Euroasian Jewish News

Alexander Mashkevich and Torah scroll in Ashdod

EAJC Delegation Visits Israel with Mission of Solidarity

The EAJC delegation, headed by EAJC President Alexander Mashkevich, arrived in Israel the evening before Rosh-ha-Shana (the Jewish New Year), for a public event that would demonstrate the solidarity of the diaspora Jews with the Jewish state.

The visit included work meetings with the President of the State of Israel Shimon Peres and the Jewish Agency For Israel (JAFI) leader Natan Sharansky. Questions of interactions between the Jewish state and the Jewish communities of the diaspora were discussed.

On the 17 th of September, the delegation visited Ashdod. The visit to this seaside city became a continuation of the celebrations in Tbilisi, where the synagogue of the Ashkenazi Jewish community “Beit Rachel” was opened two days earlier, after being restored at the expense of the EAJC President and his partners, David Jacobashvili and Timur Sapir. Ashdod was selected for the event because of a large number of expatriates from Georgia. The EAJC leaders and honored guests had a meeting with the representatives of the Georgian Jewish community in the “Or Yitzchak” synagogue on the 17 th of September. The EAJC President gave a Torah scroll as a gift to the synagogue, which opened a week and a half ago, and it was ceremonially brought into the building. Among the honored guests of the ceremony were the Head Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel Iona Metzer, the Knesset vice-speaker Alex Miller of Israel Beitenu(“Our House is Israel”), and the president of the World Congress of Georgian Jews Gabriel Mirilashvili. This celebration became yet another link in the chain of celebratory New Year’s ceremonies in which the EAJC took part, as before Rosh-ha-Shana, the EAJC presented Torah scrolls not only to the restored Tbilisi synagogue, but also to the central Sophia synagogue (Bulgaria), which recently celebrated its 100 th anniversary, and to the new community house in Tokyo.

After the visit to the “Or Yitzhak” synagogue, the EAJC delegation met with Ashdod mayor Ihiel Lasri and members of the city council in the city hall. A special meeting was organized for the arrival of the EAJC President, and many representatives of state and community bodies attended, including JAFI head Natan Sharansky, head of Shas fraction in Knesset Abraham Mihaeli, and the Vice-Mayor of Jerusalem Masha Novikova. At the end of the meeting, Alexander Mashkevich asked the Mayor of Ashdod to relay the highest award of the EAJC – the medal “For Merits” and the respective diplomas to authors of the famous letter of 18 Georgian families to the UN, the 40 th anniversary of which event is being celebrated this year. This letter marks the beginning of repatriation for Soviet Jews.