Russian Jewish Congress grants support local communal projects

MOSCOW, June 10 (JTA) — In its first year of existence, the Russian Jewish Congress distributed $1.3 million in grants to various Jewish communal projects in the country. According to its just-published first annual report, the RJC gave more than $500,000 last year to support Russian Jewish schools. The congress donated $350,000 to synagogues, and some $275,000 to charitable and social projects in the Russian Jewish community. Cultural projects received $170,000. Projects seeking to counter anti-Semitism, which RJC President Vladimir Goussinsky has described as a priority for the organization’s efforts, received only $14,000.
In a separate project of its own, the RJC has been sponsoring the construction of a memorial synagogue in Moscow. The synagogue, inside the World War II national memorial park on Poklonnaya Gora, is scheduled to open in September, when the Russian capital will celebrate its 850th anniversary. The synagogue, whose construction costs will reportedly top $2 million, will stand next to an Orthodox church and a mosque. The RJC was created last year with the backing of Russia’s leading Jewish bankers and business community. Press and banking magnate Goussinsky, along with a group of four vice presidents from some of Russia’s leading financial institutions, are the RJC’s main donors.