Aryeh Leib Misenzom Hy"d, 22, was brutally murdered in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. Local police are looking into the possibility of antisemitic motives, though certain figures in the Jewish community claim he was entangled in debt following a business venture.
According to reports Misenzom disappeared over three weeks ago, on the birthday of Adolph Hitler, may his name be blotted out, in a city where neo-Nazi skinheads roam freely. Over the weekend his body was found mutilated, dismembered and dumped in a Kiev neighborhood. Investigators believe Misenzom was killed a few days after he was kidnapped. The leader of the gang that kidnapped him was reportedly arrested.
Ukrainian police tried to delay returning the body to the family to examine it further, but the local Jewish community demanded it be turned over immediately for burial. Yaakov Zilberman, a ZAKA member and kehilloh representative, said he was horrified by the condition of the body after police called him in to identify the murder victim.
Members of Kiev's Jewish community say there has been an escalation in the number and severity of antisemitic incidents recently. At the end of 2009 Ukraine was flooded with a wave of antisemitism during the presidential election campaign as certain candidates denounced Jews and Israel, while others defended them.
Former president Viktor Yushchenko led a campaign to clear the names of national heroes who fought alongside the Nazis for Ukrainian independence, in practice leading bloody pogroms against Jews. Another candidate, Sergey Ratushniak, mayor of Uzhgorod, lashed out against "Jews' takeover of the national economy."
The censure reached its peak at a pseudo-academic conference where it was claimed "Israel smuggled in tens of thousands of Ukrainian children to harvest their organs."
