Russian Jews Protest Statue With Trampled Star Of David

21 November 2005 -- The Federation of Russian Jewish communities (FEOR) protested today against a new monument in the southern Russian city of Belgorod showing a medieval prince trampling on a Star of David.

The monument, which depicts the Russian prince on horseback crushing the shield of a Khazar warrior emblazoned with the symbol of Judaism, is "a provocation that deforms history," according to the FEOR.

The Khazars, a seminomadic people generally believed to be of Turkic origin, controlled a vast empire between the 7th and 11th centuries that stretched from western Kazakhstan to eastern Ukraine.

A FEOR statement says that the Star of David was never a symbol of the Khazar Empire.

(AFP)