Ukrainian Yeshivah Student In Coma After Attack

Ukrainian Yeshivah Student In Coma After Attack

by Alex Sholem -

Thursday 1st of September 2005

A Ukrainian yeshiva student has been left in a coma and another injured in a street attack in Kiev.

Leaders of the country’s 300,000-strong Jewish community said Mordechai Ben Avraham, 28, had been beaten with sticks and bottles in an uprovoked street attack by a group of ten neo-nazi skinheads.

Vadim Rabinovych, of the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress claimed the attack was a “flagrant crime”, describing it as “a murder attempt on racist grounds."Although it was unclear whether Ben Avraham, who underwent surgery on Sunday night, and his unidentified companion were Ukrainian or Israeli citizens, the Jewish Agency has offered its assistance in the matter.But Ukrainian police said on Tuesday that they were not treating the incident as anti-semitic, telling the media that the pair had provoked a group of drunks who then attacked them. They said the perpatrators were not skinheads, as had previously been reported.Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, Chairman of Lubavitch Educational and Social Services Divisions, which has a large presence in Ukraine to support the Jewish community, said the attack “raises serious concerns about a climate that has allowed anti-Semitic elements to spiral out of control.”He added: “Chabad-Lubavitch and the larger Jewish community anticipate that Ukrainian authorities will prosecute this crime under the full measure of the law, and take all action to ensure the safety of its Jewish population.”