MOSCOW, May 11 (JTA) — A Russian rabbi has been badly beaten by two skinheads in a subway station here. The skinheads shouted anti-Semitic threats before attacking Rabbi Yitzhak Lifshitz, 26, an Orthodox rabbi in Yaroslavl, a city about 130 miles northeast of Moscow. The assailants, who are 21 and 17, were immediately arrested by police, who had Lifshitz taken to a nearby hospital. Moscow’s chief rabbi, Pinchas Goldschmidt, said he was pleased that the police had reacted immediately and detained the assailants. “It is very sad, however, that minorities are being targeted by skinheads lately” in Moscow, said Goldschmidt. Earlier this month, a black U.S. Marine stationed in Moscow was badly beaten by skinheads at a crowded outdoor market. Police arrested one of the assailants, who is thought to be the publisher of the neo-Nazi newspaper Russian Target. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow issued a warning last month of the danger to minorities in the wake of recent skinhead attacks.
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