A Russian Jewish communal organization will pay Jewish families to have more babies.
At a news conference marking its tenth anniversary, the Chabad-led Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia announced it will subsidize Jewish families who have three or more children, Ha’aretz reported.
“Our goal for the next decade is to create a stronger community of young people and families,” the group’s chairman, Alexander Boroda, said. “This additional money is sometimes what a young family needs to have another child.”
Aside from Chabad’s interest in bolstering Jewish population, Russia has been in an ever-worsening demographic crisis since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The average Russian family has only 1.4 children, and the average male life expectancy is a mere 59 years. In 2007, President Vladimir Putin proposed a similar stipend for the general population to combat the crisis.
The federation’s stipend will be about $100 per month and is intended to boost Jewish community involvement.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.