Siberia’s Biggest-Ever JCC Set To Open

By JTA August 27, 2013

Hundreds are expected to attend the opening in Novosibirsk of what is said to be the largest Jewish community center in Siberia, Russia.

The Beit Machem Center, which is due to open Wednesday, will feature a synagogue, classrooms, a kosher restaurant, Jewish shops, computer corner and entertainment area as well as a gym, according to Rabbi Zalman Zaklas, the city’s chief rabbi and emissary for the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.

The new structure has 37,000 square feet of floor space and cost about $5 million to build, Zaklas told JTA on Tuesday. The money was raised in donations on three continents, he said, and the city of Novosibirsk donated the land for the center.

Approximately 20,000 of the 3.5 million residents of greater Novosibirsk are Jewish, according to Zaklas, an Israeli rabbi who has been living in Novosibirsk for the past 13 years.

“Many of them are descended from Jews who were exiled here in communist times, when Judaism was strongly repressed, and in recent years they have been retracing and reconnecting to their Jewish roots,” he told JTA.

The dedication ceremony will include an open-air concert by Israeli musicians and the Novosibirsk Academic Symphony Orchestra, and will be attended by Berl Lazar, a chief rabbi of Russia and senior-most Chabad emissary in the country.

“The timing of the opening means that the community will be able to celebrate the High Holidays already in the new center, which will help bring children closer to the Jewish faith and people,” Zaklas added.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO