A recent discussion on local social media pages revolved around the restored entrance doors to one of the departments of the city hospital in Chortkiv.
Local historian Vitaliy Shevchuk, in his comment, revealed a true sensation that the doors stolen from the old synagogue in Chortkiv are currently housed in one of Moscow's museums, supported by a corresponding photo, as reported by "Za Zbruchem".
Reporters from Chortkiv.City reached out to the head of the Jewish community in the city, Yakov Baranov, who confirmed this information:
"It's true, the restored doors taken from the inactive Main Synagogue near the medical college, stolen back in 2014, are now held in the archives of the Jewish museum at the Poklonnaya Hill in the Russian capital. Influential individuals are involved in this scheme. Unfortunately, our religious leaders also had a hand in it. One of them - I won't mention names - executed the orders of the Chief Rabbi of Russia, Berel Lazar.
I have the names of everyone involved, those who organized it, carried out this criminal order, and facilitated it. They couldn't have taken them away just like that, as the area was fully enclosed until recently. All this is in the criminal case.
We appealed to the police, the Prosecutor General's Office, the Security Service of Ukraine, and so on. I have all the documents, responses to our letters and appeals. The case never reached the court for obvious reasons. I'd like to look into the eyes of the young lieutenant who led this criminal case. Everything there was staged according to orders from above.
The unique carved doors, over three hundred years old (crafted in 1686), were smuggled out of the country. I personally went to the Security Service of Ukraine and warned them that they were going to be taken out, but no one did anything to prevent it. You would be astonished by the explanations contained in the case, claiming that the doors were removed at the request of the parishioners and discarded as waste...
There is a procedure for reclaiming these doors through international courts. However, given the ongoing war with Russia, it is important to approach our expectations realistically. Were it not for the war, we might have been able to successfully reclaim them. It's worth noting that a specific procedure is in place to handle such cases.