Israel Matzav

Update about the anti semitic leaflets in Donetsk

In an earlier post, I reported on the Jews of Donetsk, which has been declared an 'independent republic' within the Ukraine, being forced to 'register' themselves and their property or to face forfeiture on May 3. I now have more details about those leaflets, which I received via email.

On April 15, 3 people in black balaclavas, gave away leaflets (the one i sent you before) to passersby and glued some on billboards near the Synagogue.
http://rus.newsru.ua/ukraine/16apr2014/donseparat.html

And when i was researching the previous link i stumbled upon another article (on same topic) now in Israeli news web site for Russian speakers
http://cursorinfo.co.il/news/xussr/2014/04/16/zhidov-goroda-donecka-vizivayut-na-registraciyu/

they also added more info; They said that Nathan Shcharansky (I'm sure you at least heard about him LOL) was on Radio Kol Israel talking about this issue (apparently he was born in Donetsk)

I also found a news article about that Rabbi from Simferopol (Crimea) he was forced to run from Crimea after it was occupied by Russian Federation and his Synagogue 'Ner-Tamid' was Vandalized literary the day Russian soldiers moved in on February 28
http://rus.newsru.ua/ukraine/21mar2014/kapustin.html
http://glavnoe.ua/news/n170400

His name is Mikhail Kapustin, he says that he was forced to flee to Kiev, in fear of anti-Semitism

I hope you speak german or know someone, because his only intervew was to German-Jewish website.....

Here is a link www.juedische-allgemeine.de/article/view/id/18660

Here he is a short post where he asks people for help and save Simferopol from Russian occupation (and there is also his picture)
http://evreiskiy.kiev.ua/ravvin-simferopolja-mikhail-kapustin-12870.html

Following him, HABAD representatives also left Crimea, Rabbi Itskhak-Meir Lifshits and his wife Lea, he says that he managed to move out Torah scrolls from Beyt Habad in Crimea to Ukraine mainland. (actually he used the word 'saving',  if its that serious we can assume that he believes that Beyt Habad can be vandalized so he had to move out Torah)
http://rus.newsru.ua/ukraine/21mar2014/kapustin.html
http://glavnoe.ua/news/n170400

Hmmm. I used to be in touch with Rabbi Yitzchak and Leah Lipszyc (that's how it's spelled on LinkedIn and that's how I recall them spelling it) through a couple of mailing lists many years ago. When my daughter and I went to Ukraine in September, I tried to contact them via Facebook, but did not hear back from them.

But I've also heard that Chabad has been backing the Russians (that's what's been reported here in Israel) so I have asked for an explanation.  I will post about this again when I hear back.

Labels: anti-Semitism, Crimea, Donetsk, Russia, Ukraine

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:14 PM