Interregional Academy of Personnel Management

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Interregional Academy of Personnel Management (Ukrainian: Міжрегіональна Академія управління персоналом (МАУП), translit.: Mizhrehional'na Akademiya upravlinnya personalom, English acronym: MAUP, also IAPM or IRAPM) is a private higher education institution in Ukraine. Founded in 1989 as a non-state establishment, the MAUP consists of a preparatory department, a lyceum, college, institutes and postgraduate school and has over 50,000 students in many branches throughout the country. Since 1991, MAUP has been publishing the Personnel magazine and the Personnel Plus newspaper.

In the recent years, the MAUP became imbued in controversies because of evident antisemitism in their publications and conferences.

1 Features and affiliations
2 Controversies
- 2.1 Manifestations of antisemitism
- 2.2 Reactions
3 See also
4 External links
5 References

[edit] Features and affiliations

The MAUP is the largest non-state higher education institution in Ukraine. It is accredited by and has the license of the Ministry of Education of Ukraine to carry out educational process in ten higher education specialties with the right to give out diplomas of state and international standards.

The MAUP has published in excess of 300 study plans and manuals and 200 books for a variety of educational programs. The Personnel magazine is registered by The Presidium of the State Accreditation Committee as a supplement on economics, law, psychology, pedagogy, philosophy, social and political sciences. MAUP's editions have been recommended for use by The Ministry of Education of Ukraine. It is an affiliate member of the International Personnel Academy and European University Continuing Education Network (EUCEN). ^[1]

The MAUP asserts that "Pursuant to the results of Sophiya Kyivska, the Rating of Higher Education Establishments in Ukraine (2000), and International Open Popularity and Quality Rating (1998-2000) IRAPM was recognized as the best non-state higher education establishment in Ukraine." ^[2] (However it should be noted that private educational institutions are rare in Ukraine, as almost all educational institutions are owned by the State).

[edit] Controversies

In the recent years, the MAUP became imbued in controversies because of evident antisemitism in their publications and conferences. The MAUP maintains that their activities can be classified only as anti-Zionism, but its critics point out ^[3] traditional antisemitic propaganda traits that have no connection to Zionism, such as religious antisemitism or solely blaming the Jews for the Russian October Revolution or the Holodomor of 1932-1933.

During October 6, 2004 hearing of the Annual Report on International Religious Freedom 2004 and Designations of Countries of Particular Concern before the Committee on International Relations of the United States Congress, the MAUP was called "[t]he most troubling development" in Ukraine and it was asserted that it receives "significant funding from Arab and Muslim states". ^[4]

[edit] Manifestations of antisemitism

In April 14-19, 2005 the MAUP weekly newspaper Personnel Plus published an open letter to President Yushchenko, Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn and Supreme Court of Ukraine Chief Justice Malyarenko calling for a parliamentary investigation into the "criminal activities of organized Jewry in Ukraine." The newspaper claimed that the letter was signed by more than a hundred scientific, civic, and political leaders.^[5]

On June 3, the MAUP sponsored a one-day conference entitled "Zionism As the Biggest Threat to Modern Civilization" attended by the former leader of the Ku Klux Klan in the United States David Duke. ^[6] The Kyiv Post newspaper called the gathering "a disgusting orgy of racism and hatred."^[5] In August 2005, the MAUP awarded Duke with the Ph.D. degree. ^[7]

After the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's threat to wipe out Israel evoked international condemnations, on November 4, 2005 the MAUP issued "a decisive protest against large-scale campaign, organized by Zionists, against Islam Republic Iran and its President Mahmud Ahmadi-Nedzhad... where he quoted the words of the Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini about future death of Israel and the USA." ^[5]

In his November 22 statement, Georgy Shchokin, the MAUP's President who also heads the "International Personnel Academy" (IPA) and the Ukrainian Conservative Party (UCP), combined traditional Christian antisemitism with New antisemitism and failed to mention that the UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 of 1975 (equating Zionism and racism) has been revoked in 1991 by the UNGA Resolution 4686:

"We'd like to remind that the Living God Jesus Christ said to Jews two thousand years ago: 'Your father is a devil!' ... Zionism in 1975 was acknowledged by General Assembly of UN as the form of racism and race discrimination, that, in the opinion of the absolute majority of modern Europeans, makes the most threat to modern civilization. Israel is the artificially created state (classic totalitarian type).... Their end is known, and only the God's true will rescue all of us. We are not afraid, as God always together with his children!" ^[3]

On December 1, 2005, the MAUP held a conference "The Jewish-Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 – the Source of the Red Terrorism and the Starvation of Ukraine".^[8]

In the March 2006 issue of the Personnel Plus, an article^[9] revived false blood libel accusations from the infamous 1911 Beilis Trial by mischaracterizing the verdict as the jury recognizing the case as ritual murder by persons unknown even though it found Beilis himself not guilty, when in fact the defense had entirely rested on demolishing the concept of Jewish ritual murder.^[10], ^[11],^[12] A week earlier, MAUP leaders had visited the grave of Andrei Yuschinsky, the Christian boy who had been the victim in the case.^[13] ^[14]

At a conference held at the MAUP Academy in Kiev, the heads of the MAUP accused "Rothschild's Soldiers" of the genocide of the Ukrainian people.^[15]

On August 15, 2006, an article on the MAUP's website denounced the Bnai Brith as "the Jewish Gestapo".^[16]

[edit] Reactions

On November 21, 2005, the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) called on Ukrainian authorities to publicly denounce and revoke the accreditation of one of Ukraine’s largest private universities. The SWC associate dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper charged that "[b]y supporting Ahmadinejad’s threat to Israel, MAUP’s consistent Jew-baiting now culminated in an endorsement of genocide. While such utterances may be free speech in the Ukraine [sic], as a proper it is long overdue for the leadership of the Ukraine [sic] to exercise their democratic rights and obligations to denounce such statements and censure those who use academic cover to target a minority and to endorse potential mass murder."^[17]

On December 5, the President of the Ukrainian American Coordinating Council (UACC) Ihor Gawdiak issued a statement "to convey our profound shock and distress concerning the horrific statement made on 4 November by the heads of the International Academy of Manpower Management (MAUP) in support of the Iranian President’s statement that Israel should be wiped off the map."^[18]^[19]

On the same day, the office of the President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko issued a statement which said in part:

"The Head of State is worried that anti-Semitism spreads throughout Ukraine. He condemned the Interregional Academy of Personnel Management (IAPM) as an institution that systematically publishes anti-Semitic articles in its publication Personnel. Yushchenko said he had left the supervisory council of the journal to protest against this inhumane policy. He called on professors of the IAPM to respect citizens of all nationalities and confessions and to "stop rousing national hatred."^[20]^[21]^[5]

Yushchenko once sat on MAUP's board, and Foreign Minister of Ukraine Borys Tarasyuk was honorary director of one of MAUP's subdivisions until 2005. Yushchenko resigned from MAUP several years ago, following its criticism by Jewish organizations.^[22]

On December 6, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) urged the United States House of Representatives to delay approval of Ukraine’s graduation from the Jackson-Vanik amendment. The ADL National Director Abraham Foxman wrote: "We expect more from democratic states than we do from totalitarian ones. This year alone has seen a steep increase in acts of violence and vandalism against Jews across Ukraine. There have been attempts to ban everything from Jewish organizations to Jewish holy texts. The university MAUP... actively promotes anti-Semitism of the most vicious kind."^[23]

On December 7, the United States-Ukraine Foundation (USUF) condemned "... the November 4, 2005 statements by the Interregional Academy of Personnel Management (MAUP) as hateful, virulent and having no place in the public discourse in Ukraine or anywhere else. MAUP’s anti-Semitic statements supporting the Iranian President's recent call for Israel to be 'wiped off the map' was an affront to decency that provoked the unequivocal international condemnation it deserved."^[24]

Speaking on national television on January 23, 2006, Foreign Minister of Ukraine Borys Tarasyuk "strongly condemned the anti-Semitic actions of MAUP University" and confirmed that "having exhausted all efforts to convince MAUP leaders to drop their unlawful and wrongful actions" he broke off contacts with University a year ago. In its press-release, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine accused MAUP of breaking Ukrainian law, noting "persistent incompliance with requirements of state licensing rules for universities, failure to abide with legally binding decisions of the State Accreditation Commission", qualifying it as "a general negligence of law and a desire to pursue activities inconsistent with the status of Higher Education Institute in Ukraine".

This move was welcomed by the UACC,^[25] National Conference on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ),^[26] the ADL,^[23] and other human rights advocates.

The leader of Vaad in Ukraine Joseph Zissels called MAUP "the most influential center of anti-Semitism in the country."^[27]

The latest rebuke came from Ukraine's High Court which ruled against MAUP as it sought to sue the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine for publishing articles "about MAUP activities directed against the Jewish community and Zionism".^[28]