The Jewish community in Moldova is extremely distraught after the local rabbi, Rabbi Mendel Axelrod, was verbally attacked at the entrance to the Great Synagogue.
According to eyewitnesses, a young man with Eastern European appearance came by car to the city's largest synagogue, located on Chabad Lubavitch Street and began to take pictures of the synagogue building.
The security guard at the site approached him and asked him what this was about, and then he began cursing the Jews and Israel.
When the chief rabbi, Rabbi Mendel Axelrod, came outside from the synagogue, the young man turned his anger towards him and shouted at him: "What are you doing here? How come no one has finished you off for everything you are doing to the Palestinians?"
The assailant tried to get close to the rabbi, but the guard separated the two until the rabbi re-entered the synagogue and the assailant left the scene in his car.
This incident comes after another antisemitic incident that occurred about a week ago, when antisemites vandalized a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust in the city of Soroka and sprayed an inscription for the liberation of Palestine on it.
The Jewish community in Moldova has expressed shock at both cases. "Even though antisemitic incidents in this country are a rare event, occurring once every few years, there is no doubt that the incitement against Israel, especially in the Russian media, which is viewed by many Moldovan residents, has caused these reactions," they said.
President of Moldova, Maia Sandu, ordered that the incidents be investigated, and the attackers arrested.
"Moldova takes such events very seriously," said the chairman of the Chabad-Jewish community, Rabbi Zushe Abelsky, "and at the behest of President Sandu, we have decided to increase security around the school, kindergartens and synagogues throughout the country, as well as make every effort to catch the perpetrators."