[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 64 (Thursday, May 10, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4816-S4817]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             CONGRATULATIONS TO THE RUSSIAN JEWISH CONGRESS

  Mr. SMITH of Oregon. Mr. President, I rise today to congratulate the 
Russian Jewish Congress for laying the cornerstone of the Archipova 
street Community Center near the Moscow Choral synagogue. I think it is 
also important to thank the Chief Rabbi of Moscow, Rabbi Pinchas 
Goldschmidt, the spiritual guide of the Russian Jewish Congress, for 
the restoration of the Choral Synagogue dome which was destroyed under 
an anti-Semitic decree

[[Page S4817]]

of the pre-revolutionary Moscow government.
  The Russian Jewish Congress was established in January 1996. In the 
years since then it has been a stalwart combatant of racism and anti-
Semitism in Russia establishing 50 branch offices throughout the 
Federation. In 1998 the Congress completed the Holocaust Memorial 
Complex on Poklonnaya Gora in Moscow, the first Holocaust museum in 
Russia. In addition the Russian Jewish Congress arranged for the 
restitution of funds disbursed to Holocaust survivors in Russia to be 
tax exempt.
  Finally, I would like to note the work of Mr. Yuri Luzhkov, Mayor of 
Moscow, for his initiative to restore the Choral Synagogue and the 
surrounding area, including erecting a replica of Jerusalem's Wailing 
Wall, symbolizing the suffering of the past as well as the hope for the 
future of Russian Jewry. I congratulate all of you for your dedication 
and hard work on behalf of the Jewish Community in Russia.

                          ____________________