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Russias state prosecutor has begun probing whether a Russian translation of a code of Jewish law constitutes racial incitement, Israels Arutz Sheva website reports. The inquiry follows publication of a letter signed by 500 people, including parliamentarians, calling for a ban on Jewish organizations in Russia.
The website said that lawyers working for the state prosecutor had ordered Rabbi Zinovy Kogan, chairman of the Congress of Jewish Organizations, to explain the contents of the 16th century codification of Jewish law, of paramount importance, the Sulchan Aruch, in order to determine what the code says about non-Jews.
The inquiry follows publication of a letter signed by 500 public figures, including 20 members of the nationalist Rodina party, calling on the state prosecutor to outlaw the Jewish religion and Jewish organizations in Russia.
The letter, decried by many Jewish and international groups, called the Jewish religion anti-Christian and inhumane, whose practices extend even to ritual murders. Many facts of such religious extremism were proven in courts, the letter read. It said that many anti-Semitic acts in Russia had been caused by the anti-Christian behavior of Jews or even committed by Jews themselves as grounds to take punitive measures against patriots.
A short time later one of the deputies who signed the open letter retracted the petition.
