticizing and critiquing a person’s perceived enemy is easier than correcting your friend.
But also Faithful friends correct you.
“Open rebuke is better than secret love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful” Proverbs 27:5, 6
So you want that person who trusted as a friend to come alongside you and say to you, “honey, you are fat!” As your friend we need to start walking daily to lose that weight and start helping one another monitor our eating habits. Your friend may get through covid better if they had a friend who was that much honest with them.
That’s not fat shaming. That’s being a true friend.
Prophets are never welcome in their own communities.
I forget who exactly, but someone (I know it in reference to the Israel 67 war) said “if someone tells you they want to kill you, believe them.”
Based on the support of political groups in this country that will disenfranchise and economically cripple them, American Jews have not learned this lesson. They support a political wing that despises them.
But American Jews, like much of American society have a death wish. They are determined to deny the evidence of their own eyes as the world turns cold and hostile around them. Give Obama credit: he said he wanted to fundamentally change America. He succeeded.
We are no longer a free people. We no longer lead the world. The rule of law has been invalidated. The borders are gone. Instead of an actual representative republic, we are run by a Politburo every bit as corrupt, inefficient, and authoritarian as anything the Soviet Union ever dreamed of.
I no longer believe in America. We had a Republic. We didn’t keep it. We got fat and lazy. We argue over gender. Russia is doing a de facto annexation of Europe. We substitute feelings for facts.
I do believe it’s time for the Great Divorce. Left the socialist states (including Alaska) go one way and the sane states like Fla and Texas go another. If we don’t do a civil divorce soon (see Czechoslovakia) we’ll do a bloody one (see Yogoslavia) later.
Modern Israel was recognized by the UN in 1949 with the final security council support vote from the Soviet Union because it was formed as a socialist state.
Jews had an uneasy status in the Soviet Union; on one hand there is extreme anti semitism in Russia and the Ukraine (distinct Slavik people with close cultural and linguistic ties), on the other hand most Russian Jews were fully communist.
The communist revolutionaries had many Jews amongst them, they were the most educated and arguably the most intelectual and articulate of Marxist theory. The Russian royalty, nobles, Orthodox priests and merchant classes who were educated were a tiny minority, and most were executed.
The mass of peasants who formed the new government and Red Army were brutish, ignorant and leveraged into hatred, envy and revenge for the elites who had ruled them. With the educated class exterminated, the mass of again oppressed peasants, now refered to as comrades, were easily exploited by anyone with education. The Soviet system was strengthened by the value added participation of highly educated non spiritual Jews, who as all humanist centered people are motivated to exploit their own people.
The socio-economic political offspring of Marxist dogma (socialism, fascism and nazism) have no basis in spirituality (all are based on humanism or pagan environmentalism) and are simply organized crime at the nation state level.
This factor of a small faction of athiest socialist Jews was the basis in the cooperation the leadership had with the national socialist regime of Germany in turning over their own people for extermination, it currently threatens the critical security of Israel itself, and explains why any Jews would, or anyone else for that matter, support the Democrat Party at home in undermining the constitutional republic.
Juneau is a venemous nest of elitists, where power, corruption and convergence of public funds to divert and exploit for personal gain is concentrated. It is no surprise that it also concentrates the least ethical, who have concentrated their efforts to position for maximum leverage of the public wealth, power and decision making to enrich themselves and exploit the public at large.
Actual education of the public, free intelectual discourse and factual debates are the single gravest threats to the corrupt elites, and any intelectual who strays off the socialist reservation will be mocked, canceled and negated.
Free, honest and grounded associations and congregations do not cancel people they disagree with. Thank God Israel is not yet given over, as our country is close to falling too.
Brian, I always enjoy your writing and respect your knowledge. Some information in this comment is debatable. It will take another long essay to address some of your points.
Indeed, many members of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union were inactive and certainly not Marxists. Many Soviets became members of the Communist Party during the World War II—just like my father, Boris Dolitsky. As he told me when he was alive, “I was not a brave soldier, I did not want to die. So, I became a member of the Communist Party in 1942.” To my recollection, he just paid his party dues and once a month attended mandatory party meetings. But he was not a committed Communist or Marxist. In fact, he knew nothing about Marxism— a simple man who wanted to survive the war.
Perhaps I should write a short essay, based on my recollections and personal experiences, on the subjects that you touched in this comment. Let me think about it.
Alexander,
Appreciate your refining facts, as the entirety of the Russian experience is beyond fascinating.
Being a Party member in the Soviet Union was the equivalent of the direction we are headed in holding a Covid passport in America today. It gave the beneficiary many privileges, in fact created a separate class (ultimate hypocrisy in a classless society!), but most party members were clueless concerning theoretical Marxism, as most Covid passport holders are clueless concerning medical science. It opens doors in utterly corrupt totalitarian states.
All the New Russians I have met were former communist party members who leveraged their privilege and connections to access resources and businesses into the post communist Russian Federation. The critical factor for business viability (and simply staying alive) is maintaining tight connections with the FSB operatives and their network politicians in both state/autonomous republics and federal government.
Even at “informal” banya gatherings with massive consumption of alcohol, I never once heard anyone reminiscing of the communist system amongst mixed new Russian businessmen and retired KGB and active FSB officers.
Veterans of the Great Patriotic War I spent time with are very proud and patriotic, but towards Russia, not communism.
The concern is the tactics used to take control of governments and coerce society to accept Marxism are being openly used here at home and at every level. Only the naive and ignorant think they are “Marxists”.
Exactly!!
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Jews, through their culture and not as an identified group through nationality, or national origin, have always been considered an elitist class of highly educated, professional-oriented citizens. This view-point has become self-identifying and largely ingrained in progressive politics. Jews have consistently been at or near the top of academia, medicine, lawyering, politics, journalism, authoring, and banking. As long as their own professional positions and personal wealth are not impacted, Jews consider themselves to be enlightened and magnanimous. These virtues, whether realized or aspirational, give way to the progressive mentality that socialism for the masses reduces conflict and maintains societal order.
With one caveat:
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so long as it doesn’t interfere or jeapordize the lifestyles and habits of those at the top. A truly selfish introspection, loaded with hypocracy and paradox.
Many of us are refugees of despotic arrangements. Sycophantic tribal organizations who say to the leftists “You go ahead and think for us and we like sheep don’t notice the bad results as we follow along”. Alaska has many severely addled people. Poorly educated and self-satisfied. Deep in their hearts they know they they are stumbling along. Nice to give them warning though. Quite a few, I’d say all, eventually say: “Why did I invest here with these charlatans”. Also there is a fair amount of: alcoholism, illicit self-medicating, vitamin D deficiency, inadequate mental stimulation and lack of structures for any satisfying social interactions and every modern geo-political malaise within Alaska. For good mental health it is imperative that Alaskans travel out of Alaska at least every six months if the creeks don’t rise. After the covid bloviating era and worship of simmering illnesses and their nannies, men of good will will hear the whistle of liberty once again and commence accordingly.
Jews were no the only ones sent to concentration camps and killed and or subjected to brutal scientific experiments. So also we’re Gypsies,homosexuals, and many members of religous cults. My modern Israel professor and the college Chaplin was a guest of the Germans in a concentration camp as a young Roman Catholic seminarian in France. He suffered for it during the rest of his life.
Communist and Japanese killed many more and were worse. Where is the sad story??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Father Columban Lesquivit OSB
Alexander, I agree it is difficult to find words to describe the reprehensible depravity that must have possessed German National Socialists to implement the Holocaust of the 1930s and 1940s. Their treatment of Jews and other groups is truly indescribable.
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However, it is factual that medical experiments resulted in new knowledge. For example, cold-water survival tests assisted in the development of more effective equipment, clothing, and treatment. The same can be said for experimental medicines of the time. Are you saying that, since this knowledge arose from such horrendous circumstances, it should not even be mentioned or discussed? Is not repression of such simple truths exactly what the fascist/socialist/Marxists seek to do to today?
Why should we find it difficult to acknowledge the simple fact that a few good things may have resulted from the horrifically evil campaign discussed? Moreover, regardless of Sarah Hannon’s disgusting communist ideology, if she utters a simple truth I am able to recognize it as such. Does it really matter from who’s mouth truth is spoken for it to be true?
Wayne, scientists, especially medical professionals, learned a great deal from torturing innocent people during the Medieval time. Well, let’s call it scientific experiments. Truth has nothing to do with it.
Sarah Hannan touched on frostbite treatment, for which WWII human experiments were conducted by Surgeon General Shirō Ishii of the Imperial Japanese Army, not the Germans. Ishi was shielded from war crimes prosecution by the US, in trade of consultation of his obscene research.
The blatant ignorance of elected officials of a grounding in basic elementary schooling level knowledge is disturbing. The officials enacting legislation or mandating decrees negatively affecting the public are ignorant as well as corrupt.
Great comment and clarification!!
Alexander, as a follow up, consider that the European Holocaust did not begin with starvation and mass-murder of victims in extermination camps. It began with restrictions and social sanctions placed incrementally upon the targeted classes of people. Long before Jews were forcibly herded to camps they were compelled to wear badges, stay in certain areas, avoid other areas, resign from jobs, show ID papers, etc, etc, etc. The beginnings of the European Holocaust correlate precisely with what we see taking effect today regarding vaccines. Comparisons are totally appropriate.
Great comparisons, Wayne, and scary. Currently, I am working on my new piece comparing 17th century “Great Schism” of the Russian Orthodox Church with today’s social environment in our country. Not an easy task.
Alexander Dolitsky, Thanks again for another glimpse of America today from your vantage point. Your experience is similar to my Grand Father’s. He left the Austrian -Hungarian Empire in 1906 seeking freedom over serfdom. He returned to Europe in 1917 as a member of the U.S .Army to fight fellow Germans and allies of his Country of Origin. He was wounded in France and cherished his Purple Heart since it validated his being an American. My thought is why do we as Americans today want to identify as hyphenated Americans and engage in the politics of personal identity? I mean to say that one’s heritage is important but it’s not what brought you to America. Freedom of thought is what America offers along with the expression of that thinking. How have we allowed leftists to enslave us with the muzzle of Political Correctness? As Americans, it’s not the many things we hold in common that define who we are, but the few things and freedom of thought is foremost. These people who you refer to above as being Liberal are really very Illiberal and Totalitarian. They do not understand the gift that it is to be an American.
Robert, you are absolutely correct.
Hypocrisy is human nature. To be human is to be a hypocrite.
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However, we expect adults to temper their hypocrisy, not deny it. Have I said “do as I say, not as I do?” Absolutely. What parent hasn’t? However, there is a difference between being a “hypocrite” when dealing with lessons to your children, and being one as a politician.
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Will Forrest Dunbar, a supporter of equity and black lives matter, choose not to run for re-election because his declared opponent is a black female? Not a chance. Will he reject his white privilege? No way.
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Instead I expect some excuse why he is not using his white privilge, and how he is better able to promote equity in the assembly, instead of stepping aside. In other words, he will refuse to acknowledge his hypocrisy.
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And, every Anchorage voter needs to tell him to put his money where his mouth is.
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The only cure for hypocrisy is ridicule.
In our ‘brave new world’ the rules are that democrats are allowed to say just about anything offensive about Jews and Christians (especially Catholics). However, derogatory comments about the Muslim religion is curiously avoided by these same people.
Yes, ‘cancel culture’ of the ‘Progressives’ is alive and well. However, more and more people are awakening to the reality of the destructive nature of ‘cancel culture’ and deciding they must fight against it. The good news is that the ‘cancel cultute’ crowd is vastly outnumbered.
The bad news is most conservatives sit on the hands and whine, while Bolsheviks work. Hard.
That’s how we got here.
America is the new Venezuela. Except with nukes.
The shining beacon on the hill was snuffed out by fear.
I don’t get it.
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