January 4, 2013

(JTA) —  The Reform movement’s international umbrella announced plans to open a large community center in Kiev later this year.

The World Union for Progressive Judaism, the umbrella for the Reform, Liberal, Progressive and Reconstructionist movements, last week bought a five-story building in the Ukrainian capital in December.

The building’s 4,400 square feet will accomodate a spacious prayer hall, the Union’s national offices, classrooms, an activity center, a library and meetings halls, an announcement said. The building was built in 2008 and purchased for an unspecified sum which was donated by the Beutel, Klau, and Posner-Molloy families, according to the announcement. The Beutels are Canadian and the Klau and Posner-Mollow families are American.

Alexander Gaidar, CEO of the Reform Movement in Ukraine, would not disclose the figure, which he termed “commercial information.” The opening is expected in May 2013, after the building is renovated, he said.

The purchase ended an 18-month search and was concluded just before Jan. 1, when new laws which complicate the sale of land in Ukraine came into effect, the Union said. 

Over the past six year, the Union has purchased buildings in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Minsk and now in Kiev, as part of a “long term strategic plan to build Jewish Progressive centers in the key cities of the region,” the announcement said.

According to Gaidar, some 12,000 people take part in the different programs operated by 40 Progressive congregations in Ukraine. Kiev’s Progressive congregation, Atikva, has about 800 members, he said.

According to the European Jewish Congress, Ukraine has a Jewish population of 360,000–400,000.

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