The
tempo of the transfer of synagogues to local Jewish communities
increased in the mid 1990s. By late 1994, approximately
40 buildings or parts of them were already community property.
By late 1996, the number was about 60. Synagogues continue
to be returned. In the year 2000 alone, synagogues were
returned in Vladikavkaz, Izmail, Kerch, Tomsk, and Ryazan.
The more buildings that have been returned, the more the
emphasis of the JDC’s restitution program has shifted
from archival and legal support to financial and engineering
aid for the renovation of returned synagogues. In 2000 alone,
with JDC support, synagogues were renovated in Tyumen, Penza,
Nizhnii Novgorod, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Shepetovka, Gomel,
Minsk, Pinsk, and Dnepropetovsk. Furthermore, engineering
aid (consultation and supervision) was provided to a majority
of the above-mentioned communities, as well as those of
Vladivostok, Kharkov, Lvov, Evpatoria, Khmelnitsky, Vitebsk,
Kiev, and Astrakhan. The JDC provides aid for the renovation
of returned synagogues, as well as functioning since the
Soviet period . The most prominent examples of the latter
are the Choral Synagogues of Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Today increasing attention is being accorded to the economical
renovation and planning, designing and construction of functional
premises.
In
cities where the Jewish communities are sufficiently large
and returned synagogues are basically used for religious
purposes, the JDC, along with aiding synagogue renovation,
has begun buying separate buildings and premises in which
to locate its philanthropic services (hasadim) and secular
community centers. In order to avoid wasting resources this
new program is being coordinated with the restitution program.
Over the years, the involvement of other organizations and
of individuals in financing the renovation and reconstruction
of synagogues has increased while the role of the JDC has
been reduced. In Russia and Ukraine this is occurring due
to the contributions of local businessmen (in Kazan, Chelyabinsk,
Krasnoyarsk, Donetsk, and Dnepropetrovsk). Help in financing
the restoration of synagogues has also come from the Russian
and Ukrainian Jewish Congresses (for example, for the Voronezh
synagogue and the Brodsky Synagogue in Kiev). On occasion,
help has also been received from the local authorities (in
Omsk, Yaroslavl, Nizhnii Novgorod, and Kazan). In Kazan,
the capital of Tatarstan, the leadership of the Muslim religious
community contributed to the renovation of the synagogue.
Particular
activity in the area of restitution has been demonstrated
by the Habad Hasidim, who today head a majority of the religious
communities in the CIS. For example, it was largely Habad
and its contributors, both local and foreign (Lev Levayev
and George Rohr, et al.), who renovated synagogues in Dnepropetrovsk,
Donetsk, and Kherson. In Moscow Habad built a new synagogue
to replace the one that was burned down in the Marina Roshcha
district of town. Next to the synagogue a multi-storey Habad
community center that includes another synagogue was opened
in the fall of 2000.
Construction
of new synagogues has been undertaken by others as well.
For example, in 1993 the community of Mountain Jews in Nalchik
built a new synagogue with only a modest contribution from
the JDC. In Moscow, in 1998, the Russian Jewish Congress
built a beautiful and costly Holocaust memorial synagogue
on Poklonnaya Gora.