Chief Rabbi of Russia Berel Lazar condemned a senior Russian national security official’s “vulgar antisemitism” after he referred to the Chabad movement in Ukraine as a supremacist cult.
By Anash.org reporter
Chief Rabbi of Russia Berel Lazar condemned a senior national security official’s “vulgar antisemitism” after he referred to the Chabad movement in Ukraine as a supremacist cult.
Aleksey Pavlov, assistant secretary of the Russian Security Council, called for the “desatanization” of Ukraine, claiming that the country is home to hundreds of neo-pagan cults. Pavlov included in his list of cults the Chabad movement, which is the most dominant Jewish group in Russia and Ukraine.
Russia’s Chief Rabbi, Berel Lazar, strongly condemned Pavlov’s statements and condemned them as “vulgar antisemitism” and called on Russian authorities to condemn Pavlov’s remarks.
“Unfortunately, the article contains a position that is difficult to grasp,” Rabbi Lazar wrote. “Other than an insult to millions of Jewish believers, including the vast majority of Jews in Russia.”
“Pavlov’s logic can be called nonsense, vulgar and antisemitism, but this is a new type of old blood libel, and if they are uttered by a member of the Russian Security Council, this poses huge danger [for Jews],” Lazar stressed.
He said he had demanded “an immediate and unequivocal response from [Russian] society and [Russian] authorities,” on the matter.
In his letter, Lazar noted that he was a member of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, as were “90 percent of the rabbis operating in Russia!”
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