Jews in Siberia attend dedication of synagogue

MOSCOW, Feb. 8 (JTA) — There are more than huskys and frozen land in Siberia. Last week, more than 200 Siberian Jews attended a dedication ceremony of a synagogue in the city of Krasnoyarsk. Four years ago, local authorities granted a building to the 6,000 person-strong Jewish community of Krasnoyarsk, an industrial city of 1 million located about 2,300 miles east of Moscow. The building then underwent a $250,000 renovation, much of which was underwritten by Anatoly Brakov, a local, non-Jewish businessman who has also helped to finance the construction of a Russian Orthodox church and a mosque in the city. The aluminum-domed synagogue, which can hold over 150 worshipers, is part of a $1.5 million complex that, when completed, will also house a Jewish community center and school. The synagogue “will serve as a magnet for more and more Jews that have not yet identified themselves with the community,” Yakov Bril, the chairman of the local Jewish community, said in a phone interview from Krasnoyarsk. Krasnoyarsk’s Jews — many of whom are relatives of czarist and Stalinist exiles to Siberia — recently welcomed their first permanent rabbi in many decades. The Chabad-Lubavitch movement sent Shmaya Glick, a 23-year-old Australian-born rabbi. Chabad-Lubavitch expects to spend more than $10 million this year in support of Jewish communities in the former Soviet Union.