Three of Ukraine’s four billionaires are Jewish
Three of Ukraine’s four billionaires are Jewish, according to the Ukrainian Korrespondent magazine’s annual list, though many have lost money in the recession.
Igor Kolomoysky, 47, a co-owner of the Privat business group and president of the United Jewish Community of Ukraine, leads the Jewish billionaires on the list with $2.3 billion, down from $6.6 billion in 2008.
Victor Pinchuk, 48, is next at $2.2 billion, down from $8.8 billion, followed by Gennady Bogolyubov, 47, with $1.7 billion, down from $6.2 billion.
Heading the list is Rinat Akhmetov, who owns FC Shahtar Donetzk, with $9.6 billion — a more than threefold drop from $31.1 billion in 2008. — jta
Holocaust memorial desecrated in Budapest
Vandals used pigs’ feet to desecrate a Holocaust memorial in Budapest. The memorial, erected in honor of tens of thousands of Jews murdered by the Hungarian Nazi Arrow–Cross during the Soviet siege of Budapest at the end of World War II, was vandalized early June 15.
The attack follows the electoral success of the far-right Jobbik party in European Union parliamentary elections earlier this month.
The memorial is made up of 60 pairs of abandoned shoes, fashioned in steel, marking one of the many spots along the Danube River where Arrow-Cross soldiers once stripped and shot their Jewish victims and threw their bodies, some still alive, into the icy waters. Many of the steel shoes are filled with flowers from time to time.
Vandals placed pigs’ feet into several of the shoes in the latest incident. — jta
Ukrainian Jewry exhibit takes to the road
A traveling exhibition on Ukrainian Jewish history and culture recently opened in Kiev.
The unique items on display trace the cultural history of the Jews of Ukraine — from its beginning in Crimea, to the Pale of Settlement, and to one of the largest Jewish communities in the world at the beginning of the 20th century, finally ending with its revival in independent Ukraine.
The exhibit involved the cooperation of the Jewish Foundation of Ukraine and the Rothschild Foundation of Europe and is made up of some items from archives, private collections and museums.
The exhibition will travel throughout Ukraine and to other European countries. — jta
Synagogue vandalized in central Ukraine
Unidentified vandals threw seven cans of brown paint at the walls and windows of a synagogue in a central Ukrainian town.
No one was hurt in the June 10 incident in the industrial town of Kremenchug. One of the synagogue’s windows was shattered in the attack.
“This is not first act of vandalism in central Ukraine,” said Eduard Dolinsky, director general of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee. “We believe that law enforcement agencies will investigate the case properly and find those guilty.” — jta