Russian professor endorses blood libel

Published: 06/16/2008

A professor at a Russian state university reportedly endorsed blood libel against Jews during a lecture.

Svetlana Shestakovaya, an assistant professor of sociology at Tyumen State University in western Siberia, said during a lecture linked to a state-sponsored educational program that she believed Jews ritually murder Christian children and used their blood to make bread for Passover, according to a report by the Slavic Law Center.

The lecture came as part of a training course for a government-sponsored program called the "Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture" that has been implemented in several of Russia's regions.

According to the law center, Shestakovaya said the Jews perform "a Jewish Eucharist that uses a small quantity of blood of [Christian] Orthodox people whom they martyred."

Leading figures in the Russian Jewish community have spoken out against compulsory Orthodox education in Russia, where the church has taken on a prominent role in Russian national identity.

Shestakovaya also lashed out at Islam for being motivated by an "occult, evil spirit," Protestantism for being a collection of "pseudo-Christian sects" and Catholicism as a "heresy," the center reported.

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