Assaults
All in all in the period from January to August 2011, four cases of antisemitic assault that resulted in four persons being injured were registered.
On January 2, in the upper level of the Chistye Prudy metro station, a woman mistakenly identified as Jewish was assaulted.
On April 16, Anatoly Rabinowitz, a Yabloko party activist, was beaten by skinheads in Moscow.
On May 2, in the Chistye Prudy Park in Moscow, three Yeshiva students were attacked. A Jewish Yeshiva student of Iranian origin was beaten.
On May 5, in the city of Khabarovsk, Leon Zohar, an Israeli DJ, member of the “Noel Gittman” group, was robbed and beaten.
Since during the period from January to August 2011 63 cases xenophobia-motivated assaults and brawls were registered, which resulted in the killing of 17 persons and in the injury of 75 persons, the assaults against Jews constituted about 7% of the total number of assaults, and the number of people injured in these attacks – 4% of the total number of the injured.
Vandalism
In the period from January to August 2011 9 cases of antisemitic vandalism and terrorism were registered.
On March 24, it became known that leaflets with antisemitic contents were distributed in the city of Ivanovo.
On April 12 it became known that on the walls of residential houses and institutions in the city of Rybinsk, antisemitic drawings were painted with the inscription: “Say ‘No’ to the Jewish Infection!”
On July 6 it became known that the members of the Jewish community in the city of Kaluga had discovered anti-Semitic inscriptions and graffiti in several of the town streets.
At the beginning of July, in the city of Petrozavodsk, the Menorah erected in memory of the victims of the Holocaust and of Stalin’s persecutions was destroyed.
On the night between 11 and 12 of July, unidentified persons tried to burn down the “Darchei Shalom” synagogue in Moscow. Around 1:00 am, four young men wearing masks threw incendiary material onto the synagogue and then ran away.
On July 26, antisemitic graffiti were discovered in the city of Rybinsk.
On July 28 it became known that on one of the houses in the center of the city of Vladivostok anti-Semitic graffiti had been painted.
On August 15, criminals painted a swastika and wrote antisemitic remarks on a monument in Kaliningrad, dedicated to the memory of the Jews who had lived here before the Second World War.
On August 24 it became known that in the village of Yantarni in the district of Kaliningrad, unidentified persons poured red and green paints on a monument created by the sculptor Frank Meisler in memory of the victims of the death march that took place in 1945 in the region, and wrote antisemitic inscriptions on the monument’s plate.
Since during the period between January and August 2011, 95 cases of were registered according to the Human Rights Office in Moscow, antisemitic incidents constituted almost a tenth of the xenophobia-motivated vandalism and terror cases registered.
Antisemitic demonstrations
On March 12, Yuri Brinkov, the ‘Pamiat’ (memory) representative announced in the city of Lipetsk, while he appeared at a support demonstration of Colonel Vladimir Kvachkov that took place in the city of Yelts, that Kvachkov’s arrest was one of the links in the murder chain of the Russian People.
“Any conflict can be solved, except religious conflicts. The Zionists understand that, therefore they fabricate cases against Russian Orthodox patriots” said Bernikov.
At the beginning of July only two events took place, which were linked to the promotion of the idea aggressively endorsed by the nationalistic factions, of turning the victory day of Sviatoslav from Kiev over the Kingdom of the Khazars into a holiday, an event considered by the nationalistic factions as “the Day of Liberation from Jewish Enslavement”, and which boosts the wish to repeat it. In Kaliningrad, a demonstration in which 30 people participated took place. The demonstration’s organizers declared in their speeches that “the victory over the Jewish Enslavement should serve as a model for victory over the Jewish Bolsheviks.”
Spread of anti-Semitic ideas
According to the results of a survey conducted on 21-24 of January by the Center ??? for the Study of the Jewish Image, the Image of the Jews as a hostile force remains very strong; however, a shift from the old anti-Zionist Soviet stereotypes to modern anti-Semitism based on concepts of Jewish conspiracy has been taking place. Although the first three spots in the ‘Enemies of Russia’ list are taken by the Chechen fighters (47%), the United States (40%) and NATO (32%), the Jews are also “prominently” represented in this list. Interestingly, in this case the population is very much inclined towards the conspiracy theory, since the traditional “Zionists” have received only 8% of the votes of the survey’s participants, as opposed to 20% of the participants who argued that Russia’s enemies are the Oligarchs and the Bankers (for these anti-Semites these terms are often politically correct labels for Jews). Another 6% declared that the enemies are those who hate Russians, and 5% consider the reformist democrats to be the enemies.
One can speak about a gradual escalation of anti-Israeli attitudes. Thus, according to the results of the survey conducted on August 19-23 by the ??? Center for Study of the Jewish Image, that checked, among other things, the attitude of the Russian inhabitants towards a one-sided declaration of a Palestinian state, the number of Russian inhabitants who would view favorably the recognition granted to this state by the United Nations General Council, was higher, even though at a low number, than those who opposed that possibility (23% versus 21% of the participants respectively).
Law Enforcement
Eight people were convicted between January and July 2011 for antisemitism-related crimes, two of whom were sentenced to community services or to forced labor, two of whom were sentenced to imprisonment on probation, one was fined, another was sentenced to two years in prison and concerning another person, the case was closed since the parties had reached an out-of-court agreement.
To the federal list of extreme materials were added during the first seven months of 2011 the anti-Semitic forged “A Hundred Laws of the Talmud”, an edition of the newspaper Ruskoya Zavieklaya, the anti-Semitic book by N. Levashov, who presents himself as a Member of the Academy, the book of the antisemite V. Korchiagin “The Trial against the Academy Man” and the movie “A Knife in Russia’s back 2”.
To the federal list of extreme materials was added the “Slaviansky Soyouz” (the Slavic Alliance), that has been outlawed.
But there were also cases of acquittal.
On February 9, the legal office for criminal cases in the district court in the district of Krasnograd, acquitted the anti-Semitic Lawyer A. Mozejgorov and rescinded his conviction.
On March 4 it was disclosed that the Jewish community in the city of OPHA?? withdrew its claims against four young residents of the city who had conducted a pogrom in September of last year.
The youngsters compensated for the 12-thousand rubles in damage they had caused, and one of them even volunteered to help restore the stars to their places. The Jewish community representative said in court that he had no complaints against the defendants.
