Crimea: "Jews are guests and if they don't like it, they should go back to their Holy Land"

Last week an Israeli MK visited Crimea after the Jewish community asked him to come and help them save a school building.   The visit sparked a diplomatic row between Ukraine and Israel.


Via NRG:

Earlier this week a movement called "Russian Patriots" protected in Sevastopol against the local Chabad synagogue.  The protesters demanded that the Chabad activists be banned from the city.
Signs included one saying "Chabad and Kolomoyskyi - out of Crimea", referring to the Jewish-Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyi, who is very active in trying to return Crimea to Ukraine.

One speaker said that the synagogue was built on the graves of men who defended the Russian Orthodox Crimea and that sacks of bones were removed from the building site.  "The Russian Orthodox religion unifies us all and we're the landlords here. All the other people should remember they're just guests, and if they don't like it - then they can go to their Holy Land."

See also:  Russia: Opponents of Chabad synagogue say movement is anti-Christian, funding war in Ukraine

Crimea: Mass Graves of Nazi Victims Dug Up

Via the Moscow Times:

A Russian Jewish organization has appealed to Crimea's authorities to take action after vandals dug up mass graves of Nazi victims on the peninsula, leaving human bones and remains of clothing strewn on the ground.

"To desecrate the grave of those slain by the Nazis is sacrilegious and heinous to the utmost degree," the Jewish News Agency quoted the head of the Federation of Russian Jewish Communities, Alexander Boroda, as saying Wednesday. The attack also comes as Russia prepares to celebrate 70 years since the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany, he noted.

Vandals dug four holes — each about 1.8 meters deep — on the site of mass graves outside the city of Simferopol, the report said, citing representatives from Crimea's heritage preservation committee. Fragments of human bones and the remains of clothing and shoes excavated from the grave were also found nearby.

The remnants belonged to Jews, Roma and Soviet prisoners of war who were shot in mass executions by the Nazis in late 1941 and whose bodies were dumped into an anti-tank trench off the Simferopol-Feodosia highway, the report said.

Crimea: Holocaust Memorial vandalized with pro-Russian graffiti

Via CFCA:

The Holocaust Memorial in Sevastopol in the Crimean Peninsula was spray painted in red with a hammer and sickle and the letters USSR, and with what appeared to be other pro-Russian graffiti according to the Sevastopolskaya Gazeta.