Wednesday, December 23, 2009
The Moldovan Orthodox Church has issued a statement at least partly (OK, mostly) condemning the Jooos themselves for the incident in which one of their priests and 200 followers destroyed a public menorah and put a cross in its place. Moldovan church blames Jews for menorah incident
The Moldovan Orthodox Church blamed the Jewish community for the recent anti-Semitic protest in which a public menorah was torn down.
"We believe that this unpleasant incident in the center of the capital could have been avoided if the menorah had been placed near a memorial for victims of the Holocaust," the church's statement said, according to a report Monday by the Interfax news agency, reported UCSJ: Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union.
On Dec. 13, some 200 fundamentalist Orthodox Christians in the Moldovan capital Chisinau removed the large, metal menorah that had been set up in downtown Europe Square, and placed it upside down on Stefan cel Mare Square at the base of a statue of King Stephen the Great. The group chanted anti-Semitic slogans during the incident. Neither police nor onlookers intervened... more
Here is video of the original incident:
From the article cited:
snip
The church's statement said it disagreed with the form of the protest, and that the church respects "the feelings and belief of other cults that are legally registered on the territory of the Republic of Moldova, and expects a similar attitude from their side," according to the report.
"At the same time," the statement continued, "we think it inappropriate to put a symbol of the Jewish cult in a public place connected to the history and faith of our people, especially because Chanukah is classified by the cult books of Judaism as a 'holiday of blessing' that symbolizes the victory of Jews over non-Jews."
snip
Oh fer pete's sake. We are a "cult" now, with "cult books"? Those wouldn't be the cult books that form most of the Christians' cult books now would they?
aaarrrrggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Yes, the Tanach was inscribed by L. Ron Hubbaravich, doncha' know. Must be something lost in the translation. Were's Mr. Moldovan Lieberman when you need a good translation? On the other hand, I concur entirely with the Moldovan clerics. If those darn Yids would just commit collective suicide, there would be no more pogroms. Simple as that.
It seems like in some parts of Europe the middle ages never ended.
Here are some highlights of Jewish history in Moldovia:
" The 1930s marked the peak of Jewish life in Moldova. In 1935, 40 Jewish communities united as the Union of Jewish Communities of Bessarabia. In 1940, Bessarabia was reclaimed by the Soviets, who promptly sent thousands of Jews suspected of disloyalty to gulags (work camps) or to Siberia.
After the German-led invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Germany reconquered Bessarabia on July 23, 1941. During this fighting, thousands of Jews died in mass shootings, deportations, ghettos and concentration camps on Bessarabian and Ukrainian territory. A large number of the Bessarabian Jewry was deported to Transnistria or massacred by the Einsatzkommandos. The Jewish community of Kishinev was nearly annihilated, with the Nazis murdering 53,000 out of the 65,000 inhabitants of the city. While many Moldavians are believed to have collaborated with their German and Romanian occupiers (Romania joined the Axis powers in late-1940), Israel has recognized 53 Moldavians as “Righteous Among the Nations” for risking their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. Since the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, more than 42,000 Moldovan Jews have immigrated to Israel.
In August 1944, the Russians reoccupied the region. This land became the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic with the capital in Kishinev. Following the Holocaust, much of the Jewish community of Moldova met with increasing hardships, were forbidden to practice many Jewish traditions, under Communism. In 1961, the Jews were forbidden by the government from celebrating Bar/Bat mitzvahs and, in 1964, all synagogues were closed except for one in Kishinev. "
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/moldova.html