Religious Extremists Desecrate Chanukah

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CHISINAU 000958

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR EUR/UMB, DRL/AE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM PINR MD
SUBJECT: Religious Extremists Desecrate Chanukah
Menorah

CHISINAU 00000958 001.2 OF 002



1. (SBU) SUMMARY: On the afternoon of Sunday
December 13, followers of a small, radical
Christian Orthodox religious group desecrated the
menorah erected by the Jewish community in
celebration of Chanukah in Chisinau's central
square. After the incident, representatives of the
Jewish community transported the pieces of their
menorah to the site of the Ghetto Memorial
Holocaust monument where they conducted a candle-
lighting ceremony. The Government of Moldova
quickly condemned the incident. END SUMMARY.

Anti-Semitic Church Group Desecrates Menorah
--------------


2. (SBU) Moldova's small Jewish community had
erected a Menorah in Chisinau's central square to
celebrate Chanukah. On Sunday, December 13, about
200 members of the "Sfanta Paraschiva" Orthodox
Church and the "Sfanta Maica Matrona" (Holy Nun)
NGO held a demonstration next to the Menorah.
Several of the group carried a large banner with
the slogan "Moldova is an Orthodox Country."
Others carried the black, yellow and white flag of
the Russian Imperial Monarchists under the Czar.
(Note: Ultra-nationalist demonstrators in Moscow
recently carried the black-yellow-white
Imperialist flag in the "Russky (Russian) March"
marking National Unity Day on November 4, a
holiday adopted by extreme nationalists, white
supremacists, and Russian Orthodox Christian
fundamentalists and monarchists. End Note.)


3. (SBU) As religious hymns and prayers were
chanted, an incense censer waved and holy water
sprinkled, the leader of the group, priest
Anatolie Cibric, delivered a virulently anti-
Semitic speech in which he said the public display
of the Menorah should not be allowed "in an
Orthodox country" and vowed that his group would
not allow Moldova "to be defiled by Zhids." He
warned his followers that the Jews "would try to
kill the Moldovans and hurt our children," and
that "the Zhids who want to control the entire
world could stumble over Moldova" (i.e. his group
would stop them).


4. (SBU) Cibric and his followers then dismantled
the Menorah and erected a wooden cross on the
spot. The group then carried the Menorah down the
block to the Stefan cel Mare statue and broke it
into pieces, placing them upside-down at the foot
of the statue. Some twenty policemen stood by
watching the protest and the desecration of the
menorah.

Jewish Community Retrieves Menorah
--------------


5. (SBU) Representatives of the Jewish community
were later able to retrieve the Menorah, and
escorted by 20 policemen took it to be re-erected
in front of the Ghetto Memorial Holocaust
monument. A group from the Jewish community then
re-assembled for the transplanted Chanukah candle-
lighting ceremony.

GoM and Press Reactions
--------------


6. (SBU) The GoM quickly condemned the Menorah
desecration. On December 14, the Prime Minister's
office issued a statement, referring to the
December 13 incident, saying that "Moldova is a
law-governed, democratic state, in which all
rights and freedoms have been guaranteed, and
where hatred, intolerance, xenophobia and other
negative manifestations are impermissible."
Minister of Justice Tanase also condemned the
incident, saying that if it were proven that the
"Sfanta Maica Matrona" organization was engaged in
anti-Semitic incidents, it would be dissolved. On
December 15, acting President and Parliament
Speaker Ghimpu, speaking in the Parliament, called
the incident "not typical of our society" and a
"provocation," and said that the GOM regretted the
incident and guaranteed the rights of all
citizens. According to the press, the municipal
police currently are investigating the incident.

CHISINAU 00000958 002.2 OF 002





7. (SBU) The Communist Party also condemned the
event, but accused the Alliance and its leaders of
"unleashing anti-Semitism" through their
"statements making heroes of Nazi and Fascist
leaders and insulting representatives of other
nationalities in Moldova," i.e. Russians, Jews,
and Roma. On the other hand, in an editorial in
the pro-Alliance Timpul newspaper, Tanase's
father, Constantine Tanase, suggested that the
attack was a provocation by pro-Communist forces
aimed at discrediting the Alliance government.

Sfnta Paraschiva and Anatolie Cibric
--------------


8. (SBU) The "Sfanta Paraschiva" Orthodox Church,
which probably numbers no more than a few hundred
adherents, is officially subordinate to the
Moldovan Orthodox Church, which answers to the
Russian Patriarch in Moscow. Saint Paraschiva is
the most popular saint in Romania. Cibric is
affiliated both with the "Sfanta Paraschiva"
church and the NGO "Sfanta Maica Matrona." His
group is fundamentalist Orthodox and has been
involved in various previous protests against a
range of liberal causes and other confessions.


9. (SBU) On November 4, (the same day as National
Unity Day demonstrations in Moscow),Cibric led a
group of over a thousand Orthodox believers in
front of the Republican Palace and Ministry of
Information Development to protest biometrics and
any form of electronic identity monitoring,
claiming that they were "the Mark of the Beast."
On August 15, Cibric's group organized a
demonstration against Seventh Day Adventists who
had organized a concert (with City Hall
permission) in Chisinau's main square (which
includes the Orthodox cathedral). In 2008, Cibric
also protested against provisions concerning
sexual minorities in the non-discrimination bill
(which was not passed in Parliament),and in 2006
he led his supporters in a protest against the
distribution of the "Da Vinci Code" in Moldova.
The group was also involved in a 2007 egg throwing
incident targeting Timpul newspaper headquarters
after that newspaper made a quasi-religious
reference to the "trinity" of Communist Party
leaders.

Comment
--------------


10. (SBU) The perpetrators of this anti-Semitic
incident are a small, xenophobic group whose past
targets have included other religious minorities.
Their protest was not sanctioned by the Moldovan
Orthodox Church writ large, nor did it enjoy any
popular support. In fact, the Menorah desecration
was the first significant anti-Semitic incident
here in a number of years. The government was
quick to denounce the incident and religious
intolerance, and has assured us that it is
investigating the matter.

CHAUDHRY