Thanks to a donation by the local PIN-Telecom telecommunications company, S. Petersburg, Russia’s historic Great Choral Synagogue now offers wireless Internet for the use of community members during the week.

According to Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Menachem Pewzner, the city’s chief rabbi, synagogue staff regularly reach out to community members through its Web site and e-mail; the new service, he stressed, cements the building as a communal hub of activity.

Built in the 1880s, the second largest synagogue in Europe most recently held a Purim gathering for some 1,500 local residents and dignitaries. …