Russian group gives Jewish books to prisons

A major Russian Jewish group donated 1,500 books to prisons in Moscow.Among the tomes donated by the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, a Chabad-Lubavitch umbrella organization, were copies of the Bible in English and Russian, the Jewish Encylopedia and “The Wise Men of the Talmud.””There are only seven detention facilities in Moscow, of which six are for men and one for women,” said the federation’s spokesman, Rabbi Aaron Gurevich. “None of them had a single Jewish book, but now there are more than 200 in each.”The announcement comes a week after the federation, in tandem with the Russian Jewish Congress and the Congress of Jewish Religious Organizations and Communities of Russia, announced the donation of 33 sewing machines to the Potma camp for foreign prisoners.