Leaders: Indifference Led to Moscow Attack

Leaving a central Moscow synagogue after attacks on Jan. 11

MOSCOW
Jewish leaders have blamed Russian authorities, law-enforcement agencies and societal atittudes for the stabbing attack last week at a Moscow synagogue, saying that the authorities have not responded properly to previous anti-Semitic and hate incidents.

"The entire world has seen what the lack of fight against fascism leads to today," the Federation of Jewish Communities, Russia's largest Jewish group, said last week in a statement.

Berel Lazar, one of Russia's chief rabbis and a federation leader, demanded that Russian authorities react promptly to Wednesday's incident.

"We won't be silent," he told a news conference in Moscow. "We are expecting that the state organs, law-enforcement agencies will take real measures so that" these types of incidents do not occur again.

The federation also said the attack was a direct consequence of earlier manifestations of anti-Semitism that Russian authorities left almost unnoticed. In particular, the group cited an infamous letter signed by some Russian lawmakers and public figures that in early 2005 called for a ban of Jewish organizations in Russia.

Some Russians seem to share this view; 81 percent of 3,992 callers to a popular Moscow radio station said the attack was a sign of rising xenophobia and extremism in Russia.

Many groups are also looking into increased security. The Israeli Embassy is pressing Russia's Foreign Ministry to install more security at Jewish institutions in the country. "Events in Moscow have aroused grave concerns," said the embassy's press secretary Mikhail Brodsky.

The incident took place just before the evening service on Jan. 11, when the Bolshaya Bronnaya Synagogue in downtown Moscow was full of worshippers.

The man, identified by police as Alexander Koptsev, 20, struck out at random before being pushed to the ground by Yitzhak Kogan, the shul's rabbi, and Kogan's son.

The attacker, with self-inflicted injuries, was checked into the same Moscow hospital as most of his victims. Police said the man will be arrested once his condition allows it.

All of his victims were in stable condition, and three had been released from the hospital. The injuries ranged from light to medium, but none was life-threatening, according to medical sources, despite initial reports to the contrary.

Among those wounded were Russians, Israelis, an American - Kogan's son-in-law, Michael Mishulowin - and a rabbinical student from Tajikistan.

Witnesses said the attacker shouted, "I came to kill you," and looked like a skinhead, but a source with the Moscow police told news agencies that the attacker is not a known member of any known neo-Nazi groups. Some sources have indicated the young man may suffer from a mental disorder.

Investigators classified the attack as attempted murder and "inflicting injuries out of ethnic or religious hatred," which in Russia carry a maximum punishment of 12 years in prison.

The shul is one of the oldest in Moscow and serves as the base of the Agudas Chasidei Chabad in Russia, a Lubavitch organization.

At the Bolshaya Bronnaya synagogue in Moscow

Beefing Up Security
Some North American Jewish groups expressed outrage over the incident. NCSJ, a group that monitors Jewish life in the region, "condemns the attack and calls for greater vigilance of religious sites," said Mark Levin, the group's executive director.

The FJC leadership called on the authorities to take tough measures against the existing neo-Nazi youth groups, and against the publishers and distributors of anti-Semitic books that can be easily bought in public places in most of Russian cities.

Lazar said that even if it was the case, the rampage was a direct result of the atmosphere in a Russian society that easily tolerates xenophobia.

In the meantime, the federation said it has beefed up security measures in all its synagogues across the country. Russian synagogues usually hire private companies to provide security.

Another Russian Jewish umbrella group, the Congress of Jewish Religious Communities and Organizations, known as KEROOR, said it would call on its local constituents later this month to raise funds to improve security measures at provincial synagogues and Jewish institutions.

"We cannot put guards next to every Jewish grave or every single Jew," said KEROOR spokesman Vladimir Pliss. "We should appeal to the authorities for protection. But in the end, we should definitely take care of ourselves; no one will help us on that."

Lev Krichevsky
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

MOSCOW
Five functioning synagogues exist in the Russian capital. Below is a list of previous attacks on them in the last 12 years:

• Dec. 30, 1993 — The old wooden building of the Marina Roscha Synagogue burned to the ground in what was considered an arson attack.

• 1994— A hand grenade was thrown at the window of the Bolshaya Bronnaya Synagogue.

• October 1994 — An explosive device disguised as a beer can was found and defused in the courtyard of the Choral Synagogue.

• August 1996 — An explosive device went off outside of the Marina Roscha Synagogue. No one was injured.

• May 1998 — Two people were injured when an explosive device went off near the Marina Roscha Synagogue.

• July 13, 1999 — A knife-wielding youth entered the Choral Synagogue and stabbed Leopold Kaimovsky, a Jewish leader, several times.

• July 25, 1999 — An explosive device containing TNT was found in the prayer hall of the Bolshaya Bronnaya Synagogue. It was successfully defused.

• April 2003 — An explosive device was found and defused outside the Bolshaya Bronnaya Synagogue.

• Jan. 11, 2006 — Several worshippers are wounded when a man saying “I came to kill you” enters the Bolshaya Bronnaya Synagogue during evening services and begins to stab people.