|
|
Ban Sought on Jewish Organizations
Christians Against Zionism - March 2005
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/03/28/012.html
Moscow Times
By Anatoly Medetsky
Staff Writer
About 5,000 people, including former world chess champion Boris Spassky, have
signed a letter asking prosecutors to ban Jewish organizations because they
believe one of the basic Judaic books professes religious hatred, said a center
that monitors religious freedom.
The group sent the letter to the Prosecutor General's Office last Monday, the
Sova center said last week.
The signatories claim that "Kizur Shulkhan Arukh," an abbreviated version of a
16th-century book that lays out daily rules for Jews, teaches hatred toward
non-Jews, Sova said.
Moscow sculptor and head of the obscure nationalist All-Russian Cathedral
Movement Vyacheslav Klykov, a signatory of the petition, confirmed the report,
Interfax said.
A Prosecutor General's Office spokeswoman could not immediately confirm Friday
that the the petition had been received.
One of Russia's two chief rabbis, Adolf Shayevich, condemned the letter as a way
for "a number of ambitious politicians" to "earn cheap popularity."
Boruch Gorin, a spokesman for the Russian Federation of Jewish Communities,
called for an investigation into manifestations of anti-Semitism. "People who
have achieved success in life and have certain authority in society must
understand that they cover their names with indelible shame by signing such
documents," he said, in an apparent reference to Spassky, Interfax reported.
Shakhmatnaya Nedelya, or Chess Week, of which Spassky is editor, said Friday
that he was in France and was not available for comment.
The letter came two months after 20 State Duma deputies sent a similar letter to
the Prosecutor General's Office.