Dozens of posters spreading anti-Semitic blood libel have appeared in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk.
The posters and leaflets warn parents to protect their children from Russian Jews as Passover approaches, according to reports in the Israeli media.
Spread throughout Russia’s third-largest city, the posters link the recent disappearances of local children to Jews.
“These vermin are still performing rituals, stealing small children and draining their blood to make their sacred bread,” the posters warn.
Approximately 13,000 Jews live in Novosibirsk, according to the Federation of Jewish Communities.
“We have always had anti-Semitism in the city and it has never disappeared,” the FJC quoted a local woman named Esther as saying. “While walking the streets, you constantly come across derogatory graffiti on walls and fences, such as ‘Jews go home.’ Leaflets with the same message disgust me.”
Novosibirsk Rabbi Zalman Zaklas told the Russian-language Jewish News Agency that he had filed a complaint with city authorities that the posters were inciting racial hatred.
Blood libel against Jews goes back centuries. A recent book by Professor Ariel Toaff of Bar-Ilan University claiming that there was a hint of factual basis for the myths ignited controversy after its release last year.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
