Activists of Russian organizations in Sevastopol on October 29 picketed near the construction site of a synagogue. The picket was attended by about 100 people, “armed” with flags and banners of different Russian organizations and parties.
The protesters believe that the activities of Chabad community in Ukraine are illegal and against human values and undermine the moral foundations of society.
The picketers had four demands:
First, to ban all sects from Ukraine. According to organizers, only traditional religions must remain.
Second, at the state level to recognize Orthodoxy as the nation-creating religion.
Third, “all these men with foreign religions must understand that they are guests here.”
And fourth, to stop the transfer of the Druzhba Cinema to the Catholics and restore it to a children's movie theater.
Speaking on behalf of the Orthodox inhabitants of Sevastopol, the picketers urged the city authorities to stop the construction of the synagogue and expel from the city its initiators.
“Behind our wall they are constructing a temple, a Chabad synagogue! What do the Russian organizations say? We are not against other religions, but we are for those religions that are traditional. Orthodox, Catholics, Buddhists, Jews, but only in compact places, but Chabad is a Zionist malevolent sect, and it has no place on our land,” said the organizer of the picket Volodymyr Tyunin.
During the rally, protesters raised the question: “Why are they allowing a Chabad synagogue to be built here, why are they allowing a sect’s temple?” The rally organizers have expressed in their speeches fears that now in the city may appear satanic temples and totalitarian sects, and that no one will care as long as the proper paperwork is done.
However, Chief Rabbi of Sevastopol Benjamin Wolf told reporters that he is surprised by the picket.
“We are working perfectly legal, we have a building permit, we try to do everything quietly and well,” said the rabbi. “Jews, like everyone else, have a right to a house of worship, and I do not see anything criminal in it.”
The chief rabbi also said that the community professes Judaism and that he has a very good attitude toward Orthodoxy, he even knows some of the priests and the relationships they have are good.
Earlier in an interview with the publication New Sevastopol, the deputy head of the Sevastopol Jewish community, Borys Gelman, said that the head of the Chabad Jewish religious community Rabbi Benjamin Wolf managed to get permission to build a small synagogue near the monument to the victims of the Holocaust.
“Rabbi Benjamin Wolf often visits Israel and the United States, where he searches for funds for the construction of the synagogue. The synagogue is designed for 500 people,” said Gelman.
The synagogue is built on extra-budgetary funds, and will be a three-story building. In the 2001 census for Sevastopol, Jews numbered at 1,018, the website ForPost informs.