The last week of January saw a sweeping celebration of the founding of the Jewish Congress of Kazakhstan (JCK) in Almaty. The Jewish Congress of Kazakhstan was one of the founders of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC), and the EAJC leader Alexander Mashkevich is also the ECK President.
As part of the jubilee, the following events took place: the Conference of Leaders of Jewish Organizations of the Republic, and the traditional yearly Youth Forum, which collects the most interesting young community leaders from different cities of the country.
The participants of the Forum and Conference were greeted by the Deputy Chairman of the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan Yuri Zaharov, the head of the leading partner of the ECK in Kazakhstan, the “Mitsva” Association Alexander Baron, the Ambassador of the State of Israel in Kazakhstan Israel Mei-Ami. Fyodor Osinin, the ECK Executive Vice-President, presented a report on ECK activity as part of the Conference of Leaders of Jewish Organizations. Another part of the Conference was the ceremony of presentation of the highest EAJC award, the “For Merits” medal. The award was given to important community activists – Svetlana Makarovskaya, Tatyana Slivinskaya, and Gregoriy Umanov.
While speaking to participants of the jubilee events, the ECK and EAKC President Alexander Mashekvich noted:
“This holiday is all the more valuable to us because we – together – have been creating it with our efforts for these ten years. This is not just a date, nor just the time which has passed since the Congress was established until this day. This is the end of a certain period in our history.
During the ten years which have passed since the creation of the Congress, many programs which sustain the life of the Jewish community of Kazakhstan have acquired real substance. The isolated Jewish unions in the big and small countries of the city have begun to feel that they are part of a whole thanks to the Congres, namely – a powerful, developing community with a far-reaching infrastructure, a rich history, and a foreseeable future.
During these ten years we have continuously kept on erecting synagogues, organized the work of community centers, conducted major scientific and cultural events. But we were busy not only with inner community matters, we were also building the relationship of the Jewish minority with the surrounding society, strengthened its position in the country.
We are full members of the Assembly of the Peoples of Kazakshtan, led by the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, alongside other communities. It is because of his policy that a fruitful development of Jewish community life became possible in Kazakhstan.
We participated in interfaith forums, thus strengthening the mutual understanding between the Jewish community and the surrounding peoples, and widened and deepened interethnic and interfaith dialogue on all levels.
The Jewish community of Kazakhstan, as personified by the Congress, now has a solid standing the the Jewish world. This place was earned not only by the size of the Jewish population, but through certain fruitful efforts in community building.
To you, the people with whom we have overcome this journey, I can say without any false modesty: we have done much. But it is no less important and no less simple to support and develop what has been built.”
“I believe in the future of our community, I believe in the future of the Jewish Congress of Kazakhstan,” underscored Alexander Mashkevich. “Ten years is merely the beginning! I am certain that together we will make our life better.”
The Conference opened the same day as the President of Kazakhstan made his Yearly Speech to the people of the republic. JCK and EAJC President Alexander Mashkevich was invited as a guest of honor to the ceremony, which also included other important political and community figures, as well as deputies from both Chambers of the Parliament.