Two American diplomats sat down with leaders of Kaliningrad, Russia’s Jewish community to discuss anti-Semitism and the community’s efforts at protecting local cemeteries from damage by nearby development projects.

Taking place in the town’s central synagogue, the meeting – which was attended by first deputy consul Allen Greenburg; Benjamin Waller, the American consulate’s consul for political and economic development; Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi David Shvedik, the city’s chief rabbi; and community chairman Victor Shapiro – also touched on the local history of Kaliningrad, which in pre-Soviet times was known as Keunigsberg.

After the discussion, the Americans resolved to visit the nearby city of Sovietsk, where a development company’s plans for a large apartment complex were encroaching on the Jewish cemetery. Kaliningrad’s Jewish community earlier appealed to regional Gov. Georgiy Boos, who ordered a halt to the construction. …