KIEV, Ukraine (JTA) — Two rabbis join mayors and billionaires on a Kiev weekly’s list of most influential people in two Ukrainian regions.
Eduard Gurvitz, the mayor of Odessa, was named the most influential figure in the Odessa region, according to the All-Ukrainian Kommentarii, or Comments, weekly. The Russian-language publication named a total of 666 people on two lists — one each for the Odessa and Dnepropetrovsk regions.
Avraham Wolf, the chief rabbi of Odessa, is No. 15 on the Odessa list. Rabbi Shmuel Kaminetzky, the chief rabbi of Dnepropetrovsk, is No. 14 on the Dnepropetrovsk list.
Among other Jews featured are Vladimir Groisman, the mayor of Vinnitza; philanthropist Victor Pinchuk, the highest-ranking Jewish Ukrainian on the annual Forbes magazine billionaires list; and billionaire philanthropists and Jewish leaders Igor Kolomoysky, Gennady Bogolyubov and Aleksandr Feldman, who is also a member of parliament.
Jews comprise no more than one half of 1 percent of Ukraine’s population of 46.5 million.
