VZCZCXRO7908
OO RUEHIK
DE RUEHCH #0958/01 3501358
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 161358Z DEC 09
FM AMEMBASSY CHISINAU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 8665
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CHISINAU 000958 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EUR/UMB, DRL/AE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM PINR MD
SUBJECT: Religious Extremists Desecrate Chanukah 
Menorah 
 
CHISINAU 00000958  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: On the afternoon of Sunday 
December 13, followers of a small, radical 
Christian Orthodox religious group desecrated the 
menorah erected by the Jewish community in 
celebration of Chanukah in Chisinau's central 
square. After the incident, representatives of the 
Jewish community transported the pieces of their 
menorah to the site of the Ghetto Memorial 
Holocaust monument where they conducted a candle- 
lighting ceremony.  The Government of Moldova 
quickly condemned the incident. END SUMMARY. 
 
Anti-Semitic Church Group Desecrates Menorah 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Moldova's small Jewish community had 
erected a Menorah in Chisinau's central square to 
celebrate Chanukah.  On Sunday, December 13, about 
200 members of the "Sfanta Paraschiva" Orthodox 
Church and the "Sfanta Maica Matrona" (Holy Nun) 
NGO held a demonstration next to the Menorah. 
Several of the group carried a large banner with 
the slogan "Moldova is an Orthodox Country." 
Others carried the black, yellow and white flag of 
the Russian Imperial Monarchists under the Czar. 
(Note: Ultra-nationalist demonstrators in Moscow 
recently carried the black-yellow-white 
Imperialist flag in the "Russky (Russian) March" 
marking National Unity Day on November 4, a 
holiday adopted by extreme nationalists, white 
supremacists, and Russian Orthodox Christian 
fundamentalists and monarchists. End Note.) 
 
¶3. (SBU) As religious hymns and prayers were 
chanted, an incense censer waved and holy water 
sprinkled, the leader of the group, priest 
Anatolie Cibric, delivered a virulently anti- 
Semitic speech in which he said the public display 
of the Menorah should not be allowed "in an 
Orthodox country" and vowed that his group would 
not allow Moldova "to be defiled by Zhids."  He 
warned his followers that the Jews "would try to 
kill the Moldovans and hurt our children," and 
that "the Zhids who want to control the entire 
world could stumble over Moldova" (i.e. his group 
would stop them). 
 
¶4. (SBU) Cibric and his followers then dismantled 
the Menorah and erected a wooden cross on the 
spot.  The group then carried the Menorah down the 
block to the Stefan cel Mare statue and broke it 
into pieces, placing them upside-down at the foot 
of the statue.  Some twenty policemen stood by 
watching the protest and the desecration of the 
menorah. 
 
Jewish Community Retrieves Menorah 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) Representatives of the Jewish community 
were later able to retrieve the Menorah, and 
escorted by 20 policemen took it to be re-erected 
in front of the Ghetto Memorial Holocaust 
monument.  A group from the Jewish community then 
re-assembled for the transplanted Chanukah candle- 
lighting ceremony. 
 
GoM and Press Reactions 
----------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) The GoM quickly condemned the Menorah 
desecration. On December 14, the Prime Minister's 
office issued a statement, referring to the 
December 13 incident, saying that "Moldova is a 
law-governed, democratic state, in which all 
rights and freedoms have been guaranteed, and 
where hatred, intolerance, xenophobia and other 
negative manifestations are impermissible." 
Minister of Justice Tanase also condemned the 
incident, saying that if it were proven that the 
"Sfanta Maica Matrona" organization was engaged in 
anti-Semitic incidents, it would be dissolved.  On 
December 15, acting President and Parliament 
Speaker Ghimpu, speaking in the Parliament, called 
the incident "not typical of our society" and a 
"provocation," and said that the GOM regretted the 
incident and guaranteed the rights of all 
citizens.  According to the press, the municipal 
police currently are investigating the incident. 
 
CHISINAU 00000958  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
 
 
¶7. (SBU) The Communist Party also condemned the 
event, but accused the Alliance and its leaders of 
"unleashing anti-Semitism" through their 
"statements making heroes of Nazi and Fascist 
leaders and insulting representatives of other 
nationalities in Moldova," i.e. Russians, Jews, 
and Roma.  On the other hand, in an editorial in 
the pro-Alliance Timpul newspaper, Tanase's 
father, Constantine Tanase, suggested that the 
attack was a provocation by pro-Communist forces 
aimed at discrediting the Alliance government. 
 
Sfnta Paraschiva and Anatolie Cibric 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) The "Sfanta Paraschiva" Orthodox Church, 
which probably numbers no more than a few hundred 
adherents, is officially subordinate to the 
Moldovan Orthodox Church, which answers to the 
Russian Patriarch in Moscow.  Saint Paraschiva is 
the most popular saint in Romania.  Cibric is 
affiliated both with the "Sfanta Paraschiva" 
church and the NGO "Sfanta Maica Matrona." His 
group is fundamentalist Orthodox and has been 
involved in various previous protests against a 
range of liberal causes and other confessions. 
 
¶9. (SBU) On November 4, (the same day as National 
Unity Day demonstrations in Moscow), Cibric led a 
group of over a thousand Orthodox believers in 
front of the Republican Palace and Ministry of 
Information Development to protest biometrics and 
any form of electronic identity monitoring, 
claiming that they were "the Mark of the Beast." 
On August 15, Cibric's group organized a 
demonstration against Seventh Day Adventists who 
had organized a concert (with City Hall 
permission) in Chisinau's main square (which 
includes the Orthodox cathedral). In 2008, Cibric 
also protested against provisions concerning 
sexual minorities in the non-discrimination bill 
(which was not passed in Parliament), and in 2006 
he led his supporters in a protest against the 
distribution of the "Da Vinci Code" in Moldova. 
The group was also involved in a 2007 egg throwing 
incident targeting Timpul newspaper headquarters 
after that newspaper made a quasi-religious 
reference to the "trinity" of Communist Party 
leaders. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶10. (SBU) The perpetrators of this anti-Semitic 
incident are a small, xenophobic group whose past 
targets have included other religious minorities. 
Their protest was not sanctioned by the Moldovan 
Orthodox Church writ large, nor did it enjoy any 
popular support.  In fact, the Menorah desecration 
was the first significant anti-Semitic incident 
here in a number of years.  The government was 
quick to denounce the incident and religious 
intolerance, and has assured us that it is 
investigating the matter. 
 
 CHAUDHRY