Timpul, 13 December 2009
On the front page of its 13 December edition, Moldovan daily Timpul leads with news of an "Anti-Semitic outrage in downtown Chisinau," which took the form of a demonstration involving several hundred people carrying "Orthodox flags, and brandishing hammers and sticks." Led by an Orthodox priest who claimed he was acting "to defend his homeland," the demonstrators destroyed a nine-branched menorah candelabrum installed in a public park in celebration of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, which they then replaced with a wooden cross. The Moldovan Jewish community accounts for approximately 23,000 of Moldova's four-million strong population.
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