MEANWHILE, IN EASTERN EUROPE...

Jewish Man Beaten in Odessa (JTA)
A Jewish man was beaten in the Ukrainian city of Odessa. Haim Weitzman, 24, was attacked by a group of young men Monday.

According to some witnesses, Weitzman was hit several times on his head after one of the youths he was passing shouted, “I don’t like yids!” Weitzman, who received minor injuries and is recuperating at home, was wearing traditional Orthodox Jewish garb. He reported that local police initially refused to accept his report of the incident, but later opened an investigation.

Local Jewish leaders said the incident was not an isolated case in Odessa; over the past year there have been several anti-Semitic attacks on Jewish individuals and institutions. “These incidents are possible because of lack of proper reaction from authorities and police on previous attacks — vandalism, graffiti, threats,” Rabbi Avraham Wolf, chief rabbi of Odessa and southern Ukraine, told JTA.

Russian youths charged with hate crime (JTA)
Five youths in Russia were charged with a hate crime for allegedly beating a Jewish man to death with a metal cross. The killing of Andrey Dzyuba, 21, in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg took place Oct. 1, 2005, but was not reported to the media until early this week.

Fifteen youths reportedly attacked Dzyuba in a local cemetery, beat him to the ground and killed him with a metal cross they ripped from a tombstone. In addition to the charges against the four youths, a young woman in the group is charged with aiding and abetting the crime. Ten others have been released from custody during the investigation.

A local Jewish leader told JTA the incident was never reported to the media on request of police, who feared that public attention could harm the investigation.