A school bus belonging to Gan Chama, a Jewish elementary school in Moscow, was the target of an arson attack last week.
Police are looking for suspects, but it has not yet been determined whether the crime was anti-Semitic in nature. Hillel Zaltzman, president of the Chama organization in New York, said the bus had Jewish slogans and symbols painted on it. He hinted that the attack probably was a hate crime. “I don’t believe that the police will do too much,” Zaltzman said.
Gan Chama is said to be the first joint venture between Moscow, Jewish community and the Russian educational authority. Some 150 children attend the school.
Chama also runs a Jewish community center and a soup kitchen in Moscow, among other programs, Zaltzman said.
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.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
