Anti-Semitism in Ukraine is actually less of a problem than news media reports suggest, the executive vice-president of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine, Josef Zissels, has told the 'Ukrinform' news agency. According to Zissels, fewer cases of attacks against Jews based of religious hate or intolerance were recorded in Ukraine in 2007/08, and the number of anti-Semitic articles in the press was also declining.
However, the problem of xenophobia and racism remained big in Ukraine, Zissels warned, saying that a number of cases of attacks against representatives of other minorities had been recorded. According to Zissels, the main reasons for manifestations of racism in Ukraine were the passivity by state authorities and heightening tensions provoked by certain mass media.
Meanwhile, it has been reported that a group of vandals attacked the 'Shalom Chaverim' Jewish center in Lviv, in western Ukraine. "Several people armed with rods and shouting out anti-Semitic slogans stormed into the building of the Jewish centre crashing everything on their way. Two workers who were in the centre Shalom Chaverim were cruelly beaten by the thugs," the 'Interfax' news agency quoted a Jewish official as saying.
