Russian authorities confiscated sifrei kodesh and 30 youths studying in the Ohr Avner School were questioned by the KGB on suspicion of racism. The school is located in the city of Yekaterinburg in the Sverdlovsk district.

According to the exclusive Ladaat News report, the youths questioned as suspected of racist studies based on their limud Torah. The youths questioned were told the investigation surrounds nationalist hate and hate of foreigners as taught in the seforim that were confiscated according to the KGB.

The limited information released points to a police investigation launched when a young lady complained she was not accepted to a school because she is not Jewish. The mother of the girl filed an official complaint with the appropriate state agency, leading to accusation the students in the school are studying racist material and taught to “hate foreigners”. It should be pointed out the school is not in a small village but one of the largest cities in Russia.

Ladaat quotes a “rav of a prominent tzibur in Russia” anonymously explaining it appears the KGB actions did not originate from senior officials but from a local official in the prosecutor’s office in the Sverdlovsk Province. The rav adds that nevertheless, the incident should be regarded as most serious and it unfortunately sends them back to the dark days that everyone would like to forget.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)