Mr. Yakov Gutman

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  www.theday.com/eng/web/newstand/re.aspx?reIDx=8E5C2902- - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 9/15/2003    Last Visited: 9/16/2003  

  Yakov Gutman, head of the World Association of Belarusian Jews, shows fragments of a human skull during excavation in the city of Mozyr, 370 km (230 miles) south of the capital Minsk, Belarus, on Aug. 27, 2003.
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  According to Gutman, in 1941 about 40 Mozyr Jews including his grandfather gathered in a house and set it on fire, choosing to kill themselves rather than surrender to Nazi forces.
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  According to Yakov Gutman, head of the World Association of Belarusian Jews, in 1941 about 40 Mozyr Jews including his grandfather gathered in a house and set it on fire, choosing to kill themselves rather than surrender to Nazi forces.
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  "These people repeated the deed of the Jews at Masada," where hundreds of Jews killed themselves rather than surrender to Roman forces in 74 A.D., Gutman said.

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  ABM -- Articles About the Jewish Community in Belarus... - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 1/9/2001    Last Visited: 11/20/2003  

  "Speaking at the session, Yakov Gutman, president of the US-based World Association of Belarusian Jewry, pointed out that 810,000 Belarusian Jews and 55,000 Jews from other parts of Europe had been slaughtered by the Nazis in Belarus in 1941-1944.According to Mr. Gutman, the idea of a Holocaust memorial was first put forward a decade ago, but the authorities are still ignoring the issue.Moreover, he said, there has been an attempt to destroy a Jewish cemetery, which dates as far back as 1872.In the opinion of the Jewish leader, the memorial could be erected either at the cemetery or on a site where 5,000 prisoners of the Minsk ghetto were massacred on March 2, 1942.Mr. Gutman also said that an international contest of projects would attract the attention and financial support of the diaspora."
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  "Yakov Gutman, chairman of the World Association of Belarusian Jewry (WABJ), has criticized the Belarusian authorities for hampering the WABJ's activities.The WABJ was founded in the state of New York, the United States, in 1993.It registered with the Belarusian Ministry of Justice in 1996, but the ministry refused to re-register the association in 1999."
  
  " 'The authorities do not give us permission to put in order the graves of Nazi victims, do not even follow agreements reached in the area, and on the commemoration of Belarusian-born Jews well-known in the world,' Mr. Gutman told reporters in Minsk on January 4."
  
  "He criticized the government for failing to return Jews property built for their money and open Jewish schools in the country.Mr. Gutman said that sacred buildings are used to house exhibitions of reptiles and shows and the building of a synagogue in Slonim built about 300 years ago currently houses a public toilet."
  
  "Mr. Gutman attacked the Belarusian leader for failing to reply to the WABJ's request to build a monument to Nazi victims and underground fighters, which it sent on February 5, 1996.Mr. Gutman blamed the government for preventing the restoration of Jewish ethnic identity and failing to condemn arson attacks on synagogues and acts of vandalism."
  
  "Mr. Gutman said that Belarusian Jews do not support the regime of Aleksandr Lukashenko because the number of Jews in the country has decreased from 112,000 to 28,000 in the last decade.

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  ABM -- News Articles during the Year 2000 about the... - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 12/1/2000    Last Visited: 6/29/2008  

  "The organizers have condemned the ban as 'another act of government-level anti-Semitism,' 'outrage on the memory of the fallen patriots and on the constitutional rights of Belarusian citizens.' Yakov Gutman, president of the World Association of Belarusian Jews, has issued a statement calling on "people of goodwill" to come to the memorial on October 26 [2000] to honor the memory of the victims of Nazism."
  
  "Photos taken by the Germans prior to the execution were displayed at the Nuremberg Trial and have become known all over the world.The three victims included Vladimir Shcherbatsevich, Kirill Trus, and a girl whose name Mr. Gutman said is considered unknown in Belarus."
  
  " 'The whole world knows that the girl's name was Masha Bruskina,' Mr. Gutman said.
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  "Speaking at the session, Yakov Gutman, president of the US-based World Association of Belarusian Jewry, pointed out that 810,000 Belarusian Jews and 55,000 Jews from other parts of Europe had been slaughtered by the Nazis in Belarus in 1941-1944.According to Mr. Gutman, the idea of a Holocaust memorial was first put forward a decade ago, but the authorities are still ignoring the issue.Moreover, he said, there has been an attempt to destroy a Jewish cemetery, which dates as far back as 1872.In the opinion of the Jewish leader, the memorial could be erected either at the cemetery or on a site where 5,000 prisoners of the Minsk ghetto were massacred on March 2, 1942.Mr. Gutman also said that an international contest of projects would attract the attention and financial support of the diaspora."
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  "Yakov Gutman, chairman of the World Association of Belarusian Jewry (WABJ), has criticized the Belarusian authorities for hampering the WABJ's activities.The WABJ was founded in the state of New York, the United States, in 1993.It registered with the Belarusian Ministry of Justice in 1996, but the ministry refused to re-register the association in 1999."
  
  " 'The authorities do not give us permission to put in order the graves of Nazi victims, do not even follow agreements reached in the area, and on the commemoration of Belarusian-born Jews well-known in the world,' Mr. Gutman told reporters in Minsk on January 4."
  
  "He criticized the government for failing to return Jews property built for their money and open Jewish schools in the country.Mr. Gutman said that sacred buildings are used to house exhibitions of reptiles and shows and the building of a synagogue in Slonim built about 300 years ago currently houses a public toilet."
  
  "Mr. Gutman attacked the Belarusian leader for failing to reply to the WABJ's request to build a monument to Nazi victims and underground fighters, which it sent on February 5, 1996.Mr. Gutman blamed the government for preventing the restoration of Jewish ethnic identity and failing to condemn arson attacks on synagogues and acts of vandalism."
  
  "Mr. Gutman said that Belarusian Jews do not support the regime of Aleksandr Lukashenko because the number of Jews in the country has decreased from 112,000 to 28,000 in the last decade.
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  Mr. Gutman's criticism of Mr. Lukashenko and his government appears to have been timed to coincide with the Belarusian leader's on-going visit to Israel."

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  Annual report 2004 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 5/1/2004    Last Visited: 6/27/2004  

  Yakov Gutman, head of the New York-based World Association of Belarusian Jews, was detained in January 2004 for protesting the lack of protection of Jewish cultural sites in Belarus.

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  Belarus Project - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 2/1/2002    Last Visited: 6/17/2008  

  On February 11, Yakov Gutman, head of the World Association of Belarusian Jews, urged the US Congress to maintain Cold War-era trade sanctions against Belarus over the demolition of a century-old Minsk synagogue and other antisemitic acts."There can be no talk of canceling the Jackson-Vanik amendment with regards to Belarus," he said."I call on members of the US Congress to once again study the situation on the 'Jewish street' in Belarus as the most sharp demonstration of trampling on human rights in the country," he said.
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  When Gutman tried to block the synagogue from the bulldozers, he was arrested for 15 days for disturbing the peace.

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  Belarus Project - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 7/1/2002    Last Visited: 6/17/2008  

  Yakov Gutman, president of the World Association of Belarusian Jewry, distributed an open letter to the leaders of the U.S., Russia and Israel, asking them to pressure Belarusian authorities to restore the synagogue."A wave of extremism and anti-Semitism is rushing through the Belarusian land," Gutman wrote in the letter."What the Belarusian authorities have done can only be compared to the destruction of the statues of Buddha in Afghanistan," he said in an interview to Belapan.Jewish groups were joined at the protest by residents of the building next door and by Belarusian artists. (Belapan, July 10)

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  Belarus Project - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 11/1/2002    Last Visited: 6/17/2008  

  "Belarusian lawmakers are making the first attempt to stop anti-Semitism at the government level," said Yakov Gutman, president of the World Association of Belarusian Jews.

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  Belarus Project - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 10/1/2000    Last Visited: 6/17/2008  

  "In the submissive fashion of warped, Soviet style Orthodoxy, Filaret has given Lukashenko uncritical support for all of his anti-Semitic statements instead of using his international status as the head of the foreign relations of the Moscow Patriarchate to provide an independent voice for justice and freedom," commented Yakov Gutman, president of the International Association of Belarusian Jews."The fact that anti-Semite Chartovich, a faithful servant of the regime, gained the support of the Belarusian Orthodox Church looks very logical for me," Gutman added.He said that with regret that "in democratic country the parliament would have long initiated hearings on attempts to incite ethnic hatred."(BBC, October 16)
  
  REGIME CONTINUES HARASSMENT OF INDEPENDENT PUBLISHING HOUSE

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  Belarus lawmakers protest destruction of Jewish sites - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 5/7/2006    Last Visited: 6/7/2008  

  "Belarusian lawmakers are making the first attempt to stop anti-Semitism at government level," said Yakov Gutman, president of the World Association of Belarusian Jews.

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  Belarus' Jews Watch in Dismay - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 9/17/2003    Last Visited: 9/17/2003  

  Yakov Gutman, head of the World Association of Belarussian Jews, said that about 40 Jews in Mozyr, including his grandfather, gathered in a house in 1941 and set it on fire, choosing to kill themselves rather than surrender to Nazi forces.
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  "These people repeated the deed of the Jews at Masada," where hundreds of Jews killed themselves rather than surrender to Roman forces in 74 A.D., Gutman said.

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