On May 7 Chief Rabbi of Russia Berel Lazar has called on the Estonian authorities to review their position regarding the reburial of the remains of Soviet soldiers in Tallinn. He said that "When Nazism unfortunately rears its ugly head in Europe today and as there have been attempts to deny the Holocaust, Estonia is acting in a manner that insults memory, which alarms us". He added that "The Jewish people will always regard what the Soviet soldiers did as a heroic feat" In addition, Jews consider remains of those people "holy, and reburial is allowed only in exceptional cases." On July 4, 2007, in a speech delivered as a part of reburial of remains of Yelena Varshavskaya at Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, Russia's Chief Rabbi Berl Lazar, who conducted her reburial, denounced statements describing the Soviet soldiers as occupants.
