Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar will preside over the reopening of Irkutsk’s historic synagogue Tuesday, the date of the building’s 130th anniversary.

Two fires, the most recent in 2004, destroyed nearly all of the state-protected synagogue – one of the oldest in Siberia – but the community, thanks to the help of many benefactors, embarked on an ambitious reconstruction.

Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Aaron Wagner, the chief rabbi of Irkutsk, just last year dedicated two new Torah scrolls for the synagogue’s use. …