Classic repost from 5/24/1999
http://www.adl.org/presrele/ASInt_13/3080_13.asp (Link active July 17, 2003. Archived locally as: adl_czar)
Press Release Anti-Semitism-International
ADL TO RUSSIANS: 'END FOCUS ON JEWISH CONSPIRACY IN INVESTIGATION OF CZAR NICHOLAS II'S DEATH' New York, NY, December 15, 1997 The Anti-Defamation League, outraged that the Russian government's investigation into the death of Czar Nicholas II is focusing on allegations of a Jewish conspiracy, called for the immediate removal of the matter from the investigation and for a formal apology to the Russian Jewish community. In a letter to Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, Howard P. Berkowitz, ADL National Chairman, and Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, said, 'the use of such outrageous myths and age-old anti-Semitic stereotypes by the Russian government is utterly appalling. It serves to both legitimize and promote these dangerous and false perceptions of Jews and Judaism in Russian.' They asserted that the government's use of such accusations in its investigation further promulgates and wrongly validates long-discredited, vicious and bigoted images of Jews. 'We strongly urge the Government of the Russian Federation to immediately remove this matter from its investigation into the Czar's death and issue a formal apology to the Russian Jewish community,' stated Mr. Berkowitz and Mr. Foxman. In a similar letter to His Holiness Aleksy II, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, the ADL leaders expressed concern that it was the Church who was promoting this focus of the investigation. The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.
