Following Russian Foreign Ministers Comments, Rabbi Lazar Asks For An Apology

by CrownHeights.info

Breaking from a screen of silence that has descended over the Rabbis of Russia during the Russia/Ukraine conflict, Rabbi Berel Lazar asked for an apology from the Russian Foreign Minister over Hitler comment.

“I do not consider myself entitled to give advice to the head of Russian diplomacy — but it would be nice if he apologized to the Jews and simply admitted that he was mistaken,” Lazar wrote in a reply to a request for comment by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Lazar’s request for an apology stemmed from an interview between Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and an Italian TV station.

“When they say that Nazification cannot exist if there are Jews [in charge]: In my opinion even Hitler had Jewish origins so it means absolutely nothing,” Lavrov told Italy’s Channel 4 on Sunday. “Jewish wise people said already a long time ago that the biggest antisemites are Jewish themselves.”

While Lazar did ask for an apology or admitting of a mistake, he did note that “I think it would then be possible to consider the incident settled and turn the page.”

The Rabbis of Russia, and the local clergy as a whole, has remained mostly silent as the country wages a military campaign inside Ukraine, which the Russian government has repeatedly said has the goal of “denazifying” the country.