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Sunday, January 15, 2006

Medines Raisen

The press reports:

A 19-year-old Russian man was sentenced to five days in jail yesterday for an attack on a synagogue in the southern city of Rostov-[na]-Don[u], the second such incident in Russia in the past week.



So, a little quiz:

What is most frightening about this incident?

A. A young man in Moscow attacks people in a shul with a knife, and another young man in Rostov sees this in TV and thinks "Yo, fun, I'll do the same."

B. He gets only five days in jail for what is actually attempted multiple murder.

C. Five days in a Russian jail might easily correspond to US capital punishment,

D. ... though maybe not for a patriotic Jewhater.

E. He was sentenced the morning after the incident.


Answer: E.


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6 Comments:

Blogger The back of the hill said...

The very summariness of the trial tells us that justice in Russia is arbitrary. Today it may seem to be in our favour (although the arbitrariness of that sentencing may well come to bite us later), tomorrow, with a different roll of the Russian dice, we could be the ones summarily sent up river.

I would rather that a real trial had taken place, and that an attempt be made to determine whether he (though acting alone, to be sure) in any way represented a wider problem, or was connected to any organized group.

As it stands, however, it smacks of political convenience.

And possibly scapegoating.

Sunday, January 15, 2006 7:03:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Medines Raisen"

Pardon my ignorance, but what did you mean by that ? Maybe a discourse on what that means is in order. In my (limited) experience, Raisen is an old geographic term that was used in Eastern Europe, for a 'Litvish' area, that is or is in Belarus today, while (at least some of) present day Lithuania was referred to as Zamut. If so, I don't think Rostov-on-Don would be part of that.

I gather then, that to you Raisen is related to, or the same as 'Russia'? Maybe where you come from, that's what it means.

ילמדנו רבנו בבקשה

Monday, January 16, 2006 2:01:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just to clarify, I was referring to רייסין and זאמוט.

Monday, January 16, 2006 2:12:00 PM  
Blogger Phillip Minden said...

You're right. Nevertheless I was using the word 'Raisen' simply for today's Russia a) because those names tend to go with the changes (Ashkenaz in 19th century was simply the Kaiserreich from the time the latter was established), and b) to stress that little has changed.

Sure, Ashkenazzi Hebrew 'Rusland' and 'Raisen' isn't simply identical, neither are Russian 'Rus'' and 'Rossiya'.

Monday, January 16, 2006 3:34:00 PM  
Blogger Phillip Minden said...

Hey, Jewro - long time no see.

Yes, Kiev was the centre of the Kievan Rus'.

And certainly, it's Ben Yehuda's fault. Y'know, the word 'Ashkenaz' is soo ghetto.

Though I never understood why Israeli Hebrew doesn't have Frantzya and Shpanya. Is it because the word Germamya occurs in the Gemore (for the Roman province)? And could this writing be be a hypercorrect spelling only? (At, and for, a certain time, word- and maybe syllable-ending -m turned -n.)

Kena-an, Raisen, Rusland, Sovetn Farband - they kept their minhogem.

Thursday, January 19, 2006 4:38:00 AM  
Blogger Steg (dos iz nit der šteg) said...

And Ispamya appears in the Gemara too!

Sunday, January 22, 2006 10:39:00 AM  

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