The Jewish Week - 07.01.2005

The Jewish Week

Russian Slur On Jewish Texts 

James D. Besser/Washington 

Jewish groups reacted with alarm to reports that Russian prosecutors were investigating a Jewish group for publishing a religious text deemed racist by overtly anti-Semitic groups —and with cautious satisfaction to reports on Tuesday that the investigation had been abruptly called off. 

Last week, Russian prosecutors began investigating the Congress of Jewish Religious Organizations and Communities of Russia, or KEROOR. The group’s sin: publishing the Shulchan Aruch, a collection of halachic law. 

According to NCSJ, a leading Soviet Jewry group, the investigation came after 500 Russians, including members of Parliament, signed a letter calling on the government to investigate Jewish groups and claiming that Jewish law “contains norms that are offensive to Orthodox Christians.” 

The letter termed the Shulchan Aruch “racist” and likened Judaism to “Satanism.” 

Jewish groups here — including NCSJ and the Wiesenthal Center — quickly called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to quash the investigation. 

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center, termed the investigation a “throwback to the worst traditions of Czarist and Soviet-era anti-Semitism and can only serve to legitimize and embolden anti-Jewish hate crimes.” 

NCSJ quickly contacted officials at the State Department; several members of Congress, led by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), quickly weighed in with Russian diplomats here. 

On Tuesday Jewish groups learned the investigation was dropped. “We’re pleased, but we have a lot of questions,” said NCSJ director Mark Levin. 

At the top of the list: “why did this happen in the first place — especially when it was overtly anti-Semitic groups that made these charges in the first place?” Levin said.