JERUSALEM (JTA) — A Chabad rabbi shot in what is believed to be an anti-Semitic attack in southern Russia was recuperating in an Israeli hospital following a second surgery.
Rabbi Artur Ovadia Isakov, 40, had surgery to repair his liver on Friday at Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikvah. His condition has been upgraded to satisfactory, Chabad.org reported.
Isakov arrived in Israel on Friday morning in a chartered medical plane.
He received a visit on Saturday night from Rabbi David Lau, the newly chosen Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel, according to Chabad.org.
Isakov was shot on July 24 as he exited his car and headed into his home in Derbent, in the predominantly Muslim Republic of Dagestan near Chechnya.
According to Chabad.org, Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement that the rabbi’s Jewish appearance “is among the possible motives investigators are considering for the attack.”
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