JDC Voices Blog

One of Moscow's largest Jewish community centers, the Nikitskaya, was renamed today in honor of Ralph I. Goldman, one of the Jewish world's most accomplished leaders who died, at 100, in Jerusalem two weeks ago. The institution -- which opened in 2001 with support from JDC --caters to hundreds of members of the Russian capital's bustling Jewish community each month.'Throughout his long, storied life, Ralph Goldman dedicated himself to the well-being of the Jewish people and the State of Israel,' said JDC President Penny Blumenstein and JDC CEO Alan H. Gill. 'In a career spanning eight decades, he helped alleviate the tragedies that visited the Jewish people in his lifetime, and contributed to their triumphs. Renaming this institution in his honor is a fitting tribute to a man whose story was so inextricably bound with that of his people and who was one of the visionaries who helped rebuild Jewish life in Russia.

When communism fell and the Soviet Union broke apart, Kharkov’s Jewish community was faced with the huge challenge of finding all of its members scattered and hidden by decades of anti-semitism. No one could have imagined 20 years later there would be a community 40,000-strong and in need of a new JCC to serve its thriving membership.