AFP reports that Lithania’s wooden synagogues are falling into ruin due to a lack of funding and support. These rundown buildings are the remaining vestiges of the former Jewish presence that was wiped out in the Holocaust. Between 1941- 1944, the Nazis murdered approximately 90 percent of Lithuania’s 200,000 Jews. “Jews owned around 20 shops […]
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Government of Belarus Plans to Renovate Old Synagogue, Turn It Into Jewish Museum
JTA — The government of Belarus announced plans to renovate one of the country’s oldest synagogues and turn it into a Jewish museum. The museum will be housed this year inside the restored ruins of the main synagogue in Bykhaw, a town located some 150 miles east of Minsk, Belarus’ minister of culture, Boris Svetlov, […]
Jewish Cemetery Damaged in Moldova
JTA – Unlicensed loggers may be to blame for damage to a Jewish cemetery in the capital Chisinau {Kishinev – G.R.}. Unidentified individuals broke into Chisinau’s Metropolitan Jewish Cemetery earlier this week and caused “serious damage” to graves, according to a report on Thursday in Jewish.ru, a Moscow-based news site. Russia’s Jewish News Agency reported dozens […]
Disputed Schneerson Library to Move to Jewish Museum in Moscow
JTA – Russia plans to move Jewish texts claimed by the Chabad-Lubavitch movement to Moscow’s newly opened Jewish museum next month. Russian Deputy Culture Minister Grigory Ivliyev told the Interfax news agency on Wednesday that the disputed Schneerson library will be moved to the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center. “We will start moving the books […]
Belarusian Jewish Community Leader Pleads Guilty to Tax Evasion
JTA – Yuri Dorn, a leader of the Jewish community of Belarus, pleaded guilty to tax evasion but is continuing to deny charges that he abused his position. Dorn was president of the Union of Religious Jewish Congregations in Belarus at the time of his arrest last year. He is charged with tax evasion, to which […]
Tribute to Marillyn Tallman by Pam Cohen, former UCSJ President
A great light has gone out. None of us can or will be the same without Marillyn Tallman in this world. She left her mark on all of us. Her work for her people was unrelenting. After the Holocaust, she worked with Abe Sachar to bring in refugees from Europe on student visas…one of those […]
UCSJ Ukraine Bureau Director Promotes Jewish Cultural Preservation in Lviv, Officials Respond
Recently, officials in Lviv, Ukraine have announced that they will no longer use Jewish headstones as paving materials. In 1947, Soviet authorities built a local market using Jewish headstones as pavement for it. Meylakh Sheykhet, UCSJ’s Ukraine Bureau Director, was instrumental in lobbying for the headstones’ removal. The gravestones will be transferred to the only remaining […]
Chabad Rejects Proposal from Putin to Put Chabad Collection in Russian Jewish Museum
JTA– Chabad rejected a proposal by Russian President Vladimir Putin that a disputed collection of books and documents be kept at a Jewish museum in Moscow. The New York-based religious movement, responding Thursday to the suggestion floated by Putin earlier this week, insisted that Russian authorities immediately hand over the so-called Chabad Library. “The collection […]
Ukraine’s Three Most Generous Philanthropists are Jewish
(JTA) — Ukraine’s three most generous philanthropists are Jewish, according to a local business magazine. In ranking the country’s top 10 charitable donors for 2012, the Lviv-based Galytski Kontrakty weekly put 46-year-old businessman Rinat Akhmetov in the top slot for giving the equivalent of $19 million to build an oncology research center. Akhmetov, the son of a […]
Bishop Hopes to Build a Jewish Cultural Center in Armenia, Research 13th Century Jewish Roots
Public Radio of Armenia– Rebecca Miller, a Peace Corps volunteer in Armenia, was skeptical when Bishop Abraham Mkrtchyan approached her about starting a Jewish culture center alongside a medieval Jewish cemetery in the village of Yeghegis. “I had… noted that there was not much in the way of diversity in the area and couldn’t imagine […]