KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - A crowd of about 50 youths attacked the central synagogue in Kiev, beating three people with stones, hurling bottles and breaking windows, the rabbi said Sunday.
Kiev's chief rabbi, Moshe-Reuven Azman, said the mob marched down the Ukrainian capital's main boulevard shouting "Kill the Jews!" before attacking the synagogue shortly after 9 p.m. Saturday.
The assailants knocked the rector of Kiev's yeshiva to the ground and beat him with stones, Azman said. The rector, Tsvi Kaplan, was hospitalized overnight and released Sunday.
Azman said his own 14-year-old son, Jorik, and a security guard were also injured and that the attackers broke 20 windows in the synagogue.
"I call this act a pogrom," Azman said. "It's a miracle that it was not worse."
The attack occurred after Saturday evening services, and many worshippers had already left the building.
"We didn't understand what was happening. All of a sudden, we saw a crowd running toward us with rocks," Azman's son Jorik told Russia's NTV television.
Broken glass covered the floor of the synagogue Sunday, and police stood guard outside.
Police denied the attack was anti-Semitic, saying it was a case of soccer-related violence. A soccer game had just ended at a stadium near the synagogue.
"The act was not motivated by anti-Semitism, but was an act of brutal hooliganism," Ukraine's Interior Ministry said, according to the Interfax news agency.
Most of the attackers had fled when police arrived about 20 minutes after the synagogue alerted them, Azman said. Police detained eight people, all soccer fans aged 18 to 20, Echo of Moscow radio reported.
Attacks on ethnic minorities by rowdy soccer fans, many with shaved heads, are fairly common in Ukraine and other former Soviet republics, where anti-Semitism is widespread.
There has been a wave of anti-Semitic attacks in France and other European countries this month amid Israel's offensive in the West Bank.
Azman would not speculate on whether the attack was linked to tension in the Middle East, saying only that it was prompted by "the general situation."