Alexander Kopstev, A 20-year-old skinhead armed with a knife stabbed eight people, seriously wounding five, in a synagogue in downtown Moscow Wednesday, a police spokesman said.

According to Russian news sources, three people were moderately wounded.

Israel's Foreign Ministry issued a statement expressing "shock" at the attack in Moscow.

Yuval Fuchs, the charges d'affaires at the Israeli embassy in Moscow, asked the Russian Foreign Ministry to keep the embassy appraised of the situation, and expressed the hope that the "perpetrators would be brought to justice." The ministry put out a statement saying that the embassy was in "constant contact" with the Jewish community there, and would provide it with all assistance requested.

Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said he directed Fuchs to transmit a "strong and firm" message to the Russian government of the need to take "strong steps against these types of anti-Semitic incidents."

Among those wounded was the synagogue's rabbi's son-in-law, a rabbi himself who was undergoing surgery, said Avraham Berkowitz, the executive director of Jewish communities in the former Soviet Union.

A witness told Channel 2 Wednesday night that he heard some people say that the attacker yelled "Heil Hitler" as he attacked...