Conversation : In Russia, ‘Jews Never Trust the Police’

If a Jew were being tried in Russia and I were on the jury, I would probably vote to acquit because Jews have learned never to trust the Russian government or police. And I’ll tell you something else--even if I believed a Jew guilty, I might acquit him anyway because he’s a fellow Jew. A fellow Jew in a place where everything’s always been against him, where many innocent fellow Jews have been framed.

But please let me explain my reasons. I would never do such a thing in this country--only in Russia, which of course doesn’t have a jury system anyway. In this country you might be able to prove it if there’s a police conspiracy; in Russia, you can’t. And also, for years and years every Jew in the Soviet Union has had problems with the government and the police. They are very hostile to Jews and you can feel it when you enter a police station or when you look for a job. You’ve got to learn to live with it because there’s no place you can complain about it. And it feels like living your whole life with only one arm.

All citizens in Russia must carry a passport listing their ethnicity, and although I’ve escaped some problems because I’m registered as a Russian like my father, I still look Jewish like my mother. And there is a Jewish saying in Russia: “People won’t beat your passport picture, they’re going to beat your face.”

Generally Jews are law-abiding and not stopped all the time by police, but if cops come up to you and you look Jewish, it definitely plays a part in how they treat you. In 1989 I was at a demonstration in Moscow where several hundred neo-Nazis were marching and shouting things like: “Jews get out of Russia! Beat the [expletive]! Save Russia!” I began to argue with a demonstrator and a cop came up and was going to arrest me. I said: “Why don’t you arrest these morons with these slogans?” but he led me away instead. The police tell you that Jews are not loyal to Russia. People in Russia are generally pretty hostile to the police, but they don’t like Jews either. So although they know we often get beaten and framed, they say: “Well, they’re Jews, so we don’t care.”

I was arrested lots of times in Russia. I’m a cartoonist, and I was arrested nine times in one year for my political cartoons. I’m telling you all these things so you can understand why, if the police arrested a Jew, I might not believe that the Jew had truly done anything wrong. For decades they’ve been framing Jews with fake evidence and trying innocent people only because they were Jews. My own grandfather, for example, was one of 100 Jews jailed and tried in the 1960s in a crackdown on Jews for capitalist activities; his partner was shot for organizing a factory. Here in the United States I’ve been arrested once on a traffic charge and the police treated me very well. But in general police seem about the same all over the world. And I know blacks in this country say they’ve been mistreated and framed for many decades also, and that they’ve grown suspicious and angry like Jews have in Russia.

Nowadays if O.J. Simpson had been accused of a double murder in Russia, he’d have gotten off much easier. He could have just paid off the cops when they first came to his door and there would never even have been a case filed against him. It probably would have cost him about $5,000, which would have saved him the $6 million they say he’s spent on his lawyers here. I’ve never heard of that being called bribery in Russia because it’s so common, just a part of the system. And in fact, if the police tried to ask him for more money, he could even tell them “Don’t push your luck.”

But O.J. Simpson would have another problem there, because in Russia there are very few black people and they are treated much worse than Jews, at least 20 times as bad. The racism in Russia is so high against blacks that they’re constantly harassed and abused very cruelly. And no person or organization ever steps forward to try to help or protect them.