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News Yelena Goltsman Pushes for Gay Rights Boycott of Russia’s Olympics
A Ukrainian immigrant who arrived stateside in 1990 with her husband, children and mother, Yelena Goltsman was deeply closeted when she joined Manhattan’s gay and lesbian synagogue, Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in 1995. Today, the media executive leads RUSA LGBT, a New York-based support group for Russian-speaking gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. She has…
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Fast Forward Russia’s Largest Synagogue Gets $300K Facelift
Russia’s largest synagogue announced plans for a $300,000 facelift. The Grand Choral Synagogue in St. Petersburg issued a tender Wednesday for interior renovations of the 155-foot tall hall, the Russian news site fontanka.ru reported. The tender states that the works should be completed in 40 to 54 days and should cost about 10 million rubles,…
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Fast Forward Moscow Mayor Candidate Denies Praising Holocaust
Jewish staffers for the campaign of Moscow mayoral candidate Alexei Navalny have denied reports that he praised the Holocaust. “To my knowledge, he never made the statement attributed to him,” Maxim Katz, deputy director of the Navalny campaign for the September 8 mayoral election, told JTA Tuesday. Katz, a 29-year-old Moscovite local politician who had…
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News Jewish Groups Give Mixed Response to ADL Call for Gay Rights Pressure on Russia
Russia’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community has a new and powerful champion in the organized Jewish world. Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, has called on the American Jewish community and on the government of the United States to pressure Russia on gay and lesbian rights. Some Democratic politicians welcomed Foxman’s idea….
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Fast Forward Jewish Writer Removed From Russian TV After Defending Gay Rights
Reporter James Kirchick’s appearance on a Russian TV channel was cut short Wednesday, when instead of answering a question on Bradley Manning and Wikileaks, he spoke about Russia’s anti-gay legislation, The Washington Free Beacon website has reported. “Being here on a Kremlin-funded propaganda network, I’m going to wear my gay pride suspenders and speak out…
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Fast Forward Russia Hopes To Lure Jews to Far East Zone
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev approved a program to offer financial incentives encouraging Russian expats to move to the former Jewish autonomous region of Birobidzhan. The program hopes to bring about 2,000 people back to what once was a Jewish ethnic enclave, The Jerusalem Post reported. Birobidzhan was established in 1934 by Joseph Stalin in…
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Fast Forward Anti-Defamation League Compares Russia’s Abuse of Gays to Soviet Treatment of Jews
The Anti-Defamation League called for a new version of the Jackson-Vanik amendment to pressure Russia to improve its treatment of gays. Jackson-Vanik was a provision of the 1974 Trade Act that denied favored status to nations that restricted emigration. The amendment was used to pressure the Soviet Union to loosen its restrictive emigration policies. “It…
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Books Joseph Goebbels Novel Faces Ban in Russia
Russian prosecutors are investigating the appearance of a Russian-language edition of a book by Nazi Germany’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, to rule whether it is extremist and should be banned. State prosecutors in Russia’s second largest city, St Petersburg, launched the probe into the novel “Michael” this week after it appeared in early 2013 on…
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