NCSJ - 06.28.2005

PRESS RELEASE

Release Date: June 28, 2005

Contact: Mark Levin (202-989-2500)

NCSJ Calls on Russian Government to Halt Investigation 

Washington, D.C. – NCSJ welcomed the Russian Prosecutor-General’s decision to immediately cancel an investigation of a Jewish group for publishing a religious text. NCSJ Chairman Dr. Robert J. Meth, while pleased that the investigation had closed, asked “why was it allowed to proceed in the first place?” The investigation had been widely decried by Jewish groups, including NCSJ (see previous press release), as outrageous and without basis in fact. 

The Prosecutor-General’s office informed the attorney for Russian Chief Rabbi Beryl Lazar of the decision today.

NCSJ has been in ongoing contact with community leaders about this issue since last week, and briefed the State Department, Members of Congress, the Russian Ambassador to the United States and members of the press. 

Last week, Russian prosecutors opened an investigation of the Congress of Jewish Religious Organizations and Communities of Russia, also known as KEROOR, for its publication of the Shulchan Aruch, a 500-year old collection of Halachic law. The investigation followed the January publication of an anti-Semitic letter in a Moscow newspaper. The letter, endorsed by 500 signatories, including members of Russia’s parliament, called on prosecutors to investigate Jewish groups for extremist actions, and cites sections of the Shulchan Aruch as proof of this behavior.

NCSJ: Advocates on behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States & Eurasia, a voluntary, non-profit agency created in 1971, is the mandated central coordinating agency of the organized Jewish community for policy and activities on behalf of the estimated 1.5 million Jews in the former Soviet Union.