About 200 Nationalist Orthodox Christians in Moldova, led by a priest
spouting anti-Semitic slurs, took down a public Chanukah menorah and
planted a wooden cross in its place.
News footage showed the bearded
priest leading the group in chanting anti-Semitic slogans during
Sunday's incident. The menorah had been installed by the Jewish
community in the Moldovan capital, Chisinau.
The group removed the
large, metal menorah, which had been set up on downtown Europe Square,
and then placed it upside down on Stefan cel Mare Square, at the base of
a statue of King Stephen the Great. Neither police nor onlookers
intervened.
"The Jews can try to kill us, to traumatize our
children," but Moldovan Orthodox believers will resist, the priest said,
speaking into a sound system. Moldova, he said, was an Orthodox
country, and the Jewish people are trying to "dominate people." Allowing
the menorah to be set up had been "a sacrilege, an indulgence of state
power today," he said.
Justice Minister Alexandru Tanese condemned
the incident and the Orthodox Metropolitan promised to investigate and
take action, according to reports.
Incitement to racial and religious hatred in Moldova is subject to a fine or imprisonment of up to three years.
In
neighboring Romania, the Center for Monitoring and Combating
Anti-Semitism issued a statement urging authorities to take "immediate
measures" against the perpetrators. "Such an act committed by a priest
with the Orthodox Church is totally inconceivable and it takes us back
to the days when the local population, if it did not participate,
witnessed with indifference the crimes committed against the Jews," the
center's statement said.
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Orthodox christians tear down public menorah
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