More than 1,000 Russian law enforcement officials completed a seminar on Jewish history and cultural sensitivity. The seminar, organized and sponsored by Chabad in Ufa, in the western Urals, included lectures on Russian and world Jewish history, cultural traditions, the ongoing problem of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. A chaplain in the Russian army, Rabbi Aaron Gurevich, gave the plenary’s opening speech. Following the conference, representatives of Rabbi Berel Lazar, one of Russia s chief rabbis, discussed with the police areas of further cooperation. Russia continues to suffer from incidents of anti-Semitic violence, and police officials often treat the episodes as “hooliganism” rather than hate crimes. Following last month s murder of a Jewish student in St. Petersburg, Lazar, who is close with President Vladimir Putin, said publicly that Russia was not doing enough to combat extremism.
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