(JTA) — The alleged shooter of a rabbi in southern Russia was killed in a raid by Russian security forces. Sherif Akhmedov was one of five suspected extremists killed last week in Derbent, in the predominantly Muslim Republic of Dagestan near Chechnya, Russia’s National Anti-Terrorist Committee said in a statement issued Friday, according to international […]
A state of the art, $5m synagogue in Siberia
from http://www.thejc.com/news/world-news/111738/a-state-art-5m-synagogue-siberia It takes a five-hour flight from Moscow over the empty expanses of Sibera to reach Novosibirsk, a city known to outsiders mainly as a curious stopover on the Trans-Siberian railway. But the city has a secret: a Jewish community centre to make shul-goers across the world green with envy. In late August, the Jews […]
Jewish ex-con defeats Putin’s man in local mayoral race
(JTA) — A Jewish anti-drugs campaigner defeated the party of Russian President Vladimir Putin with his election to mayor of Russia’s fourth-largest city. Yevgeny Roizman, 50, beat the ruling United Russia Party candidate in a mayoral election last week in Yekaterinburg, a city of 1.4 million people in the industrial belt of the Ural Mountains […]
Synagogue revamped in late Lubavitcher rebbe’s Ukrainian hometown
(JTA) — The Jewish community of Nikolayev in southern Ukraine has renovated and rededicated its century-old synagogue. Hundreds of Jews attended the rededication ceremony earlier this month to celebrate the $100,000 renovation which gave the structure marble floors, Jerusalem-stone panels and air conditioning, the synagogue’s rabbi, Shalom Gotlieb, told JTA Wednesday. The synagogue is located […]
Rabbi’s shooting shakes Russian community’s confidence
(JTA) — Accustomed to the sound of gunfire at night, neighbors of Rabbi Ovadia Isakov were not particularly startled when a shot rang out on Pushkin Street on July 25. But unlike the volleys that partygoers often fire heavenward in this lawless corner of the Russian Caucasus, the shooters outside the rabbi’s door had a […]
Putin: Jewish teacher’s jail sentence ‘egregious’
(JTA) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said a court in Tver may have acted “egregiously” in sentencing a Jewish rural teacher to seven years in jail for taking $13,000 in bribes. The case of the teacher, Ilya Farber, “is, of course, egregious,” Putin said during an interview with Russia’s Channel 1. It is Putin’s first […]
Russian Chief Rabbi Tells Jews To Back Off on Criticizing Vladimir Putin
From The Jewish Daily Forward by Paul Berger Read more: http://forward.com/articles/183459/russian-chief-rabbi-tells-jews-to-back-off-on-crit/?p=all#ixzz2eVhXyxfv When Vladimir Putin offers you a gift — you accept it. That’s according to Berel Lazar, Russia’s chief rabbi, who said he had to accept Putin’s offer to move a contested Jewish library to a new Jewish museum in Moscow controlled by Chabad in Russia. […]
Navalny misses runoff in Moscow mayoral race, seeking recount
(JTA) — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny called for a recount in Moscow’s mayoral election after missing the runoff vote cutoff by one percentage point. Incumbent Sergei Sobyanin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, garnered just over 51 percent of the vote in Sunday’s election to 27 percent for Navalny. Four others also […]
In Moscow mayor’s race, Jewish chutzpah seeks to lift underdog
MOSCOW — On the rooftop of a Soviet-era apartment block, a young man straps into climbing gear and rappels down the side as a small gathering of city workers and police officers watch from below. On the way down, the climber stops at a balcony and tears loose one of the thousands of banners hung […]
Pilgrims leave Uman amid reports of heavy damage to property
(JTA) — Thousands of Jewish pilgrims are leaving Ukraine, where their weeklong stay in Uman resulted in a fire, power shortages, a sewage flood and several arrests. In one incident, three Israeli police officers who were sent to Uman to help police the estimated 26,000 Jewish pilgrims who congregate every year ahead of the Jewish New […]