In the course of the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Shluchim in New York, HaRav Shmuel Kaminetsky, the Chief Rabbi of the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, revealed that thanks to the intervention of HaRav Berel Lazar, Russian forces avoided attacking his city throughout the war. According to the report in the newspaper Merkaz HaInyanim, HaRav Lazar, the Chief Rabbi of Russia, made a personal request to Russian President Vladimir Putin that Dnipro be spared from attacks due to the presence of a large Jewish kehilla there. Last month, HaRav Lazar also made efforts to protect Jews, and specifically the Chabad movement, after the Assistant Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Alexei Pavlov, wrote a letter claiming that the Chabad movement in Ukraine is a cult, along with other anti-Semitic statements. Following HaRav Lazar’s scathing condemnation of Pavlov’s letter, the Secretary of the Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, completely rejected his assistant’s statements. Patrushev wrote: “The article by Pavlov contained erroneous statements about Lubavitcher chassidim. I apologize to the readers of the publication and would like to point out that this interpretation reflects Pavlov’s personal view and does not under any circumstances constitute the official position of the Security Council of the Russian Federation.” Parushev also wrote at the end of the letter that “relevant work was carried out with the author of the article.” (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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