Russian Chabad rabbi pans foreign funding bill

In a rare rebuke of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s policy, a senior Chabad rabbi from Moscow expresses concerns over a bill aiming to limit foreign involvement.

Boruch Gorin, aide to Chief Russian Rabbi Berel Lazar and chairman of Moscow’s Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, on Tuesday expresses his criticism of a government-backed bill on foreign-funded religious organizations during an interview with Russia’s Interfax news agency.

“I have serious concerns about the bill,” Gorin says of the proposed legislation, which a parliamentary committee recently approved and is set to be voted on in the Duma, the Russian parliament, on June 30.

The bill proposes to oblige religious groups to report all income from abroad to authorities, and is believed to be connected to a crackdown on Muslim extremists in Russia’s southern republics and beyond.

— JTA