Federation of Jewish Communities chairman Alexander Boroda, left, and Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar accompany Jewish Autonomous Region Gov. Alexander Vinnikov and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to the Freud Jewish Community Center in Birobidjan. It was the first visit of a Russian chief executive to the Far Eastern region. (Photo: Presidential Press and Information Office)
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made history last week when he became the first sitting president to visit the Jewish Autonomous Region in Russia’s Far East and its capital city of Birobidjan.
Russian President Tours Jewish Region
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made history last week when he became the first sitting president to visit the Jewish Autonomous Region in Russia’s Far East and its capital city of Birobidjan.
Among the first stops on an itinerary that took him to a local factory and governmental offices was the city’s Freud Jewish Community Center, where Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar and Federation of Jewish Communities chairman Alexander Boroda gave the chief executive and regional Gov. Alexander Vinnikov a guided tour.
Accompanied by Lazar, a Chabad-Lubavitch emissary, Medvedev perused Jewish texts in the center’s library, toured a synagogue in Birobidjan and placed a stone at the city’s Holocaust memorial.
Lazar called the visit “a sign of confidence in and respect for the Jewish community.”
