A Discussion on Human Rights with Russians

Last night I led the english discussion club at YESOD on human rights. We had a small discussion about the UN Declaration of Human Rights, which we passed out in Russian and English, and then drew some connections to Judaism and Jewish texts. We then broke up into little groups to make up our own non-profit organizations to try to "tackle" (a new word for most of the Russians) some of the problems (Darfur, Child Slavery, Freedom of the Press in Russia, spread of AIDS, and a couple others.) The Russians were quite knowledgeable about some of these world issues, but the concept of a non-profit was a bit foreign to them. We had to re-emphasize that the state was not trying to solve the problems, but instead might be the biggest challenge to being able to work.

There were a couple interesting observations that I made during the discussion club. First, when I asked everyone to go around the room and introduce themselves, the last person told me that he wasn't accustomed to this, and asked why we (Americans do it). I explained my hope was for them to find common ground, and to make for a more intimate discussion. I think they understood.

When the group presented the non-profit group to try to encourage freedom of speech in Russia, one of the girls challenged her as to where the money would be coming from. If that money came from the oligarchs (like the Abramovitch's, Gusinsky's, or Khodorkovsky's of the 90s), then that's not truly free speech, but is just speech subject to new interests. There was much debate about whether free speech truly exists in Russia today. Surprisingly many said it does.

Joe, my co-leader, asked the students if they trust the police here. Two (of the 12 or so that were there) spoke about apartments they had rented where police were running a heroin racket. One of them even had a judge living in the same apartment building and even she chose not to do anything about it. Both ended up just moving out because they didn't want to have to rely on the police. Others agreed they try to minimize having to rely on them. I was lucky the other day as I walked down Nevsky Prospekt (the main street) since two Asian tourists were stopped right next to me by the police. Luckily my documents are all in order, and I think I've been doing a good job of blending in (which involves not smiling a lot).

In all, I think we had a good discussion; the point is really to get them talking in English. A lot of them don't know each other outside the weekly meetings, so we're planning to all go out socially to get to know each other better.

Otherwise I've been adjusting to life here fine. Today is Tisha B'av, and I fasted a little bit. Now I'm going to go reward myself with a Blini (like a crepe or a blintz). This weekend I plan on seeing Carmen in the Mariinsky Theater down the street. It'll be in Italian, probably with Russian subtitles. I will be lucky if I understand any of it. On Sunday I'll be going to the city of Pushkin, or Tsarskoye Selo, the home of Catherine the Great's palace.