Russian rabbis to learn self-defense

In the wake of an attack on a rabbi in southern Russia, Russian and Israeli police will offer self-defense training to Russian rabbis.

Instructors from the Russian and Israeli police will teach the rabbis how to protect community buildings and themselves, a spokesman for the Russian Jewish Congress told the RIA Novosti Russian news service on Tuesday.

The courses will take place in Moscow. In addition to rabbis, teachers, youth group members and other members of the Jewish community will be invited to participate, the spokesman told RIA Novosti.

Israeli Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich reportedly brought up the idea to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Kolokoltsev, at a recent meeting in Moscow.

The idea was floated after a Chabad rabbi was shot and seriously injured last month as he exited his car and headed into his home in Derbent, in the predominantly Muslim republic of Dagestan near Chechnya. Authorities have said it was likely a terrorist attack by Muslim extremists.