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Created: 12.01.2006 14:34 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 14:34 MSK , 7 hours 26 minutes ago
Russian-born billionaire Arkady Gaidamak offered Wednesday night
to fly the victims of the stabbing attack in a Moscow synagogue to Israel for
medical care. Gaidamak is visiting Moscow and his house is close to the
synagogue, the IsraelNN.com news website reported.
Three of the injured are Israelis and one is an American citizen. Foreign
Minister Silvan Shalom demanded that the Russian government fight growing
anti-Semitism in the country.
Earlier news reports said that a young man wielding a knife and shouting “Heil
Hitler” ran amok in a synagogue in central Moscow on Wednesday, wounding eight
people.
Racist attacks have mushroomed in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union,
mostly carried out by young men attracted to extreme right-wing views.
Russian Chief Rabbi Berl Lazar blamed a fascist “plague” for the attack.
“In places where the ideas of fascism are propagandized, in the end without fail
they will turn into reality, as happened today in Moscow,” he told news agency
Interfax by telephone from Jerusalem on Wednesday evening.
An Israeli government report has ranked Russia third after France and Britain
for instances of anti-Semitic violence. More than a million Jews left for Israel
in the last years of the Soviet Union, but around a million remain.
MOSCOW (AP) - A man stabbed several people in a downtown Moscow synagogue Wednesday, wounding some seriously before the rabbi's son wrestled the assailant to the ground, according to witnesses and officials, who called the attack a hate crime.
Jewish officials and witnesses said the man, who had a shaved head and wore a leather jacket, burst into the building calling out, "I will kill people, I will kill Jews."
Chief Moscow prosecutor Anatoly Zuyev told reporters that eight people were wounded, including a U.S. citizen, an Israeli and a Tajik citizen; he did not provide details about the non-Russians.
"The attacker was shouting words that showed he was motivated by ethnic and religious hatred," Zuyev said.
He said the alleged attacker was in custody and had been identified as Alexander Koptsev, a Moscow resident born in 1985. He said it was not immediately clear whether the suspect was a member of an anti-Semitic or neo-Nazi group.
Most victims were Shabbos Goys
"I saw a man run in. He had a big knife," said a woman who worked in the kitchen at the synagogue and gave only her first name, Svetlana. "I saw people lying on the floor, cut by a knife." A kitchen worker who gave her name only as Svetlana said the man assaulted people in a downstairs kitchen area after entering the building.
She said the man apparently attacked people in the kitchen before going upstairs and attacking people in offices until he was stopped.
The man had a knife sheath hanging around his neck, she said.
Avraham Berkowitz, the executive director of Jewish communities in the former Soviet Union, said people inside the building had reported that the attacker got past security.
Berkowitz said Yosif Kogan, the son of the synagogue's rabbi, Yitzak Kogan, wrestled the assailant to the ground and held him until police arrived.
The stabbing is the latest in a series of attacks in Russia that appear to have links to skinheads or racist groups. Rights groups have warned that hate groups have substantially increased their activities in recent years, targeting mainly foreigners and dark-skinned immigrants from the poorer former Soviet republics of the Caucasus and Central Asia.
Many rights groups say prosecutors routinely play down hate crimes, bringing
less-serious charges than they could. Russia has a history of pogroms and
anti-Semitism.
© The Canadian Press, 2006
By STEVE GUTTERMAN, Associated Press Writer Wed Jan 11, 3:44 PM ET
MOSCOW - A knife-wielding man shouting "I will kill Jews!" attacked a synagogue in downtown Moscow Wednesday, slashing and stabbing at least eight people before the son of a rabbi wrestled him to the ground, officials and eyewitnesses said.
Witnesses said the shaven-headed attacker yelled "Heil Hitler! as he aimed at victims' necks, heads or torsos in what appeared to be a well-planned attack.
The attack at the Chabad Bronnaya synagogue came amid an increase in racist crimes and hate-group activity in Russia. Jewish leaders said it should send a message to Russian authorities and the public to fight prejudice.
"If today's act does not sound an alarm, society faces grave danger," said Borukh Gorin, chief spokesman for the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia. "Fascism will come knocking at the door of every citizen if we do not take serious measures now."
Among the eight men wounded were an American and an Israeli, along with a man from the Central Asian nation of Tajikistan, chief Moscow prosecutor Anatoly Zuyev told reporters outside the synagogue. He said the attacker "shouted words that showed he was motivated by ethnic and religious hatred."
Zuyev said the suspect, a Muscovite identified as Alexander Koptsev, born in 1985, was in custody and faced charges including hate-based attempted murder. It was not immediately clear whether he was a member of any anti-Semitic or neo-Nazi groups, Zuyev said.
Gorin said the attacker had a shaved head and wore a leather jacket. Another spokesman for the Jewish federation said the assailant shouted "I will kill people, I will kill Jews!" after bursting into the synagogue complex at about 5:30 p.m., when there were several dozen people in the building.
Jewish leaders and witnesses said the assailant attacked a guard who tried to stop him, then stabbed people in or near a prayer room on the first floor before continuing his rampage upstairs.
"This was not a game, he was out to kill," said Iosif Ostrovsky, a rabbinical student who said he saw the assailant stab several people, aiming at their upper bodies in what he called a "well planned attack." He said the man also shouted "Heil Hitler!"
A kitchen worker who gave her name only as Svetlana said the man assaulted people in a downstairs kitchen area after entering the building.
"I saw people lying on the floor, cut and bloodied," she said, adding that the man had pulled the knife from a sheath hung around his neck.
Officials and witness said a son of the synagogue's rabbi, Yitzhak Kogan, wrestled the attacker to the ground and held him until police arrived.
"I grabbed him by the neck and put him on the floor," said 18-year-old Iosif Kogan, his checked shirt flecked with dried blood as he spoke to reporters crowded outside. He said several other people struggled to disarm the man as he tried to stab them.
Russian news reports said the country's top prosecutor, Vladimir Ustinov, was taking control of the investigation. The Jewish federation said Russia's chief rabbi, Berel Lazar, would cut short a trip to
Israel and return to Russia because of the attack."We hope that law enforcement agencies and the Russian authorities will take real measures so that this will never be repeated," Lazar told NTV television in footage from Israel.
The stabbing is the latest in a growing series of incidents apparently involving skinheads or racist groups in Russia. Rights groups have warned that hate groups have grown substantially in recent years, with their anger targeted mainly at foreigners and dark-skinned immigrants from the poorer former Soviet republics of the Caucasus and Central Asia.
Many rights groups also say prosecutors routinely downplay hate crimes, choosing to bring less serious charges.
The dominant Russian Orthodox Church, which has made efforts to reach out to Jewish officials in a country with a history of pogroms and anti-Semitism, condemned the attack and called for action by the state and society to stem hate crimes.
