(JTA) — A pig’s head was found at the entrance to a synagogue in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar.
Representatives of the Jewish community of the city, which is located approximately 100 miles from the Black Sea, found the head on Dec. 20. They believe the unidentified perpetrators also are responsible for English-language graffiti on the building’s external wall that read “Happy Tu B’Shevat, Jewish Pigs.”
Tu b’Shvat, a Jewish holiday that next occurs on Jan. 15, celebrates ecological awareness and the connection between man and the plant kingdom.
Shneor Segal, a Chabad rabbi who used to work in Krasnodar and now serves as the chief Ashkenazi rabbi of Baku, said the community has contacted police with the intention of filing criminal charges against the unidentified perpetrators.
Last month, a pig’s head was left on the doorstep of a synagogue being built in Sevastopol, a Ukrainian port city located 270 miles west of Krasnodar.
