A Ukrainian Jewish leader was named a head of the national council planning the Euro 2012 soccer championship.
Yevgeny Chervonenko, an aide to Ukraine’s President Viktor Yuschenko and a former governor of the Zaporozhzky region, was appointed by the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers Monday as a head of the Ukrainian national council charged with planning the Euro 2012 European soccer championship.
Ukraine and neighboring Poland are co-hosting the Euro 2012. The soccer championship’s final will be held in Kiev’s Olympic Stadium.
Chervonenko, 48, is a member of the board of trustees of the World Jewish Congress; a special envoy of the European Jewish Congress for cooperation with Central and Eastern Europe; a vice president of the United Jewish Community of Ukraine; and a vice-president of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress.
Chervonenko has never been shy about his Jewish heritage. When he served as Minister of Transportation, he became the first Jewish official in Ukraine to affix a mezuzah to his government office door.
