Russia - Attackers Vandalize Two Synagogues Hours Before Rosh H'Shana

Russia - Unidentified attackers vandalized two synagogues in Russia on Friday, shattering windows at one and briefly setting a door ablaze at another in attacks that highlighted rising xenophobia and anti-Semitism in Russia. No one was reported injured. 

In one pre-dawn attack on the synagogue in Khabarovsk, a city of 580,000 on the border with China, attackers shattered windows in the building which was empty at that hour, the regional department of the Interior Ministry said. A criminal investigation was launched into the attack.
In another attack early Friday, unknown assailants threw a Molotov cocktail at a synagogue in the Volga River city of Astrakhan in southern Russia, setting its door ablaze. A guard at the building quickly put down the fire.

A spokesman for the city police confirmed that the synagogue had been vandalized, saying that no one was hurt and refusing to give further details.