Eighty chief rabbis from the world's major Jewish communities gathered for the first time in Moscow on Tuesday and Wednesday to encourage a revival of Judaism in Russia and to discuss ways of helping the Russian Jewish community to rebuild itself.


The rabbis, who came from 15 countries including Canada, France, the United States, Germany, and the CIS states, stressed that there is a crucial need to help Russian Jews revive their religion and culture after years of discrimination in the Soviet era.


"We came here to say to Russian Jews that the Jewish world is with them and to encourage them to turn back to their roots," said Yitzhak Cohen, chief rabbi of Venezuela.


"There is a tremendous need for rebuilding the Jewish culture here, but there is not enough money," said Josh Mehlman, a director of Operation Open Curtain in New York, which during the last three years has sent more than $2 million worth of humanitarian aid to Jewish communities throughout the former Soviet Union.