Yeltsin mourns Jewish dead

MOSCOW, Sept. 2 (JTA) – Russian President Boris Yeltsin bowed his head in memory of the Jewish victims of World War II at the dedication of a synagogue commemorating these victims. In a surprise speech at the ceremony at the World War II memorial complex here, Yeltsin paid tribute to the hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews who perished during the war. Yeltsin, who joined Russian and world Jewish leaders, war veterans and city officials at the ceremony, also condemned anti-Semitism and neo-Nazism in modern Russia. Jewish leaders said they were pleased that Yeltsin was able to find time to participate in the ceremony despite Russia’s deepening economic and political crisis. Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov presented the new synagogue with a 19th-century Torah scroll. The synagogue inside the Poklonnaya Gora park houses Russia’s first-ever permanent exhibit about the Holocaust. The complex in the popular park also includes a mosque and a Russian Orthodox church. At least 20 million residents of the Soviet Union died during the war.