Ukrainian President Victor Yuschenko met with leaders of the Jewish Agency for Israel.
Yuschenko on Monday in Kiev discussed Jewish issues in Ukraine with Ze’ev Bielski, the Jewish Agency’s chairman, among others.
Yuschenko said he was committed to an Ukrainian-Israeli initiative on dialogue and expressed his desire to gain recognition for Holodomor, or the Great Famine of 1932-33, as a genocide of Ukrainian people.
He told the Jewish Agency leaders about a monument to Zionist visionary Ze’ev Jabotinsky being built in Odessa, establishing museums and expos devoted to prominent Israeli leaders, and the transfer of synagogue buildings and Torah scrolls from the state back to the Jewish communities of Ukraine.
Aharon Abramovitz, the director general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel, and Zina Kalay-Kleytman, Israel’s ambassador to Ukraine, also joined the meeting.
Jewish Agency officials, local Jewish community representatives and Ukrainian officials participated in Tuesday’s opening ceremony of the renovated Israeli Cultural Center in Kiev .
