Moscow’s Reform community has purchased a building for the movement after more than a decade of searching.
The building, which is still under construction, will house a synagogue as well as a religious school and youth center. It is located in the once predominantly Jewish Marina Roscha district of the city center.
“Not only will this be the first time that we have a place in the heart of Russia that we can call home, but it will also be the first time we have adequate facilities to accommodate our programs, to extend the walls of our hall of prayer, and to establish a functional and inviting administrative center,” said Rabbi Uri Regev, head of the World Union for Progressive Judaism.
The WUPJ has struggled here in recent years against the well-funded and politically connected Federation of Jewish Communities, a Chabad-led group.
It is the second major building purchase for the group this year following an earlier purchase in St. Petersburg.
