The Moscow art-cafe Des Artistes has hosted a meeting between the American Jewish Committee (AJC) delegation led by Executive Director David Harri, and the representatives of the Eurasian regional Jewish community.
In his report, Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) Secretary General, professor Michael Chlenov reminded everyone that ther Jewish community of Russia is fifth in size of all of the Diaspora communities, is active in nearly all regions of Russia, and includes over 600 organizations. As an example, he gave the recent Conference of Jewish Organization of the Central Federal District (CFD), organized with the support of Georgiy Poltavchenko, who is the Russian Presidential Envoy in the CFD. He also touched upon anti-Semitism i the Russian Federation, and noted that the number of attacks of Jews and incidents of anti-Semiitic vandalism has been relatively low in the recent years. The EAJC Secretary General specifically noted that, unlike Western Europe, where the so-called "new anti-Semitism" that masquerades as "the war on Zionism and Israeli aggression" is dominant, traditional anti-Semitism is still more prevalent in Russia.
David Harris devotes his report to the reactions of American Jews to the initatives of American President Barack Obama. He regretfully noted that right now in the situation at hand, "the Palestinians stopped striving for negotiations with the Israelis, and merely sit and look as the USA presses Netanyahu. The AJC Executive Director also noted the importance of adoption of a set of sanctions against Iran, as this might stop the nuclear ambitions of the Iranian regime, which are dangerous to the entire world.
Among the questions asked by the guests, the topic of Jewish immigration and demography featured prominently. Michael Chlenov and the Director of the Moscow Center for University Teaching of Jewish Civilization "Sefer" Victoria Mochalova explained that there is no reason at the moment to pose the question about an absolute migration of Russian Jews away from Russia. On the contrary, after the Iron Curtain fell, the movement became bidirectional, as some of those who moved away have returned to Russia. Concerning Jewish demography, they said, the official statistic does not nearly record all Jews. As an example, Professor Michael Chlenov gave the following story: after the efforts of EAJC President Alexander Mashkevich to open a synagogue in Kazakhstanian Pavlodar bore fruit, the number of Jews to "come out of the closet" increased noticeably.
The guests were also interested in Jewish charity and volunteering. The Federal Jewish National Cultural Autonomy (FJNCA) Director General Evgeniya Michaleva replied with a report on the organization "E-Club" that she leads, which combines charity projects with an introductio to Jewry of the middle-age persons who are part of the club.