The congress will gather more than 400 delegates from 178 FEOR member communities, Valeri Engel, FEOR Executive Manager, said to a RIA Novosti news conference.
Notable at the congress will be Berl Lazar, Chief Rabbi of Russia; Lev Levayev, CIS Jewish Communities' Federation President; Kremlin staff members, and spokesmen of many embassies, of the Muslim Board for Russia, and the Russian Orthodox Church.
"We shall be summing up FEOR activities for these five years. Our achievements are quite impressive. Present-day Russia has 178 Jewish communities based in 175 cities and towns, 35 synagogues in 33 cities, four higher and 19 secondary theological schools, 16 kindergartens and 20 children's fitness and recreation camps with instruction in Judaism and Jewish customs and history. We have repaired or built from scratch eleven Jewish community centres, and have blueprints to build such centres in another thirty cities. More than 300 tonnes of charitable food parcels has been distributed within the preceding two years alone," said Mr. Engel.
All this shows a "renaissance of Jewish religious and cultural life-which would be out of the question but for the support we are getting from federal and regional authorities," the speaker pointed out.
The FEOR congress will determine key aspects of community life-just how many more synagogues, charitable canteens, schools and kindergartens Russian Jewry needs.
The congress intends to pass several essential resolutions-in particular, on the anti-terror cause, interreligious and interdenominational relations in Russia, and combat on everyday anti-Semitism and xenophobia.
"We shall also weigh prospects for our own population census-the latest one does not satisfy us at all."
The congress, supreme FEOR body, will also have an election of top Federation officers.
Officially registered as an all-Russia religious organisation of orthodox Judaism, the Russian Jewish Communities' Federation has for its primary goal to reinstate Jewish life in its entire plenitude and diversity.
