Russia Ends Probe Into Jewish Text

By Alex Sholem - Wednesday 29th June 2005


Russian prosecutors this week halted a probe into a key Jewish text which was alleged to incite religious hatred.

The announcement came after a meeting in Moscow on Tuesday between Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and Israeli Vice Premier Ehud Olmert.

Top stories

email this page to a friend print this page email the editor buy this content Bookmark and Share
The probe was prompted by a complaint made by right wing activists who claimed the book, a 500-year-old text detailing religious law, promoted both religious and national hatred.

The move was slated by Jewish human rights groups around the world and Israeli government figures had promised a strong response if the investigation had continued.

Lawyers in Moscow questioned Rabbi Zinovy Kogan, chairman of the Congress of Jewish Religious Organisations, last week over his group’s distribution of a translated volume of the Shulchan Aruch.

But State Prosecutors announced on Tuesday that there would be no action over the text, nor any further investigation into the Congress of Jewish Religious Organisations.

News of Kogan’s questioning had raised deep anger in the Knesset, with Speaker Reuven Rivlin pledging the government would take a policy of “zero tolerance on serious expressions of anti-semitism such as this”.

Olmert, who met Prime Minister Fradkov in Moscow, said: “Our relations with Russia are very important to us. But there are things which are beyond any such considerations and calculations. On these things we won’t compromise”.

Abraham Foxman, National Director of Jewish human rights group, Anti-Defamation League, likened the investigation to the persecution of Jews seen in Tsarist Russia and under Stalin.

In a letter to President Vladimir Putin, he wrote: “We now think of Russia as a modern democracy, but this sort of anti-semitic agitation is a throwback to the darkest medieval days.

“The Russian government needs to declare a zero tolerance policy on anti-semitism immediately. Russia also needs to know that the outside world is watching. We cannot and will not permit a situation in which Russian Jews are again at the mercy of extremists, xenophobes and anti-semites.”

His plea for action was echoed by Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, who said: "We call upon President Putin to personally intervene in this matter and stop the manipulation of Russia's new democratic institutions to serve the world's oldest hate."

Earlier this year a group of 500 Russians, including public figures and 20 members of the nationalist Rodina party, wrote an open letter to the state prosecutor’s office calling for the country to ban “racist” Jewish groups.

Read the latest copy of The Jewish News Online by clicking here.

Bookmark and Share