25TH ANNIVERSARY OF ADOPTION OF LAW ON FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE TO BE CELEBRATED IN MOSCOW
Interfax-Religiia, 27 November 2015
The Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (Federatsiia Evreiskikh Obshchin Rossii—FEOR) will conduct on Sunday a ceremonial event in the great hall of Congress Park in the hotel Ukraina in Moscow.
It is devoted to the 25th anniversary of the adoption by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the law "On freedom of conscience and religious organizations" and the law of the RSFSR "On freedom of religious confessions," the press service of FEOR reports.
Participants in the holiday will include the chief rabbi of Russia, Berl Lazar; the president of FEOR, Alexander Boroda; the fighter for human rights in the USSR, former minister of internal affairs of Israel, and head of the Jewish news agency Sokhnut, Natan Shcharansky; and the composer and cantor Berl Zaltsman.
The date for the celebration was not chosen randomly. On 29 November followers of Hasidism (one of the orthodox trends in Judaism—IF) celebrate the day of the release of the founder of the Hasidic movement "Chabad," Shneur Zalman, from the Peter-Paul fortress, where he was imprisoned for 53 days on the false charge of treason to the fatherland in 1798. Jews call this holiday the New Year of Hasidism.
"For the Jewish community of Russia, the law 'On freedom of conscience and religious organizations' has special significance: in the years of the existence of the USSR, the Jewish people were under mighty pressure of the policy of state antisemitism and they were subjected to numerous restrictions on an ethnic basis," the report says.
In turn, A. Boroda noted that from the moment of the adoption of the law up to the current free life of the Jewish community in Russia, a quarter century has already passed, and in these years Russians have managed "to fill the gap in their education and religious literacy."
"In 1997 the Russian government issued a new law 'On freedom of conscience and religious associations.' Two years later we registered the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia and three years later we opened the largest in eastern Europe Jewish community center of Moscow. Since then much has been done and, as we hope, in the future await us yet many projects aimed at the welfare of both the Jewish community itself and Russian society as a whole," he declared. (tr. by PDS, posted 27 November 2015)
Editorial disclaimer: RRN does
not intend to certify the accuracy of information
presented in articles. RRN simply intends to certify the
accuracy of the English translation of the contents of the
articles as they appeared in news media of countries of
the former USSR.
If material is quoted, please give credit to the
publication from which it came. It is not necessary to credit
this Web page. If material is transmitted electronically, please
include reference to the URL,
http://www.stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/.