NEW YORK, June 29 (JTA) — The New York Board of Rabbis came to the aid of a firebombed Moscow synagogue last week during a stateside visit by that city’s chief rabbi. Rabbi Marc Schneier, president of the group, which represents the four major Jewish denominations, presented Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt with $3,600 on June 25 to help rebuild the Marina Roscha Synagogue. The Lubavitch synagogue, bombed previously in 1993 and 1996, was
partially destroyed again on May 13, when an explosion blasted through two floors of the three-story building. Two people were injured in the presumed neo-Nazi attack, which caused an estimated $100,000 in damage. Meanwhile, vandals this week sacked some 14 graves at a Jewish cemetery near Moscow run by the synagogue. The rabbinic organization’s contribution came from its “From the
Ashes Fund,” which was originally established in 1996 to assist African American churches damaged by a rash of arson fires. Citing the board’s interdenominational support of a Lubavitch
synagogue, Schneier called the contribution “an important gift in terms
of the spirit in which it was given.”
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