MOSCOW (EJP)--- The Jewish community’s office in the central Russian city of Ulyanovsk was vandalized by unidentified persons last Monday, the Interfax news agency reported.

"Unknown persons broke the second-floor window in the office of the community’s chief accountant with a bottle at about 4 pm on Monday 25 December," the Federation of Russian Jewish Communities told the agency on Wednesday.

The vandals painted fascist symbols and left an anti-Semite leaflet at the entrance to the office.

“The community will insist on opening a criminal case into the incident,” the Federation said.

About 5,000 Jews live in Ulyanovsk, a city of 680,000 people and the birthplace of Vladimir Ulyanov, better known as Vladimir Lenin.

It was founded as the ’Simbirsk Fortress’ in 1648. Within the city, the local Jewish community is renowned for high level and quality of activities for its youth members. A new rabbi, Rabbi Yoseph Yitzchak Morozov, arrived last September to serve the needs of the Jews in Ulyanovsk.


The community currently operates a Sunday school, a library, a youth club, family Clubs, as well as annually participating in the ’Gan Israel’ summer camp for children.

Four years ago, on the anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s birthday, the office of the Ulyanovsk Jewish community was already vandalized by skinheads. The words “Kikes to Israel” and “The Ministry of Health warns that associating with Israel is bad for your health” were painted onto the fence surrounding the building.