Copycat Shul Attack

A teenager who threatened worshippers at a synagogue in southern Russia with a broken bottle has been sentenced to five days in prison.

The unnamed man, who was convicted on Saturday, a day after he stormed the shul in Rostov-an-Don, admitted he was inspired by television reports about an attack on a Moscow synagogue last week in which eight people were stabbed.

The copycat incident has lent weight to calls from community leaders in Russia in the wake of the Moscow attack for the government to do more to combat the increase in anti-Semitism in the country.

Following the stabbing, Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berl Lazar said: “We hope that law enforcement agencies and the Russian authorities will take real measures so that this will never be repeated.”

Alexander Koptsev, 20, was later charged with racially-motivated attempted murder and causing grievous bodily harm over the stabbing of congregates at the Chabad Bronnaya shul on Wednesday last week.

A spokesman for the Moscow prosecutors’ office told reporters Koptsev had claimed during interrogation that he had been motivated by his “envy” of the Jewish community.

Koptsev is alleged to have shouted “I will kill Jews” before the stabbing attack, which was halted when he was wrestled to the ground by several congregates. Four of those injured in the attack were still recovering in hospital this week.

There was immediate condemnation from the Russian government, with the Foreign Ministry pledging to “continue an uncompromising struggle against all manifestations of anti-semitism”.

Duma speaker Boris Gryzlov said new legislation combatting extremism should be introduced if the current law could not “guarantee the absence of such incidents”.