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.
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.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
