Top 3 Philanthopists in Ukraine Are All Jews
Drab No More: Odessa has left the Soviet era behind with a vengeance. The city?s fabled Jewish community is experiencing a Renaissance. Image by paul berger
Ukraine’s three most generous philanthropists are all Jewish, according to a local business magazine.
In ranking the country’s top ten charitable donors for 2012, the Lviv-based Galytski Kontrakty weekly recently gave the top slot to 46-year-old Rinat Akhmetov, a businessman born to a coalminer. Forbes Magazine estimated his fortune at $16 billion in 2012. He gave the equivalent of $19 million to build an oncology research center.
Second on the list was steel magnate Victor Pinchuk, whose $4.2 billion placed him in the 255th slot of Forbes 2012 list of richest people in the world, and who gave $11 million to the development of charitable programs in health and education.
Third, with a donation of $9.25 million, was Alexander Feldman, a Ukrainian lawmaker and president of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee.
The magazine said Feldman donated to the protection of children as well as health and educational programs through the Alexander Feldman Fund, which he established. The fund recently helped create a children’s medical center called “Feldman-Ecopark,” and an educational NGO, the Institute of Human Rights and Protection against Extremism and Xenophobia.
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
