Chabadniks in India Deny Espionage Charge
Shneor Zalman, Yaffa Shenoi say they were invited to country by local Jewish community of Kochi.
Members of the Chabad community in the southern Indian city of Kochi on Tuesday vehemently denied a report that appeared in local media earlier in the day accusing them of being part of an Israeli covert operation.
Rabbi Shneor Zalman and Yaffa Shenoi told The Jerusalem Post they were stunned by a story run by the Times of Indiain which unnamed Indian security officials said they were secret Israeli agents that would soon be deported from the country.
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“I was invited here by the Jewish community of Kochi with the full knowledge of local authorities,” said Zalman, a 27-year-old rabbi from Jerusalem. “I have no idea how they got the impression I was part of a Mossad operation.”
He said he and Shenoi ran an outreach center catering to Jewish travelers in the popular tourist destination as well as to the city’s remaining 50 Jews, part of a once much larger community whose origins date back to the 16th century. Zalman insisted their sole motivation for being in the country was to provide religious services to local members of the Jewish community and had nothing to do with Israel.
Shenoi speculated the report might be related to an upcoming hearing on their visa status but said she was unaware of claims they were Israeli agents before the story appeared.
Earlier in the day The Times of India quoted anonymous security sources as saying the two had been under “close surveillance” by Indian intelligence officers for a year and had taken part in “suspicious activities” including hosting large groups of people at their house late at night. The quoted officials said they drew attention for paying more than average on rent.
“A monthly rent of Rs 50,000 is disproportionately high, even in Fort Kochi. This is one of the main factors that made us suspicious," the intelligence source was quoted as saying. "They have been in the country from March 3, 2010. When their visas expired on March 3 last year, they went out and returned on April 1, 2011 on a new visa."
The newspaper also published private information on the two Israelis including their passport numbers."
By 4:12 PM local time in India the story on the Chabadniks had received 613 comments on the Times of India’s website, many of which were anti-Semitic.
One reader tied the report to the case of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, a Jewish couple executed in 1953 for spying for the Soviet Union, as proof of the existence of an international Jewish conspiracy.
Followers of the Chabad Hasidic dynasty run Jewish outreach centers in dozens of countries around the world including several in India. In 2008 Rabbi Gavriel Herzberg, his wife Rivka and four other Jewish guests at the Jewish center they ran in Mumbai were murdered by Islamist terrorists.
Rabbi Chanoch Gechtman, the current Chabad emissary in Mumbai, said on Tuesday that the report that his colleagues in Kochi were Israeli agents was false.
