The European Board of Rabbis held a meeting here last week that marked the first time it had convened in any of the countries of the former Soviet Union.
Rabbi Yaakov Bleich, a Brooklyn native who is now chief rabbi of Ukraine, welcomed Jewish leaders from 47 countries to the conference.
The parley was headed by Lord Immanuel Jakobovits, formerly the chief rabbi of Britain.
In his opening remarks, Bleich noted the historical significance of the event.
“After 70 years of communism in Ukraine, that such an event, the meeting of rabbis, would happen in Kiev seems unbelievable,” he said.
In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution in 1917, the Communist government confiscated hundreds of synagogues and community buildings in Ukraine.
Last year, Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk signed a decree establishing a system of restitution for property confiscated from religious communities.
The religious gathering, held at the Choral Synagogue, was a combined event.
The gathering of European rabbis was paired with the opening meeting of the Second All-Ukrainian Conference of the Union of Jewish Religious Organizations of Ukraine, the leading religious group here. Numerous Ukrainian government officials attended the opening ceremony and addressed the two rabbinical groups.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
