Russia’s chief Chabad rabbi dedicated a Torah at a new synagogue in Moscow.
Rabbi Berel Lazar installed the scroll at the Michurinsky synagogue, which opened two months ago, the Interfax news agency reported. The dedication ceremony was May 14.
According to Interfax, the Michurinsky congregation is the sixth operational synagogue in Moscow. The Russian capital has a Jewish population of at least 100,000, according to the European Jewish Congress.
Meanwhile, in St. Petersburg — Russia’s second largest city with at least 40,000 Jews — the board of the Grand Choral Synagogue said it will celebrate the institution’s 120th anniversary this month by opening for the first time to visits by the general public.
The St. Petersburg Synagogue, one of Europe’s largest, will be open from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday, May 26 as part of the city’s White Nights “museum night,” when all museums are open free late at night. — jta