The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) is appalled by the openly xenophobic speech of one of Haifa's public school teachers on “Russian” repatriates. According to the teacher, “Russian” Israelis have no connection to the history of the Holocaust, since they look like Nazis, and that the Nazis did not kill such Jews but let them go free. To prove her statement she brought several students from Russian families to the blackboard and invited the rest of the students to compare her dark hair and skin to their light hair and skin.

Such an “approach to education” is a direct challenge to the Jewish tradition and system of Jewish education. This “educational aide” used during Holocaust Remembrance Day seems like sacrelige.

We are worried by the fact that these incidents strengthen and increase the amount of stereotyped towards former USSR repatriates, the Jewish communities of which are EAJC members.

We are hoping that the appropriate authorities in Israel will give an adequate evaluation to this “hero's” act, which sows dissension and enmity instead of a sense of unity of the Jewish people.