MINELRES: Jewish community condemns Belarus crackdown

[Florian Bieber]

Jewish community condemns Belarus crackdown

Belarusian authorities on Monday shut down the only school in
the capital Minsk offering a course in Jewish studies in what
Jewish leaders said was the third such move against their
community in the last two months. Lyudmila Chertova, the
school director, said that Minsk authorities had declined to
extend a lease agreement with the Jewish Sunday School, which
offers courses in Jewish history, culture, and Hebrew to about
75 children. Jewish leaders said it was the latest attempt to
drive Jewish groups out of Belarus, a country of 10 million
people that will border on the EU from next year. They
criticize authorities for failing to clamp down on attacks on
Jews and cemeteries and memorials for Holocaust victims. "I
think it is a political decision. A raid against Jewish
education and Jewish organizations has started," said Yakov
Basin, head of a Jewish rights group in Belarus. A
representative of the city council said that the decision to
close down the school had been caused by new rules on how to
use educational buildings, and did not elaborate further.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, in power since 1994
and isolated by the West for abusing human rights and civil
liberties, has pledged state support for the Russian Orthodox
Church in Belarus. Last month, Jewish leaders accused the
Belarus Education Ministry of pursuing anti-Semitic policies
after officials shut down an institute that offered a course
in Jewish studies. Earlier this month, vandals attacked a
Holocaust memorial in provincial Belarus. Before World War
Two, there were 400'000 Jews in Belarus, but tens of thousands
were killed by Nazis and many more left to escape Soviet anti-
Semitism. Now about 100'000 remain. (Reuters)