Russian Army Contractor and Federation of Jewish Communities Sign Agreement

(FJC.ru) Officials of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia met with directors of the country’s War Memorial Company to widen the two groups’ cooperation and ensure proper burials for Jewish soldiers.

Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Aaron Gurevich, head of the FJC’s recently created armed services department, said that a chief aim of the meeting with the VMK, as the company’s acronym is known in Russian, was an agreement ensuring that a necessary minimum of Jewish law was respected in burying Jewish soldiers. To that end, the FJC proffered a military handbook it devised to educate army personnel about these standards.

FJC chairman Alexander Boroda and VMK director Andrei Marsiy both signed the cooperation agreement.

At the meeting, VMK announced that it would also work with the FJC to develop a new gravestone appropriate for Jews. The two organizations also pledged to resolve problems facing the Jewish poor in the lack of Jewish cemeteries, decreasing space in existing ones and the high cost of Jewish burials.