Close Range Killing in Moscow

By COLlive reporter

Not long before Shabbos began in Moscow, local Jews received a report that a young Jewish man was murdered in cold blood.

From the information that was gathered, Yaakov Manashevilli, a 26 year-old member of the local Georgian Jewish community, was shot at close range.

Apparently, he had encountered a fight between 2 non-Jewish gangs from the North Caucasus region (which includes Chechnya). He tried to mediate between them and one of the members fired his gun.

The thugs escaped, leaving the Moscow police to say it does not have any leads in its investigation.

But that didn’t stop the Chief of Police, General-Lieutenant Vladimir Kolokoltsev to state that the incident was not anti-Semitic.

In a conversation with heads of the Jewish community he added that he was personally taking the case and he hoped to find the murderer or murderers in the “coming days.”

Manashevilli was a counselor in the Chabad House in the Khamovniki district of Moscow, where his parents live. He was often seen davening at the Marina Roscha Synagogue and Jewish Community Center.

His funeral took place Sunday, leaving from the Jewish Lipman school where he learned as a child to the old Jewish cemetery in Saltykovka, and was attended by Chief Rabbi of Russia Berel Lazar.