Jewish & World News

Most of Russia's Jews will likely vote for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Sunday's presidential elections, according to that country's chief rabbi. "Maybe if there were a more serious choice of candidates they would vote for someone else. But I haven't yet met a single Jew who is voting for [Russian tycoon Mikhail] Prokhorov, for example," said Chabad Rabbi Berel Lazar, in an interview with Haaretz.        He added, "I think the fact that a new, young leader has not yet stepped forward in Russia is a problem. All these people - [Gennady] Zyuganov, [Vladimir] Zhirinovsky [presidential candidates for the Russian Communist and Liberal Democratic parties, respectively] - we've already heard their sermons before. It's the same old people."

Russia's chief rabbi called on Tuesday Ukraine's views on World War Two "false and distorted" after Kiev posthumously honored a nationalist accused by Russia of Nazi collaboration. Outgoing Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko recently awarded the honorary title of national hero to Stepan Bandera, whose Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists briefly allied with Nazi Germany during the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union. The Soviet authorities accused Bandera, who fought both the Nazis and the Soviets in his quest for an independent Ukraine, of numerous acts of murder and terrorism and authorized his assassination by the KGB in Munich, Germany, on October 15, 1959. "Unfortunately, what we see in Ukraine is terrifying. This is unacceptable for us," Berl Lazar said during a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. "We Jews will never forget what the Red Army did for us in World War Two," he went on. Russian leaders have said that ...