The head of the government Anti-Racism Coordinating Government Unit, Attorney Aweke Zena, on Wednesday contacted Israel's Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef and asked for a clarification on his remarks about immigrants from the former Soviet Union.
"This is to examine things in depth, before deciding to contact the relevant parties to act on this matter," the unit said.
Over the past day, more than a hundred inquiries were received in the unit regarding the statement of the Rabbi Yosef on the Jewish status of Russian immigrants in Israel.
"In the appeals, it was argued, among other things, that the rabbi's statements included racism and incitement to racism. It should be noted that this is an unusual amount of inquiries received in the unit in such a short time (for comparison, during the entirety of 2019, approximately 480 inquiries were received on various subjects)," the unit said.
Rabbi Yosef posted a video on Tuesday evening with a conciliatory message to the immigrant community from Russia.
"As you know, there are two types of Aliyah that emigrated from the Soviet Union," Rabbi Yosef began, "there is the blessed emigration of hundreds of thousands of Jews who gave their souls in the Soviet Union, they and their fathers and all those prisoners of Zion, who sanctified G-d's Name and came here to Eretz Yisrael and we receive them with love and great affection.
"But there is another Aliyah, we will not deny it, an Aliyah of those of non-Jews, not only non-Jews (whoever isn't Jewish must be loved and respected, as all were created in G-d's Image), but there are those who are not Jewish and even develop hatred for Judaism, for everything sacred, of which we spoke that many such instances have unfortunately arisen and caused all sorts of terrible incitement against Judaism. But those who made Aliyah, Prisoners of Zion and hundreds of thousands of Jews who made Aliyah in self-sacrifice, we love and respect them,” the Rabbi emphasized.
"I urge all Russian immigrants not to accept the incitement that some people have made following my comments and exploit it for political interests - they are inciters and demagogues; don'y pay any attention to them," Rabbi Yosef added.
At the conclusion, the Rabbi noted, "Let the truth be known: We love them and I bless all the immigrants that they be blessed from Above and ascend higher and yet higher, they will have blessing and success and may G-d fulfill their wishes for good and blessing Amen and Amen."