When Highland Park's Leah Silverstein was in Russia in October,she was given a list of the latest anti-Semitic activities in Moscow:rock-throwing, window-busting and swastika painting.
"Death to Jews" was scrawled on Moscow's main synagogue, saidSilverstein, chairman of the Chicago Conference on Soviet Jewry.
Russia's anti-Semitism is now echoing around the world with thisweek's political success of Vladimir Zhirinovsky, whoseultranationalist party won about a quarter of the vote inparliamentary elections.
"Everyone is talking about this. It's a major concern to theJewish community here," Silverstein said.
Chicago Jewish leaders and immigrants from the former SovietUnion said Wednesday that the Zhirinovsky's success means danger forJews in Russia.
This week, Zhirinovsky said he is not anti-Semitic butmaintained that Jews control the media in Russia and that peoplethere want to see more "good, Slav faces" on television.
"In environments of political instability, certain people turnto strong leaders. History has taught us that this is bad forminorities. In Russia, Jews are a minority," said Richard L. Wexlerof Chicago. He is national chairman of the United Jewish Appeal'sOperation Exodus, which provides money to help Jews leave the formerSoviet Union.
Though Zhirinovsky won nearly 6 million votes in the 1991presidential election, the 47-year-old lawyer was seen as a "figureof ridicule" among Jews, Wexler said. His success "has put the worldon notice just how strong revolutionary forces can be," Wexler said.
Mikhail Gurevich, a Jewish journalist and critic who immigratedto the North Side from Russia a year ago, said "the hard conditionsof everyday life" experienced by Russia's downtrodden helped pushZhirinovsky into power. Zhirinovsky's core of support is said to besoldiers, sailors, disaffected youths, military industry workers andpensioners.
Gurevich said, "I had a strange feeling just before I left (thatRussia was) entering into a new vulgar era."
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