Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar condemned the Monday terrorist attack at Moscow’s Domodedovo International Airport and pledged Jewish communal assistance in helping city residents cope with the horror of the tragedy.
“The Jewish community is shocked by what happened,” Lazar told the Interfax news service one day after a suspected suicide bomber set a blast inside the airport’s arrival hall, killing 35 people and wounding 130. “We will certainly help the injured and relatives of those killed.”
A team of Chabad-Lubavitch rabbis trained as emergency first responders made their way to the airport shortly after the explosion and tended to the wounded.
They said it appeared that no Jewish victims were among the deceased, but remained on hand to comfort people and hand out food to stunned travelers and rescue personnel.
They also arranged hotel rooms and provided kosher food to Israeli bound passengers whose El Al flight to Tel Aviv was grounded after the attack.

On Tuesday, communal representatives located an injured Jewish man at a local hospital and dispatched a pair of volunteers to comfort him.
Earlier, Rabbi Shea Deitsch said that the post-explosion chaos at Domodedovo, Moscow’s busiest airline hub, was unlike anything he had ever seen.
“It was a horrifying scene,” he described.
“Families were screaming and wailing. We tried to uplift their spirits and told them that we were there for them for whatever they needed.”
Start a Discussion