Jews Await Judgment Day
// Suit filed over Jewish organizations in Russia
http://www.kommersant.com/page.asp?id=592191
Friendship of the Nations
The scandal that broke out after 19 Duma deputies, then 5000 Orthodox Christian citizens, appealed to the Prosecutor General to “ban all Jewish organizations in Russia as extremist” continues. Publicist Mikhail Nazarov has appealed in court the Prosecutor General's decision not to initiate a criminal case against those organizations. Leaders of the organization in question have evaluated Nazarov's actions as “destabilizing the situation in the country” and are threatening retaliatory measures.
A letter was sent to the Prosecutor General on January 13, 2005, signed by 19 deputies of the State Duma demanding a “ban [of] all Jewish organizations in Russia as extremist.” Quotations from the ancient Jewish book Kitsur Shulhan Aruh that, in the authors' opinion, insulted non-Jews were included as examples. On March 21, the Prosecutor General received an appeal with similar demands bearing the signature of 5000 Orthodox Christian citizens. The author of that letter was revealed to be Nazarov, who has published articles of Orthodox Christian and patriotic bent on the Internet and in periodicals. After making a check, the Basmanny Interdistrict prosecutor's office, to which the letters were sent, refused to open a criminal case against Jewish organizations on June 28.
On Monday, Nazarov filed suit in Basmanny District Court “to appeal the decision of the Basmanny Interdistrict prosecutor's office.” He also requested the court to “make a more thorough inspection of the medieval book Kitsur Shulhan Aruh,” in which, according to Nazarov, “there are calls and postulates offensive to non-Jews” and to investigate the “purpose of republishing it in Russia today.” Nazarov told Kommersant that “the prosecutor made its decision under pressure,” recalling that that was the day when Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert began his official visit and expressed his concern over he check of the contents of the old book to Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov. Nazarov added that, somewhat earlier, he had filed a suit to defend his honor and dignity against rabbis Berl Lazar, Zinovy Kogan, Adolf Shaevich, president of Russian Jewish Congress Vladimir Slutsker and head of the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights Alexander Brod, who, Nazarov says, have called him “an anti-Semite and Nazi.”
Duma deputy Andrey Savelyev of the Fatherland faction, one of the signers of the first letter to the prosecutor's office, called Nazarov's actions “correct and normal,” since “the prosecutor's analysis was superficial.” Savelyev admitted that he “signed the appeal as a parliamentary enquiry, never imaging that it would become an open letter.”
Representatives of leading Jewish organizations evaluate the continuation of the anti-Semitic scandal as “pure self-promotion” on the part of Mikhail Nazarov. They see the unwillingness of the authorities to “give a clear and articulate evaluation to such performances” as the real danger. Russian Jewish Congress head Slutsker thinks that “Mr. Nazarov and company are trying to destabilize the situation inside the country with all their strength.” “State and law enforcement agencies are trying not to increase the amplitude of the opposition, taking one position with one side and so they pushed the RJC to take retaliatory measures,” he said, refusing to specify the nature of those retaliatory measures. “Now we have a common goal with Mr. Nazarov,” said Borukh Gorin, head of the press service for Chief Rabbi of Russia Berl Lazar. “His actions bring the moment of truth closer, in which we are also interested.”
“Any decision of the prosecutor's office can be appealed to a higher instance of the prosecutor or in court,” lawyer Pavel Astakhov explained. “A decision may be reversed in two cases: one formal grounds, when an investigator has violated some procedural norm, or on substantive grounds, when the decision was made contrary to the results of investigation or expert opinion,” he continued. “In my opinion, this appeal is doomed to fail.”
by Oxana Alexeeva
Russian Article as of July 20, 2005