Chabad broke ground on a massive new educational complex in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku.
At a May 31 ceremony attended by Azeri first lady Mehriban Aliyeva, Chabad broke ground on the Ohr Avner Chabad Educational Complex, an 11-building complex that includes a school, orphanage, shul and cultural center. According to Avraham Berkowitz, executive director of the Federation of Jewish Communities of the Former Soviet Union, a Chabad umbrella organization, the complex will allow the school to expand its capacity to 600 students from 400.
Although Azerbaijan is a predominantly Muslim country, the Jewish community enjoys good relations with the government and reports of anti-Semitic activities are few. Israeli oligarch Lev Leviev’s Ohr Avner Foundation and the Gaidar Aliyev Foundation will jointly finance the $20 million project.
Following the meeting, a delegation including Leviev attended a one-hour meeting with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev to discuss the project, as well as continuing cooperation between the government and Jewish community.
The complex, on a 15,000-acre plot allotted to the community by the president, is expected to open in the summer of 2008.
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