Ex-convict promises anti-Semitic attacks

On his release from prison, a Ukrainian man threatened to carry out more anti-Semitic attacks. Georgy Dobryansky, who entered a Kiev synagogue last year with a large knife and threatened to kill the country’s chief rabbi, just completed a yearlong prison term, according to a report on antisemitizmu.net. Dobryansky was not charged with a hate crime despite claiming that Jews are “committing genocide” against the Ukrainian people and telling his interrogators that if released he plans to kill Jews. Earlier this week he allegedly took the occasion of his release to phone a violent threat to Evreysky Obozrevatel, a Ukrainian Jewish newspaper. Vadim Rabinovich, head of the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress, was quoted as saying that if Dobryansky commits a hate crime, “responsibility will rest upon those who set him free.” The group appealed to the Internal Affairs Ministry for assistance.