31 October 2007
Babruysk city authorities pledge to prevent vandal attacks on Jewish cemetery

The chairman of the Babruysk City Executive Committee assured members of the local Jewish community earlier this week that the authorities would do their utmost to prevent vandal attacks on the city’s Jewish cemetery.

Dzmitry Banakhaw, the city’s top official, met with the Babruysk Jewish community’s representatives and Leanid Levin, chairman of the Union of Belarusian Jewish Public Associations and Communities, to discuss the matter on October 29, Leanid Rubinshteyn, leader of the community, told BelaPAN.

The official promised that all cemeteries in the city in the Mahilyow region would be fenced off and guarded at nighttime.

“We hope that the authorities will manage to solve the problem of vandal attacks on city cemeteries before the end of the year,” Mr. Rubinshteyn said.

Unidentified vandals smashed 15 tombstones at the Jewish cemetery on Minskaya Street on the night between October 10 and 11, the fourth attack on the graveyard since the beginning of the year.

Anti-Semitic graffiti appeared near the cemetery and grave fencing was damaged earlier this year. The city’s other cemeteries also were vandalized. None of the perpetrators has been punished, although some have been identified, according to Mr. Rubinshteyn.

Babruysk made headlines this month after Alyaksandr Lukashenka blamed Jewish residents for turning the city into a “sty.”

“If you were in Babruysk, you saw in what condition the city was. Entering it was a fearful experience! It was a sty! This was mainly a Jewish city. Well, you know how Jews treat the place where they’re living. Look at Israel,” Mr. Lukashenka told a group of Russian reporters on October 12.