Eighteen major attacks on Jews and Jewish property were reported during the year, though many more likely went unreported to police or human rights organizations.

There were two cases involving violence against individuals on the basis of their Jewish religion or ethnicity, compared to one such incident a year ago. The number of incidents involving vandalism of Jewish cemeteries, one of the most common types of hate crimes, decreased from 6 in 1999 to 2 in 2000. The only category that saw a significant increase in 2000 was personal harassment. Six such cases were reported to ADL, Jewish communities and law enforcement agencies in 2000 compared to only one case in 1999.

Anti-Semitic incidents occurred in at least nine cities across the country in 2000, compared to seven locations a year before. The communities that were directly affected by the manifestations of anti-Semitism in 2000 included such varied locations as the western-most Russian city of Kaliningrad, Chelyabinsk in east Russia, the central Russian city of Ryazan, the southern city of Nalchik in the Caucasus mountains, and the small Siberian town of Samotlor.

Among the incidents that took place in 2000 were:

• the looting of a synagogue in Nalchik in May;



• arson attacks on synagogues and community centers in Moscow and Kaliningrad in September and October;



• a raid on a Jewish Sunday school in Ryazan by neo-Nazi youth, who broke windows and furniture and threatened teachers and students in September;



• vandalism in Jewish cemeteries in Nalchik and Nizhniy Novgorod in February and June;



• the fire-bombing of a Jewish-run newspaper in Volgograd in November;



• the beating of three Orthodox Jewish schoolboys in Moscow in March.

Next: Anti-Semitism in Political Life