I feel good

That's me at Dovid and Chavi's wedding!

I feel alot better since that realization came to me yesterday, and am trying to oganize an over-the-phone meeting with some members of my community.

The news in Russia keeps getting worse and worse, with more and more lies being published across the nation out there. Yefim went on TV saying he didn't know me since I never worked with him (which is the oddest lie ever).

I had a conversation with Benny (my brother) in which he was asking me about all the claims written by Yefim. He thought some of them were probably not lies, rather overdoing facts.

For example, when Yefim claimed that they used to have 200-300 or something like that coming to each holiday and now have 30-50... was it an exaggeration or a lie?

I suppose many people think the same way (if my own brother... just kidding Benny), and iy"h I will write my 'rebuttal' soon. Remember, this is a man who told Rabbi Lazar, Alexander Boroda, a woman named Milla and myself (in one room) that we don't need to organize a Shul etc. since there are only 150 Jews in Stavropol. Then, when told that they were giving him too much money if that were the case, he immediately did an about-face and said that there were at least 2000...

Anyway, I'll get to that later.

While the news reports are all similar, maing the same claims that you can read somewhere below, either from Yefim's letter to presidents around Russia, or Oleg Pushkantser's letter to the authorities. There's also a new claim that I've been trying to convince my 'flock' to all move to Israel and the USA (but why not Canada?).

So I won't bother to translate them for you.

However, two new ones are a little interesting. The first is from http://izrus.co.il/diasporaIL/article/2009-03-27/4132.html and I owe a thanks to Rabbi Nissen Ruppo of Kostroma for bringing it to my attention. Free translation will come soon. I need someone to translate it for me first.

The other is from http://portal-credo.ru/site/?act=news&id=69509&cf=

Here is a translation:

Canadian Zvi hershcovich will be kicked out of Russia by decision of the Stavropol regional court.

It's interesting that that his infringement of the law was only known to the authorities through a fellow Jew informing on him. Not just any Jew, but the representative of the Russian Jewish Congress in Stavropol Mr. Oleg Pushkantser.

Another point of interest is that Hershcovich is already the second Rabbi from the Federation of Jewish Communities of russia (FEOR) deported from the country this year.

And you cannot say that Pushkantser's complaint is a casual one, since Rabbi Zvi Hershcovich arrived in Stavropol in 2008, and strictly following Jewish religious law "Halacha", he declared that only maternal Jews can be members of the community.

"He started dividing us by 'pure' and 'dirty' and every project he did was only for Halachic Jews", Oleg Markovich Pushkantser has told the news, "Most of us are paternal Jews, myself included. People were indignant, and I have written about it."

Oleg Markovich has written to the regional committee on affairs of nationalities and Cossacks: "For us Jews who were bought up in the USSR and the CIS, everyone is equal in rights, Hershcoviches beliefs are nationalism... For traditional Jewish holidays 300 people gathred before Hershcoviches arrival - now no more than 50 show up."

Oleg Pushkantser has specified possible financial infringements and at the same time asked to check up on the legality of the Rabbi living in Russia. Then it was discovered that the Rabbi had moved without advising the divisional FMS, breaking article 18 of the Code about Administrative Offences.

However, the maximum punishment a court could give is 5000 rubles (according to the law). So why have judges in Stavropol, and earlier (a month ago Rabbi Silberstein was deported from Primorski Krai) used such extreme measures?

It's no ecret that FEOR is categorically against introduction of "Bases of orthodox culture" (Zvi note: that is, teaching Russian orthodoxy as a religion) in schools, considering it an infringement of the rights of religious minorities. Obviously this position has irritated the Russian Orthodox Church.

This is the key question. The Council of Mufti's in Russia (CMP) holds a similar position. In spite of their sharp opposition regarding the middle East conflict, they are united in this position. Here it's not too difficult to notice that for quite some time now legal problems have started against these two organizations.

The Ministry of Justice revealed a number of infringements in the activity of the CMP, and the FMS (Federal Migration autorities) - illegalities of Rabbis.

While officially FEOR stated that they know nothing about the conflict going on in Stavropol, and that it was initiated by local authorities, one week ago the Chief Rabbi of Russia Rabbi berel Lazar tried to discuss the problem of the deportations with authorities at the highest level. In answer the FMS coolly advised Rabbis to foolow the laws strictly.

Pushkantser isn't sorry about what has happened. He says:

- Thank G-d for nine years the community existed without a Rabbi. We asked FEOR to send our local Rabbi instead of Hershcovich.

- While any Rabbi will keep the same stance on the Halachic Jew issue, he won't push away other people.