neo-Nazis on foreigners, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported Wednesday, April 17. Several foreign embassies have already received e-mail messages threatening to kill foreigners in Russia in celebration of Adolf Hitler’s birthday on Saturday, April 20.
It comes amid growing international concern about anti-Semitism across the former Soviet Union. Ukrainian police officials have said that 8 people are being questioned in connection with an attack on the city’s main synagogue on Saturday.
The attack by some 50 stone-throwing football fans occurred as members of the congregation were leaving after evening prayers, BosNewsLife reported earlier. One rabbi was hospitalized for the night, and 20 windows were broken, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) said.
Ukraine’s Chief Rabbi, Moshe Azman, was quoted as saying the attackers were chanting anti-Semitic slogans, and described the incident as a pogrom. Ukraine once had the world’s fifth largest Jewish community, but numbers have been severely depleted by emigration, following the collapse of Communism. There are estimated to be 100,000 Jews in Kiev.
Christian organizations helping Israel have expressed their worries about the situation of Jewish people in the former Soviet Union and other ex-Soviet satellite states, where Communism seems to have been replaced by nationalism.
