The first Liberal Jewish congregation in the Soviet Union, ousted from its first home in Moscow, has now been given a permanent place for worship.
Moscow Mayor Gavriil Popov has signed papers authorizing the transfer of a building in the heart of the city to Congregation Hineni, according to Rabbi Richard Hirsch, executive director of the Jerusalem-based World Union for Progressive Judaism, with which Hineni is affiliated.
The two-story, 20,000-square-foot building, located on the corner of a major thoroughfare, is now occupied by government offices, which are scheduled to be relocated within four months.
Hirsch will visit Moscow in the spring to coordinate plans for the gut-renovation of the building, which will likely have three stories and 30,000 square feet added to it by the time the work is done, at a yet-undetermined cost.
Hineni’s new home will include a sanctuary, classrooms for a religious school, a Jewish library, Judaica museum, conference facilities and a center that will disseminate information about Liberal Judaism, known in North America as Reform.
The project will be funded by gifts from American, Canadian and other contributors through the World Union, and by a number of successful Soviet Jewish entrepreneurs who have indicated an eagerness to invest time, energy and money in Hineni, Hirsch told delegates to the recent biennial convention of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations in Baltimore.
Acquisition of the new building caps a two year effort by Hineni to obtain a home.
It had been using the Polyakov Synagogue, but was forced to look for other quarters after a Lubavitch Hasidic congregation challenged its right to be there. In May 1991, the Moscow City Council voted to allow Lubavitch to retain rights to the Polyakov building and to find another home for Hineni.
Hineni congregants met in apartments in the interim and held High Holiday services. attended by 400 people, in a rented cultural center. During the summer some services were held outside, according to Hirsch.
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