Never underestimate what a few vodka shots can do.
That was one of the lessons learned by a group of Bay Area Jews, assistant district attorneys and members of the San Francisco Police Department, who traveled to Russia last month to take part in an exchange about hate crimes.
Before the two groups went out drinking together, interaction was a bit forced, said Pnina Levermore, executive director of the Bay Area Council for Rescue and Renewal. But once the Americans showed their willingness to take part in this initiation rite into Russian culture, despite the language barrier, the two groups bonded.
Sponsored by the Bay Area Council and the Central Pacific Region of the Anti-Defamation League, the trip was considered Phase II of an exchange for Russian human rights activists and police officials to learn from American expertise in dealing with hate crimes. Phase I took place in August, with a delegation of Russians coming to San Francisco.
The Americans spent three days in St. Petersburg and three days in Petrozavodsk, which is northeast of St. Petersburg.
And for whatever reason, although some of the participants had met in August, Levermore said that at first, it seemed that the Russians felt the Americans had some kind of hidden agenda.
There was a lot of interest in the group being there, but it wasn’t until after Levermore and Leonid Lvov, director of the Light Center for Human Rights in St. Petersburg, gave interviews to the local press that the Russians began to trust them more, she said. “Those interviews went a long way to assuage those concerns.”
While hate crime legislation does exist in Russia, enforcing it is another matter. Levermore said that often a hate crime is classified as “hooliganism.”
“As a result, hate crimes are never acknowledged and perpetrators are never caught,” she said.
The Americans led a variety of workshops. In one, they developed a scenario involving a hate-crime against a Russian immigrant and discussed how law enforcement, the community and the ADL all would react. “We wanted to emphasize how all three components need to work together to fight hate crimes and encourage them to do the same sort of thing,” said Jonathan Bernstein, regional director of the ADL.
The Americans stressed that although they were more experienced at dealing with hate crimes, “we have our own warts too,” Levermore said. “That encouraged them to open up.”
An exercise used frequently by the ADL’s World of Difference Institute involving an orange also served to break the ice.
Bernstein gave each group an orange — a lemon can also be used — that they adopted. Each group had to invent the story of its orange, giving it a name, a history and memorizing its unique markings.
Then they had to return the oranges and Bernstein mixed them all up. When asked, each group could identify its orange. But then the oranges were peeled, and no group could recognize its adopted piece of fruit.
“All these fights broke out,” said Bernstein. “We got into a discussion about exterior features and what people are really like on the inside. They understood the message and it made it easier to talk about the subject.”
One of the most significant developments was unplanned; a hate crime actually happened while the group was there.
About 15 skinheads in fascist uniforms vandalized a Jewish school in Ryazan, outside Moscow. Yelling “This is a pogrom,” they smashed furniture and broke windows. No one was hurt.
“Some of the teachers called the police but the official response was lackluster,” Bernstein said.
The local paper didn’t report on it and the group only learned of the incident because the St. Petersburg paper wrote about it.
The group decided to write a letter to Ryazan officials, which they all signed.
“Establishing interethnic harmony in a multiethnic society is the foundation of peace and social stability,” said the letter. “When a group of people is assaulted only because of their ethnic or religious background, it affects not only the direct victims of the crime but society in general. This threatens the existence of democracy and civil society in Russia.”
“I felt most proud about that,” Bernstein said. “It’s not a big deal, but I think people in the group will be a little more inclined to respond when something like this happens again, and we know it will.”
With the trip finished, Levermore said the groups would continue to share information. She felt it was a positive sign that she ran out of printed materials to distribute.
“We’re going to maintain communication and dialogue back and forth,” she said, adding that she felt “really encouraged” by what had taken place.
Bernstein agreed. “Russia is struggling with so many incredible issues right now,” he said, and it would be understandable that fighting hate crimes would not be a high priority. But, “I think now is the time to be addressing these issues as they’re trying to redesign their institutions.
“I don’t think we turned the group into a bunch of ADL activists, but we made significant headway,” he said, adding, “A lot of the people will look at things a little differently than before they met with us.”