RCE News

We are pleased to announce that an RCE Halachah Hotline has been established, enabling rabbis to forward queries on any area of halachah to the esteemed members of the RCE’s rabbinical council. These council members have volunteered to make themselves available for the sake of the European communities.

On the last day of their stay in Russia, the member Rabbis of the RCE visited the city of Sevastopol in the Crimean peninsula, where a ceremony was held in memory of the thousands of Jews who were murdered in Crimea during the Holocaust. The Rabbanim flew directly from Moscow to Crimea on a special government flight. The ceremony was arranged under the auspices of the Russian government to honor the memory of 4,200 Jews, Hy”d, who were murdered in the Crimean peninsula.

The annual council meeting of the Rabbinical Centre of Europe took place last week in Moscow, with the participation of twenty Rabbanim who are members of the presidium and the Rabbinical Council of the RCE, representing all the Rabbanim of Europe.

“Esteemed Rabbis, I hereby commit myself to act firmly in response to any appearance of anti-Semitism here in Russia. Moreover, I am committed to strengthening the security of the Jewish communities here and to enable them to have complete freedom of activity. Russia will continue to say no to the neo-Nazi ideology, and no to any fascist ideologies.” So pledged Russian President Vladimir Putin last week at the conclusion of a meeting with a group of Rabbanim of the Rabbinical Centre of Europe.

For the third year, a conference was held in which dozens of young rabbis from all over Europe participated. The European Young Rabbis’ Forum was initiated and is sponsored by the Rabbinical Centre of Europe. The three-day conference, beginning on June 16 (18 Sivan) and held in Amsterdam, was graced by highly professional leading lecturers, speaking on topics related to Jewish education, marriage, counseling and fund-raising.

Some 300 Rabbanim, including Dayanim, Chief Rabbis, community rabbis, and congregational rabbis, from all sectors and from 40 different European countries, convened last week in Budapest, Hungary. The convention’s main theme was a series of discussions, led by Europe’s leading rabbis, about the challenge of widespread assimilation that is eating away at Jewish communities, and the many halachic problems that accompany this issue.