Ukraine police chief looking into officer’s request for list of Jews

The head of Ukraine’s national police said he is looking into a senior officer’s request to receive a list of Jews in the western city of Kolomyya.

Gen. Ihor Klymenko, head of the National Police of Ukraine, this week said he is reviewing the Feb. 18 letter by Myhaylo Bank, the head of the Kolomyya Police Department.

“As soon as I learned of this information, I immediately ordered an official investigation,” Klymenko told the National Coalition Supporting Soviet Jewry, the Washington, D.C.-based group said in a statement Tuesday. “Any manifestations of xenophobia and antisemitism are unacceptable. I want to assure the community we will not allow the persecution of citizens on national or other grounds.”

The contents of Bank’s letter were made known Sunday.

“Please provide us the following information regarding the Orthodox Jewish religious community of Kolomyya, namely: The organisation’s charter; list of members of the Jewish religious community, with indication of data, mobile phones and their places of residence,” it says.

Citing the need to fight organised crime, Bank sent the letter to a Jewish leader in Kolomyya, but the leader declined to provide the information.

Bank also sent the letter to representatives of ethnic Poles in the city.

His office did not reply to a request for comment by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Eduard Dolinsky, director of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, called the letter “open antisemitism.”