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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Jews Unite Without Rabinovych

2 March, 1999 - 00:00

By Vyacheslav YAKUBENKO, The Day
While president of the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress (AJC) Vadym Rabinovych
was speaking in the Danish capital Copenhagen at the Ukrainian Jews: Choosing
the Way international conference, his landsmen in Kyiv decided to form
a new association, the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine, and announced plans
to hold an all-Ukrainian congress in April.

For ten years about 300 (some sources say 500) Jewish organizations
of Ukraine have been trying to form a united structure that would represent
their interests vis-З-vis the Ukrainian authorities and abroad. Mr. Rabinovych's
AJC was one such attempt. According to chairman of the Association of Jewish
Communities and Organizations of Ukraine Yosyf Zisels, AJC merely became
the 301st organization, abandoned any unifying function, and turned into
a foundation to fund certain programs, none of which actually work. In
the words of Ukraine's Chief Rabbi Yakiv Dov Bleich, AJC cares neither
for 100,000 destitute Ukrainian Jews nor for 16 Jewish schools.

PS. Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Chief Rabbi of
Kyiv and Ukraine Yakiv Bleich answered in the negative the question if
there are today any persons or organizations authorized to represent all
Ukrainian Jewry, for instance, the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress.

 

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