The Jerusalem Post
Russia's Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar said Sunday that not enough was being done to deal with neo-Nazi groups in the country, Israel Radio reported.

The rabbi's comments came a day after the murder of a Jewish teacher in St. Petersburg. The stab wounds on Dmitriy Nikulinskiy's body, noted Lazar, prove that his killing was an anti-Semitic attack.

St. Petersburg has a long history of terror-related murders, but this is the first time in the last few years that a Jew was murdered for this reason, added the rabbi.

Chief Rabbi Lazar: Russia not facing neo-Nazis

The Jerusalem Post

Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar said Sunday that not enough was being done to deal with neo-Nazi groups in the country, Israel Radio reported.

The rabbi’s comments came a day after the murder of a Jewish teacher in St. Petersburg. The stab wounds on Dmitriy Nikulinskiy’s body, noted Lazar, prove that his killing was an anti-Semitic attack.

St. Petersburg has a long history of terror-related murders, but this is the first time in the last few years that a Jew was murdered for this reason, added the rabbi.

Nikulinskiy, a Master’s student in biology, was found dead Saturday morning in the Russian city with multiple stab wounds on a street near the university.

Nikulinskiy’s body was discovered by his mother. He had been stabbed repeatedly in the head, throat and back.

Nikulinskiy had been in the last year of his Master’s studies and also taught science at the local Beit Habad religious school.

One Jewish community member told The Jerusalem Post he was certain it was a hate crime because “we’ve had experience with these attacks. Those who commit them are very fast and very professional. His mother found him five minutes after he was stabbed, and his assailant took nothing from him.”

A police investigation has been launched into the slaying.

11 Comments

  • Boruch ben Tzvi HaKohiane Hoffinger

    B”H
    Heartbreaking news. Painful and
    sad.
    Where’s the justice? Barbaric governments. Turn the killers into
    fodder.

  • Chaya Mushka, Melbourne, Australia

    B“H

    Boruch Dayan Emes, may we have Moshiach Now!
    I would like to differ from Rabbi Berel Lazar’s statement ”St. Petersburg has a long history of terror-related murders, but this is the first time in the last few years that a Jew was murdered for this reason, added the rabbi“

    Halivay it should be the case, Russia is hiding behind a ”freedom of religion” facade and yet anti-semetic things happen way more often than not.

    Besides for taking the life of innocent Jews, they are imprisoning the books of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. The Rebbe said that this is a case of Pidyon Shvuyim, the souls of the Rebbeim are in those books. This is an anti-semetic act and is unjustifiable. We must stand by this statement of our Rebbe and not justify Russia in the eyes of the world.

    May we merit the redemption of the Seforim and the entire Jewish People now!

  • concerned

    everybody make sure to send this article to all your friends and ask them to forward it to their email lists, to make sure that this is known to as many people as possible. This way it can’t be swept under the rug as easily. This is really unacceptable, they must feel pressure to do something about it.
    baruch dayan ha emet.

  • Boruch

    I have a feeling that the WSJ article may have been a factor. It is not that hard for a anti Semite to conclude from the article that Rabbi Lazar is an arm of the Putin government, and many hate the Putin government, hence we gotta get them darn Jews. Hashem yishmor. The article was very irresponsible, and the timing should be investigated whether it was a factor in instigating this anti Semite. My theory is unlikely but I am still aloud to ask the question.

  • Ch resident

    I do not wish too minimize the terrible incident that took place in Petersburg but before we go mad and curse the Russian authorities for there inaction in tackling these problems I want to remind you all that we in crown heights are in fact facing an even bigger problem. It has been almost a year since the brutal murder of Mr. Klein here in crown heights and still his murders have not been apprehended. If one goes back and looks through the archives of crownheights.info and all the other local sites we will also see that there are about two attacks on our crown heights community every week! The police rarely make an arrest in any of these cases, I feel that we in crown heights are under more of a threat and have suffered more attacks than our brethren in Russia.
    We are safer in Petersburg than we are in crown heights!

  • Boruch ben Tzvi HaKohaine Hoffinger

    B”H
    CH resident:
    The murderer of Mr. E. Klein could have come from any state in the U.S.
    He could have been high on drugs or alchohol or been bad-tempered, didn’t like the way Mr. Klein was driving (Looking for a parking spot) possessed an illegal weapon (Easy to get) and just, in a moment of anger, shot him.
    Tell me, how can the police so easily find him/her? This is an FBI case. There are many unsolved murders. If a big reward went out–maybe. I pledge $18 to any effort undertaken.
    I knew Mr. Klein, and was greatly pained. I live down the block from him. When I came to Crown Heights (Late 70’s) he taught me Trope at Hadar HaTorah, and, ironically, my daughter now lives in his old apartment.
    I was in tears. His son was about to be married.

  • Mushkie

    I totally agree with CH resident here in Crime Heights it is more dangerous than is Russia, every shvartze here carries a knife & the lucky ones carry a gun.