MINELRES: Registration of Jewish school in Baku

[MINELRES moderator]

Original sender: Eldar Zeynalov <eldar@azeurotel.com>


Berl Lazar, the President of Jewish Communities in CIS and the Chief
Rabbi of the Russian Federation, has solved the issue of registration of
Jewish school in Baku 


Baku/03.04.03/Turan: Representatives of Jewish communities of Azerbaijan
and Levi Livaev, the president of the Federation of Jewish communities
of CIS, took place yesterday at the Baku synagogue. 

Mayer Bruk, rabbi of Ashkenazi Jews of Azerbaijan, has welcomed the
guests and expressed his gratitude for the fact that as a result of
their meeting with the president of Azerbaijan Geidar Aliev a decision
was finally made to issue a license for Jewish secondary school in Baku. 

It was discovered that the school has been functioning in Baku for the
last 8 months although the Ministry of Justice has been postponing its
registration during that period. 

Berl Lazar, the Chief Rabbi of the Russian Federation, has noted with
relieve that the President of Azerbaijan made a positive decision after
the meeting. According to Lazar, president Aliev stated that he is a
guarantor of the rights of Jews in Azerbaijan. The rabbi also emphasized
that he met "true Jews" in Azerbaijan. The chief rabbi of Russia stated
that "a true Jew is not the one who just calls himself a Jew, but the
one who attends synagogue and follows traditions. We have seen all this
in Azerbaijan". In this sense, Azerbaijan can be seen as a good example
for other CIS countries. 

Levi Livaev said that he is impressed by the success of the Jewish
school in Baku since its establishment. He also expressed his gratitude
to the head of Azerbaijan for solving the registration issue and for the
care for the Jews in Azerbaijan. 

Representative of Israeli embassy in Azerbaijan Olga Dorbut stated that
the visit of Livaev and Lazar to Azerbaijan will give an impulse to the
development of relations between Azerbaijan and Israel. She also noted
the fact that the guests had productive meetings with the president
Aliev and the Minister of Economic Development Farhad Aliev. 

The ceremony included a prayer for the health of the president of
Azerbaijan.