WIESENTHAL CENTER: URGES PUTIN TO QUASH SO-CALLED 'INVESTIGATION' OF JEWISH LEGAL CODE

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is urging Russian President Vladimir Putin to quash a so-called investigation by a Moscow prosecutor to ascertain whether the Shulchan Aruch--the codex of Jewish Law, incites racism.

The Basmanny District prosecutor’s office in Moscow announced that it will launch a preliminary investigation into KEROOR (Congress of Jewish Religious Organizations and Communities of Russia) to determine if its publication of the 500-year-old-text can be branded as an extremist act. This comes in wake of letter signed by 500 public figures, including members of the lower house of the Russian Parliament, that calls for criminal investigations into Jewish religious groups in Russia claiming that Jewish law "contains norms that are offensive to Orthodox Christians."

"This horrific development is a throwback to the worst traditions of Czarist and Soviet-era antisemitism and can only serve to legitimize and embolden anti-Jewish hate crimes," charged Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish human rights group.

"We call upon President Putin to personally intervene in this matter and stop the manipulation of Russia's new democratic institutions to serve the world's oldest hate," Cooper concluded.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe.

For more information, please contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036 or visit www.wiesenthal.com.