Lithuania’s interior ministry denied claims by the country’s chief rabbi that he was threatened with deportation over his objection to construction atop a Jewish cemetery.
Rabbi Chaim Burshtein, an Israeli citizen who divides his time between that country and Lithuania, told JTA Thursday that he was detained at Vilnius airport’s passport control while leaving the country a day earlier. He said a border police officer informed him he would not be allowed to return for overstaying his visa.
“They changed their minds when I threatened to turn this into an international scandal,” Burshtein said. He added the border police officer told him he had been flagged in her computer system, and advised him to “sort out the problem with the person who ordered the flag,” Burshtein said.