RUSSIA RELIGION NEWS


American citizen serving as rabbi in Russia kicked out of country

ULIANOVSK RABBI JOSEPH MAROZOF DEPORTED FROM RUSSIA ON F.S.B. INITIATIVE

by Aleksei Ilin

73ONLINE.ru, 29 January 2018

 

An international scandal has erupted in Ulianovsk. The local directorate of the Federal Security Service (F.S.B.) managed to get the expulsion from Russia of the chief rabbi of the oblast, accusing him of extremism. Joseph Marozof and his wife, taking their six children--two of whom were born on the Volga--have traveled to the U.S.A. The preacher of the Torah tried to maintain his permit for residence and reached the Supreme Court, unsuccessfully.

 

The transcription of the name of the chief rabbi of Ulianovsk province varies. In Ulianovsk he is known as Joseph Marozof, on social networks he writes it as Yossi Marosov, in Israel he is known as Yessi Marazav, and in documents of the Supreme Court his full name is Iosef Marsou U.

 

Twelve years ago, the chief rabbi of Russia, Berl Lazar, summoned the preacher Joseph Marsou to Ulianovsk. One of the reasons for the invitation of the American was that the ancestors of the future Ulianovsk rabbi had lived in the U.S.S.R. They were forced to leave the country in 1938, after the shooting of Joseph's great grandfather, who, incidentally, was later rehabilitated. The permit for residence in Russia, issued by the Federal Migration Service, was valid for Joseph until 2021, and for Sarah, his wife, until 2020. Two children in the multi-child family of Marsou were born in Ulianovsk, sources for 73ONLINE who are familiar with the situation explained.

 

The cancellation of the residency permit for the rabbi and his spouse was initiated by the regional directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs [M.V.D.] in early May of last year. More precisely, such a suggestion was advanced by personnel of the migration service, a subdivision of which is now located within the structure of the M.V.D. As stated in court materials, the basis was information coming from the F.S.B. directorate of Russia for Ulianovsk oblast. In the course of their own operational search activities, Chekists [political police] received information that Joseph and Sarah were supporting extremist activity in Ulianovsk oblast. Just how is secret. Judging by how the Marsou family fought for their life in Russia, they believed until the last that the residency permit would not be cancelled. Originally they filed suit in oblast court and later in the Supreme Court. It was unsuccessful.

 

The Supreme Court's decision took legal effect on the rest day for Jews, last Saturday, 27 January, and this means that by law Marsou has ten days to leave Russia. Apparently the Ulianovsk rabbi did not want to wait for the deadline and he is already in the U.S.A. On 18 January he explained on a social network about the funeral of his grandfather, Mendel Marozov, who died in New York at the age of 101 years.

 

In his first interviews in Russia the rabbi explained about his Russian roots. About how he himself wanted to come from New York to the motherland of his ancestors, although he did not know the Russian language. He wanted to receive citizenship.

 

Judging from information from the Jewish community, the rabbi actively conducted years of work in Ulianovsk. A teenagers' club was opened, along with a Sunday school and kindergarten and religious holidays were widely celebrated. In October a collection of money for construction of a Jewish cultural center in Ulianovsk was begun.

 

Nevertheless, he was deported from the country for support of extremist activity on the territory of the region. It was such a wording that was originally stated in the cancellation of the residency permit by migration agencies and then in the courts of various instances. An excerpt from the April conclusion of the F.S.B. directorate for Ulianovsk oblast states that Yosef U. Marsou supports extremist activity by his own actions, but just how is not reported. The information is for internal use.

 

Apparently Joseph Marsou himself does not understand what he is guilty of. He says that he has not been held administratively accountable, he is law-abiding, he has no intention of violating Russian laws, and he is neither a financier nor a participant nor organizer of terrorist or extremist activity.

 

73ONLINE's information:

 

Josef U. Marsou is the general director of the charitable foundation "OR AVNER of Ulianovsk," which was registered in 2007. Its major form of activity is providing social services without giving residence to the elderly and invalids. In 2016, Josef Marsou and his spouse founded the "Mikva-Spa Shmuel Dovid I Khava," which also engages in charitable activity, but it was liquidated on 21 December of last year, five days before the Supreme Court's verdict.

 

Whether Josef Marsou was deprived of the opportunity to live in Russia because of the activity of these two organizations or the security personnel found more weighty reasons to deport the American citizen, depriving the Ulianovsk Jewish community of its rabbi, is still unknown. An explanation of details of the emergence of charges against the preacher has been refused by both the F.S.B. directorate and the Jewish community of the region. (tr. by PDS, posted 29 January 2018)


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