MOSCOW – A maverick group of nationalist Russian lawmakers drew rebukes from Israel, Russia’s Jewish leadership, and the Kremlin yesterday for a shocking declaration that accused Jews of fomenting anti-Semitism and called for the banning of Jewish organizations.

The letter, dated January 13 and signed by some 20 members of the Russian Parliament, called on Russia’s top prosecutor to launch proceedings “on the prohibition in our country of all religious and ethnic Jewish organizations as extremist.”

Echoing traditional anti-Semitic rants, it said that “the whole democratic world is today under the financial and political control of international Jewry.”

It said Jews were “anti-Christian” and guilty of “the illegal appropriation of state property,” a clear reference to the fact that many of Russia’s rich oligarchs are of Jewish descent.

It also suggested that Jews engineered anti-Semitic attacks against themselves as “a provocation” against “patriots” trying to defend Russia.

A top Russian rabbi, Adolf Shayevich, said in a statement that “it is impossible to comment” on the letter, signed by members of the Communist Party and the nationalist Homeland party. One of the signatories told the Associated Press yesterday that the letter had been withdrawn.

Mr. Shayevich said the letter contained “lying facts and arguments, expressing the raving condition of animal anti-Semitism.”

Russia’s chief rabbi, Berl Lazar, told a Russian news Web site that there were two possible reasons for issuing the letter.

“The first possibility is that the gentlemen who signed this fantastical document are not quite sane. If that is the case, then I pity them, but cannot help them. I am not a psychiatrist,” he said. “The second is possibility is worse. These gentlemen are perfectly sane, but are infinitely cynical. They know perfectly well that their accusations are lies. … But they knowingly commit the forgery hoping that by playing the anti-Semitic card they can win more votes.”

The Israeli Embassy in Moscow said the letter espoused Nazi ideas and lamented the fact it appeared as world leaders, including President Putin, prepared to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland.

“It is a classic example of anti-Semitism,” it said in a statement. “The theories in the appeal were used by the Nazi regime as a basis for the mass destruction of the Jews during World War Two.”

The embassy called on Russian authorities to act against those trying to “inflame nationalist discord.”

The Israeli foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, told Russia’s main Jewish Web site that action against the offending lawmakers was essential. He also hinted at some kind of diplomatic action if Russia did not respond.

“We can’t allow any organization or any country to peacefully live with a phenomenon of this kind,” he said. “A call to combat anti-Semitic incidents is resounding throughout the world [but] to my great regret such incidents have occurred often in recent times. We have to fight against anti-Semitism wherever it pops up.”

The Kremlin moved quickly to distance itself from the letter, denouncing its “openly anti-Semitic views.”

On Sunday, an Israeli government report expressed alarm over what it said was a sharp rise in violent anti-Semitism in Russia. According to the report, the number of such violent incidents in Russia rose from four to 55 in the past year.

Last week, two rabbis were accosted by a group of youths in a Moscow underpass and badly beaten with bottles.

Yesterday’s incident comes at a recent low point in Russian-Israeli relations. Tensions have been high since news broke last week of the possible sale of shoulder-fired SA-18 Igla missiles by Russia to Syria, a sworn enemy of the Jewish state. Russia has denied the sale is taking place, but defended its right to trade arms with Syria, which is not under international embargo.

President Assad, on a four-day mission to Moscow, yesterday lashed out at Israel over the missile scandal.

“This is a defensive, air defense, weapon,” he said during a visit to the Moscow State Institute for International Relations. “If Israel is against us buying it, it means that it wants to invade our airspace. The Israeli stance is illogical.