A Russian appeals court affirmed an expulsion order issued against an American rabbi working in the Black Sea city of Sochi, in what a local leader of the Chabad movement called a “dark day” for Jews.
In its ruling on Tuesday against Ari Edelkopf, the Krasnodar Court of Appeals accepted the determination of a Sochi tribunal that Edelkopf, who had been working as Chabad’s emissary to the city, was a threat to national security. Edelkopf now has no further legal recourse and is legally obligated to leave the country in the near future, Interfax reported.
Boruch Gorin, a senior spokesperson for Russia’s Chabad Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar, condemned the ruling as “hostile.” For the first time “in the modern history of Russia, a rabbi is declared a ‘threat to national security,’” Gorin wrote on Facebook, adding that authorities have refused to divulge any details about the alleged threat, citing laws on state secrets. Gorin told Interfax the ruling was “Kafkaesque” and “grounds for lawlessness.”
Tuesday was “a dark day in the history of the Jews in Russia,” Gorin wrote on Facebook.
Edelkopf, a father of seven who grew up in the United States and lived in Israel before settling in Sochi, has denied engaging in any activity that can reasonably be considered unsavoury to authorities.
The deportation comes amid a Russian crackdown on organisations with foreign funding. Edelkopf’s permit to be in the country was revoked in December, according to Interfax. He lost an appeal in a regional court.
