Police in the Pacific Ocean port city of Vladivostok arrested Rabbi Yisroel Silberstein when it became clear that he had been conducting religious affairs in the country illegally for two years on a humanitarian visa, the court said.
Under Russian law a humanitarian visa does not allow one to work on commercial or religious affairs.
A spokesman for the Jewish community in the region, Grigory Klebanov, acknowledged there had been problems with the rabbi’s visa.
“It seemed to someone that it would make receiving a visa to work on cultural issues easier and quicker,” Klebanov said. “But it has all turned out rather differently.”
Silberstein is the local representative of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (FJC), an Orthodox religious group which objective is to restore Jewish life, culture and religion throughout the former Soviet Union.
The group has established close ties with the authorities and became Russia’s
most visible Jewish group.
In a similar incident in 2007, 13 religious students from the United States and Israel were detained for visa infractions in the southern Russian city of Rostov. A US diplomat helped free them and they were ultimately deported.
Silberstein plans to appeal the decision within the next 10 days citing the religious needs of Vladivostok’s small Jewish community, Klebanov said.
“To find a replacement for Silberstein now would be impossible,” he said.