August 30, 2009 / 10 Elul 5769

Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Natan Sharansky will open the school year (5770) at Lipman Jewish Day School in Moscow on Tuesday, 1st September, 2009 by giving an open lesson to students.

Natan Sharansky will make his first official visit to Moscow in his capacity as Chairman of the Jewish Agency, marking the expansion of the organization's activities in the former Soviet Union(FSU).

Natan Sharansky will begin his first official visit to the former Soviet Union on Monday, 31st August, since his election to the position of Chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency in June 2009. Sharansky will open the school year at the Lipman Jewish Day School in Moscow, giving an open lesson to students. The subject of his lesson will be "The History of the Zionist Struggle in the USSR" and the lesson will be shown via video-conference link-up to three additional Jewish Day Schools in the former Soviet Union: in Vilna - capital of Lithuania, Kiyv – capital of the Ukraine, and St Petersburg.

These four Jewish day schools are part of a network of 44 day schools across the former Soviet Union, which are part of the Heftzibah Project for Formal Jewish Education. On 1st September, almost 13,000 Jewish children will begin their studies in approximately one hundred Jewish schools in the former Soviet Union.

Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky will meet with heads of the Moscow Jewish community, including Chief Rabbi of Russia Berl Lazar, Senator Boris Spigel, as well as the Israel Ambassador to Russia, Ana Azari and Jewish Agency emissaries (shlichim) in the Russian capital. The Chairman is slated to make additional visits to centers of Jewish Agency activity in the fields of Jewish Zionist Education and Aliyah. Sharansky will also meet with donors interested in broadening cooperation with the Jewish Agency.

Natan Sharansky expressed his joy and satisfaction that more and more Jewish leaders throughout the FSU are expressing their desire to assist in building Jewish Institutions and in strengthening Jewish Identity in the FSU.

"During the past 20 years, the Jewish Agency strived to return thousands of Jews in the FSU to their roots." said Natan Sharansky prior to his departure for Moscow, "and together with the Government of Israel , the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews(IFCJ-USA), our many friends and the UJC and Keren Hayesod we will strive to expand this important activity of the Jewish Agency.

Since assuming his position as Chairman of the Jewish Agency, Sharansky, in consultation with the senior management of the organization, resolved to halt further cutbacks in Jewish Agency activities in the states of the former Soviet Union. His visit marks the beginning of a process of examination of options to expand Jewish Agency activity throughout the FSU in the field of Jewish-Zionist Education and strengthening Jewish identity – particularly among teenagers and young people.